This weekend marks the start of a big new push in New Zealand's search for oil and gas.
A seismic exploration ship, the Discoverer 2, will begin work in the Great Southern Basin, taking acoustic soundings to gauge whether drilling should go ahead in the area.
"You'll never actually get the data off of this ship, or any other seismic ship, that will say 'gentlemen, the oil is here', that just won't happen. But it is the first, very necessary stages of the process," says operations supervisor Greg Stark.
The ship is working for OMV Austria, one of several big
international companies involved in the new oil
exploration.
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