In each episode of this TVNZ show, a well-known Kiwi takes the pulse of a neighbourhood they are connected to. In this debut episode, musician King Kapisi (aka Bill Urale) guides viewers around Newtown, the cosmopolitan Wellington neighbourhood where he was born. He revisits his childhood, meets a Greek easter egg maker, a muslim ritual cleanser, African music advocate Sam 'Mr Newtown' Manzana, and a Mexican making skateboard art. The NZ Herald’s Paul Casserly called the show "beautifully shot, feel-good TV, reminiscent of the superb Living Room series."

For nine years TVNZ's Top Half brought local news to Auckland and the upper North Island. In these excerpts there's a tantalising before and after glimpse of a David Bowie concert at Western Springs; the people of Ponsonby worry that their suburb's character is being lost to developers; Dylan Taite finds country rockers The Warratahs busking on Ponsonby Road; and in K Road, there is coverage of a multicultural street festival, and concerns about how encroaching sleaze is affecting local retailers; plus a cute story about a baby orangutan and a camera-shy mother.

This 2015 Loading Docs short follows Tihei Harawira as he freestyle raps at Otara Markets. Diagnosed with autism and dyslexia as a child, Harawira didn’t ‘fit’ and was the victim of bullying. But an appreciative audience at the flea markets — where he busks ad hoc rhymes set to a beat box — have enabled Tihei to find his voice. ‘Tihei’ means “the breath of life”, a name he was given by an aunty after being resuscitated at birth. Tihei was directed by Hamish Bennett and produced by Orlando Stewart, the team behind 2014 NZ Film Festival award-winner Ross & Beth.

This Māori Television hit offers a down-home NZ Idol mixed with a little Fear Factor, as off the street talents sing three rounds of karaoke and try to win $1000. Hosts Te Hamua Nikora (Homai Te Pakipaki) and Luke Bird (The Stage - Haka Fusion) coax Lagitoa from Papatoetoe, Samantha from Pakuranga and Renee from Rotorua to belt out their favourite song. The show’s stripped back style allows lots of space for audience reactions (this time at Rotorua's night markets, and in Pakuranga). With encouragements in te reo and English, the contestants feel the fear and sing anyway.

"My name is Mr Larry Woods and they call me Mr Sunshine." This 2016 Loading Doc offers a mini portrait of the colourful shoeshine man famous for spreading goodwill and cheer on Auckland’s streets. The documentary charts Wood’s journey from chauffeur-driven millionaire making headlines for his lush lifestyle, to street-working ambassador pushing the creed of “just being nice”. Directed by Eldon Booth in stylish monochrome, the documentary was shared by Atlantic and Aeon magazines and website Short of the Week, and screened at England's Sheffield Doc/Fest.

Occasional Heartland host Maggie Barry visits the Southland town of Gore, where she checks out horse-shoeing with the New Zealand Farriers Association, visits the local freezing works, and attends the legendary Gold Guitar country music awards (with performers including Suzanne Prentice). Not such a controversial visit to Gore by a TV crew as the one some years later by Havoc and Newsboy's Sell-Out Tour. 

“Here is a taste of the best and worst of Backch@t 2000…goodnight.” Presenter Bill Ralston introduces this reel of outtakes and highlights from the Gibson Group arts series. The creative sector's issues of the day include installing Len Lye’s Wind Wand, arts funding, and arts patron Denis Adam’s thoughts on Te Papa’s arts displays. Ralston, reporters Mark Crysell and Jodi Ihaka, and film reviewer Chris Knox all get tongue-tied; there’s a tiff between two architecture panelists, brief appearances by Ian McKellen and Miriama Kamo, and opera singer Jonathan Lemalu hits a low note.

‘Everyone’s Gonna Wonder’ was penned by part American, part Kiwi Chris Malcolm, who passed through New Zealand in 1967. Busking in a Wellington wharf coffee house, he spied “a starry-eyed couple sitting, staring into each other’s eyes and totally oblivious to the surroundings, so I wrote a song about them.” After HMV producer Nick Karavias heard it, it became the debut single for his young charges the Avengers. This promo films a studio session. On the back of lush vocal harmonies the track rose to number seven on the Kiwi hit parade; it also earned a Loxene Golden Disc nomination.

Vocal harmony group Purest Form was discovered when the manager of Rainbow’s End saw them busking in downtown Auckland. Their smooth harmonies were used to promote the amusement park — “take me back to the rainbow, that rainbow kinda magic!” — in a 1993 commercial. Before splitting in 1997, they got four singles in the Kiwi top 40. Their cover of ‘Message to My Girl’ peaked at number two, and won Single of the Year at the 1995 NZ Music Awards; Purest Form was also nominated for Most Promising Group.

"The season's old and the leaves have turned to gold / And the wind blows cold from the south ..." The song is mournful, dreamy and elegiac, and so is the music video, from Steve Young. The clip features amiably laidback performances by the band members, hanging out in various Dunedin locations — including synchronised guitar dancing (a la the Shadows) on a wintry-looking beach: grey clouds, pale blue sky and a charming "out now on Flying Nun" drawn in the sand as the closing shot. The orange $50 note in the busking bowl is a notable 80s relic.