These New Zealanders was a magazine-style series produced by the National Film Unit and presented by Selwyn Toogood (one of his first television roles), that looked at six Kiwi locations in the 1960s. In this episode Toogood visits the North Island East Coast city of Gisborne. By 1964 improved road, rail and air links had brought about the end of Gisborne's isolation from the rest of the country. Here Toogood meets food processor James Wattie, and talks to the locals about the problems, achievements and hopes for the region.

Marcus Lush goes "right up the guts" of the North Island from Wairarapa to Gisborne, in this episode of his award-winning romance with New Zealand's railways. He meets railcar restorers and recounts the murders by rail porter Rowland Edwards in 1884. Particular praise is reserved for the "spectacular and beautiful" Napier to Gisborne line (now mothballed) with its viaducts at Mohaka and Kopuawhara. The latter is on the site of a flash flood that killed 21 workers in 1938; it inspires an idiosyncratic Lush demonstration of Aotearoa's then 10 worst disasters.

Marae DIY is a long-running Māori Television series that brings a tangata whenua twist to the home renovation reality format: "marae knock out their 10-year plans in just four days". This Qantas Award-winning episode heads to Manutuke Marae (south of Gisborne) mid-winter in 2006. Marae DIY creator Nevak Rogers (aka Nevak Ilolahia) has Rongowhakaata whakapapa. Alongside co-presenter Te Ori Paki, Rogers plays cheerleader as her whānau rally to meet the goals: from french doors for the kitchen, to makeovers for the nannies (including a moko by Derek Lardelli).

This 2018 feature follows ex gang leader Logan (Josh Calles), who has ditched gang life to raise his daughter. When she is murdered by a rival gang, Logan is forced to choose between vengeance – and all-out gang warfare – or forgiveness. Also starring Dark Horse discovery Wayne Hapi, the Gisborne-shot drama marks the first feature directed by pastor Tarry Mortlock. It is a modern interpretation of a true story about a girl killed by a raiding party in the 1800s. Broken is presented by City Impact Church, although Mortlock says he "never set out to make a Christian movie for Christians".

This Touchdown series profiles the working lives of rangers who work for the Department of Conservation and Ministry of Fisheries, whose office is "the great New Zealand outdoors". This opening episode meets three rangers looking after threatened taonga: Al Hutt is a sea shepherd to Akaroa's Hector's dolphins; lizard hunter Keri Neilson rescues a chevron skink on Great Barrier Island; and Steve Sawyer defends dotterel nests from cats, hedgehogs, stoats and boy racers on the Wherowhero Lagoon beach (near Gisborne). The series screened on TV One in early 2002. 

In 2003 a trio of Otago University students hosted a private outdoor music gig at Waiohika Estate, just outside Gisborne. Today the Rhythm and Vines festival is a hot ticket internationally, a three day event full of tents, beers and cheers. 20/20 goes behind the scenes in the dying days of 2010, as Rhythm and Vines attracts a record-breaking crowd of 25,000 people. Festival founders Hamish Pinkham, Andrew Witters and Tom Gibson have to solve last minute hiccups to pull off the party. Shihad front man Jon Toogood describes it as "the Big Day Out in a forest".

A salient public safety segment in this edition of the National Film Unit’s long-running magazine series looks at 'prudence at home', and the ways that stoves, jugs and fires can be dangerous to children. Other segments include a visit to a Gisborne health camp where youngsters are finishing their seven week course of dietary and exercise lessons. And a jaunt to Canterbury’s frozen Lake Ida for skating, pies, and ice hockey concludes that ‘winter can be fun’. A car-drawn toboggan looks it — though the ice rescue demonstration will not convince all viewers.

This documentary reviews that 1983 Royal Tour downunder by Prince Charles and Princess Diana. The tour was notable for the presence of royal baby William; images of the son and heir playing with a Buzzy Bee on the lawn of Government House in Auckland were published around the world. The royals also visit the ballet, banquet, waka, hongi, plant kauri, and see Red Checkers and firemen’s displays. Prince Charles’s duties include announcing an extra holiday for school kids and he meets younger bro Edward on his gap year (tutoring at Wanganui Collegiate).

The first episode of Jam TV’s 2013 series on inspirational Kiwis follows Helena McAlpine’s journey as she deals with terminal breast cancer. The ebullient spirit of the ex-C4 presenter permeates the episode, as she talks about her mental health struggles, her bucket list, living in the fast line, fishing with mate Clarke Gayford, leaving her daughter without a mum, advocacy work for cancer awareness campaigns, and the ‘McAlpine theory on life’ — choose to be happy. “I really don’t see myself as a sack of sadness”. McAlpine died on 23 September 2015.

The birth of television in the 1960s meant that suddenly protests and civil unrest could be broadcast directly into Kiwi homes. This episode of 50 Years of New Zealand Television looks at many of those events — involving everything from the Vietnam War and the Springbok tour, to Bastion Point and the Homosexual Law Reform Act. It also examines how being televised altered their impact. Interviews with both protestors and reporters provide a unique insight into what it was like to be living through extraordinary periods of New Zealand history.