It’s New Year’s Eve, 1997, and 17-year-old Olivia Hope is getting ready for a party at Furneaux Lodge, a beautiful old residence that sits at the head of one of the bays and coves that make up The Marlborough Sounds. A picturesque holiday spot on the northern end of New Zealand’s south island where the bush meets the sea.

The lodge is only accessible by boat, so Olivia, her older sister, and their friends have booked a chartered yacht called Tamarack that will deliver them to the celebrations after an afternoon basking in the sun.

Furneaux is the place to be on New Years and the local teenagers are getting ready to dance away the night with 15-hundred other partygoers.

Over in Punga Cove, just across the inlet, Ben Smart is partying the afternoon away with mates. He too has plans to join the fun at Furneaux and hitches a ride over on a boat as the party gets started.

But what happens to Ben and Olivia after the clock strikes midnight, will become one of the most high-profile and hotly contested murder investigations New Zealand has ever seen.

CREDITS

Guest: Journalist Mike White

Host: Gemma Bath

Executive Producer: Gia Moylan

Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney

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New Zealand’s Most Controversial Disappearance