GoPro's launch films set the template the whole industry still copies: one song, seven sports, a dozen countries, and not a single talking head. The HERO3-era film — published on YouTube as "GoPro HERO3: Almost as Epic as the HERO3+" — stacked an unusual amount of New Zealand into one edit. Here is the full geography, taken directly from the film's own credit roll and expanded with what each place actually is.
1 · Snow — Mt. Cook & Earnslaw Burn, New Zealand
The snow bookends were shot in the South Island. Mt. Cook (Aoraki) hosted the skier and snowboarder segments credited to Tom Wallisch, Eric Willett and Olympic racer Julia Mancuso. The ski-BASE jump by JT Holmes came from the Earnslaw Burn — the glacier-fed valley across Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown, famous for its braided waterfalls and the very look of Lord-of-the-Rings country. Narrow windows, helicopter access, sub-zero batteries: this is where the HERO3+ "30% longer battery life" claim earned its keep.
2 · Surf — Tahiti, French Polynesia
The surf section credited Kelly Slater, Anthony Walsh and Manoa Drollet in Tahiti — the heavy reef-pass water you expect from the Society Islands. Salt, spray and an all-waterproof body-mounted camera were the whole point of the segment.
3 · Dive — Vava'u, Tonga
The underwater act shot in Vava'u, the island group in northern Tonga known for humpback encounters and famously clear water. Credits include Mandy Rae Krack, Erin Magee and Ashleigh Baird, with dive-industry names (Performance Freediving, Dolphin Pacific, Riffe, Aqua Lung, Suunto) in the special-thanks roll.
4 · Mountain bike — Queenstown, NZ & Squamish, BC
Two of the world's most filmed trail towns share the MTB segment: Queenstown and Squamish, British Columbia, ridden by Aaron Chase, Mike Montgomery, the late Kelly McGarry and Brett Tippie. Between them they cover the full HERO-era aesthetic — loam, drops, and heli-bike lines.
5 · Kayak — the New Zealand river tour
The whitewater act is a North-and-South-Island road trip in one credit line: Turangi (Tongariro River), Lake Taupo, the Aratiatia Rapids on the Waikato (the controlled release gorge near Taupo), Whangarei and the Maruia River — paddled by Ben Brown and Rush Sturges.
6 · Moto — San Francisco, CA
The urban counterweight: motorcycle laps of San Francisco with roadracers James Rispoli, Josh Herrin and Jake Ellington. City hills, cable-car tracks and the Golden Gate as a backdrop.
7 · Aerobatics — Queenstown, NZ
Stunt pilot Chuck Berry (the aviator, not the guitarist) flew the aerobatic segment over Queenstown — the same air space that makes the town a stunt-flying hub for big productions.
The music
The entire cut rides on OVERWERK — "Daybreak" (the GoPro HERO3 edit), offered as a free download in the description. Half the nostalgia of the film is that synth line.
And the New Zealand connection that named this website
One line of the snow credits reads: "SNOW: MAP Productions Ltd" — a small New Zealand production company, with its old site at the address you are reading now. When the film's description link outlived the company's website, this domain became the destination of one of the most-clicked dead links in YouTube history. That story →
Film it yourself
If the film makes you want a camera rather than a plane ticket, we keep a running list of the current gear that covers each of these shot types — action cams, gimbals, ND filters, drones and the rest: The modern gear list →