In 2016, one of Aotearoa's largest-ever meth busts, was delivered into the laps of some bewildered Northland cops.
In a six-part series coming to Three, director David White and darlings of the silver screen, Robyn Malcolm and Temuera Morrison, tell the story of a meth smuggling operation that went comically wrong.
Far North tells the tale of how the inept, yet endearing smugglers, ended up calling the cops on themselves, in a classic case of when the truth is stranger than fiction.
Photo: South Pacific Pictures
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Malcolm said the series was a "beautiful mix of a tragic, almost social real story".
Heather and Ed, a couple from Ahipara, helped foil the deal. They were instrumental in the show being made.
A group of men approached the couple about taking their brother's ashes out to sea.
Malcolm, who plays the character of Heather in the series, said launching a boat off that coast could be dangerous.
"I've been on boats all my life, it was terrifying," she said describing a time Heather and Ed's son took them out to sea. "The boat went vertical, and the real Heather grabbed my hand and just kept saying 'you're safe'."
White said the men would have gotten away with bringing a load of meth ashore if the boat had not broken down at sea. "They had bad luck, then they made terrible decisions, and they were out of their depth."
The story goes from "are we helping these guys to oh, they don't know what they're doing to oh, no, this is something serious".
White said the task for the smugglers was initially to "pick up the 500kg of meth, put it in the campervan and drive away" before the plan went wrong.
Photo: South Pacific Pictures