Wildtrack was a highly successful nature series for children, running from 1981 through several series to the early 90s. The series was produced from Natural History New Zealand’s (then TVNZ’s Natural History Unit) Dunedin base and this final episode for 1990 looks at the natural world of the Otago Peninsula and harbour, from unique inhabitants: royal albatross, fur seals, and yellow-eyed penguin; to myth-busting explanations of the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, lichen, and mudflat cricket. It includes the year’s bloopers reel.

This vibrant NFU travelogue takes the pulse of NZ's capital after 125 years of Pākehā settlement and finds a "colourful, casual" city that has had to impose itself on the landscape to endure. Highlights include the 90 sec opening flyover, some off-the-wall music choices in the score and vox pops that are well shy of 'coolest little capital' chutzpah. The wind puts on a requisite show but so do the city's 32 miles of beaches, with a Riviera-esque Oriental Bay beaming on a good day. The mower on a rope trick looks dodgy to a more health and safety conscious age.

In 1865, Wellington became the Kiwi capital. In the more than 150 years since, cameras have caught the rise and fall of storms, buildings, and MPs, and Courtenay Place has played host to vampires and pool-playing priests. Wind through our Wellington Collection to catch the action, and check out backgrounders by musician Samuel Scott and broadcaster Roger Gascoigne. 

On a Tuesday evening in April 1968, the ferry Wahine set out from Lyttelton for Wellington. Around 6am the next morning, cyclone-fuelled winds surged in strength as it began to enter Wellington Harbour. At 1.30pm, with the ferry listing heavily to starboard, the call was finally made for 734 passengers and crew to abandon ship. The news coverage and documentaries in this collection explore the Wahine disaster from many angles. Meanwhile Keith Aberdein — one of the TV reporters who was there — explores his memories and regrets over that fateful day on 10 April 1968.

For this 2001 series Peter Elliott retraced Captain James Cook’s first voyage around Aotearoa. The second episode heads from Mercury Bay to Cape Reinga. Elliott diverts from Cook’s wake to Waitemata Harbour to investigate New Zealand boatbuilding history, and sail a Team New Zealand America’s Cup yacht with Tom Schnackenberg. Elliott then boards HMNZS Te Kaha to "hoon" up the coast to rejoin The Endeavour's path. In the Bay of Islands he meets Waitangi waka paddlers, crews on tall ship R Tucker Thompson, and dives to the Rainbow Warrior wreck off the Cavalli Islands.

This NFU film goes for a ride on the ferries of the Waitematā. Shots of mooring ropes and rusted chains precede a steamer chugging under the object that made many of its companions obsolete: the Auckland Harbour Bridge. By 1973 steam power had been superseded by petrol power. Archive footage and stills stoke nostalgia as old-timers reminisce about bygone days on the harbour; a time when ferries were the main mode of transport from downtown to the North Shore and beyond. The soundtrack is a compilation of early 20th Century dixieland standards. 

A big budget New Zealand-French-Australian co-production, kidult series Deepwater Haven screened on TV2. It followed the fortunes of Waitemata Harbour tugboat skipper Jack Wilson (Vince Martin of Beaurepairies advertising fame) and his two kids, Georgie (Jay Saussey) and Peter (Peter Malloch). This opening episode sees Jack struggling to keep his business afloat; the local cafe is burgled; and Peter, marooned at a dry dock while on the run from bullies, is rescued by a street kid (future Pluto singer Milan Borich). Saussey won a NZ Film and TV Award for her role.

In this full-length Heartland episode, Gary McCormick heads south to the port town of Lyttelton, where some say you can't claim to be local unless you've been in town all your life. There he looks around a freighter and finds time to talk to a smorgasboard of passionate locals, some of whom wish yuppies from Christchurch would stay home. He visits ex-Seaman's Union President Bill 'Pincher' Martin, who recalls the tense days of the 1951 lockout. Meanwhile cameraman Matt Bowkett captures some evocative footage from the surrounding hills, and among the action of a busy port.

In this documentary, writer and satirist Peter Hawes crosses the Bombay Hills border in his Morris van to record his take on mid 1980s Auckland. Pocked with as many puns as Auckland has volcanic craters, Hawes' profile is a sprawling, breezy look at New Zealand's largest city: from a Chase Corporation high rise to shearing sheep in Cornwall Park; from Eden Park to Bastion Point. Interviews (with politicians, sportspeople, gossip columnists, strip club fashion designers) are mixed with skits covering jogging, bridge building, shipwrecks, multiculturalism and sewers.

The final episode of this long-running TVNZ show for Māori youth comes from a BBQ party atop Auckland's TVNZ HQ. When I AM TV began in 2008 it was all about Bebo. Five years later it’s about Bieber (the singer #tautokos the show), Skux and Twitter, and the hashtag #KeepingItReo. Hosts Kimo Houltham and Chey Milne review the year’s highlights: from Koroneihana to a boil up with Katchafire; from dance crews to hunting for Jeff da Māori, with Liam Messam and The Waikato Chiefs; from a Samoan holiday (with co-presenter Taupunakohe Tocker), to defining mana in 2012.