A delightful animation accompanies this number one single from folk-poppers Avalanche City. With its big, catchy, chorus, the song delivers the feel-good factor and the video captures its quaint essence perfectly with its cast of storybook pirates and penguins. Mass exposure for the song came when it was used for TV2 promos and it took off on release, going gold in four weeks (despite being earlier available as a free download).

The second, but prequel, series to The Insiders Guide to Happiness is chaos theory in action: seven young strangers are linked together by a bizarre incident. In this excerpt from Episode Six, Marty's (Louis Sutherland's) travel writing isn't going anywhere, Nicole (Kate Elliott) gets "wild and crazy and bad" for Halloween, and there's baking romance, sun bed sex, and scratchy shoplifting. The series won several Screen Director's Guild Awards and a clutch of gongs at the 2006 Qantas Film and TV Awards, including Best Drama, Director, Script, Actor and Actress. 

Florian Habicht first won attention for 2003's Woodenhead, a fairytale about a rubbish dump worker and a princess. By then Habicht had already made his first feature-length documentary. Many more docos have followed: films that celebrate his love for people, and sometimes drift into fantasy. In this collection, watch as the idiosyncratic director meets fishermen, Kaikohe demolition derby drivers (both watchable in full), legends of Kiwi theatre and British pop, and beautiful women carrying slices of cake through New York. Ian Pryor writes here about the joys of Florian Habicht.

A year on from moving in together, three friends and their surrogate flatmate drink and date their way around Auckland in this second series of Auckward Love. Flatmates Alice (Holly Shervey), Vicky (Lucinda Hare) and Grace (Jess Holly Bates), plus friend Zoe (Jess Sayer), face up to the harsh reality that life in your 20s can be full of tough lessons. Grace loses her sparkle when she finds herself in a polyamorous relationship, while Zoe has to compromise with her alcoholic father, played by John Leigh. Jennifer Ward-Lealand also features, as an enthusiastic sex toy shop worker. 

Awkward Auckland love stories abound in this web series about four 20-something female friends. Holly Shervey (Shortland Street) plays Alice, who turns to dating app Tinder after her boyfriend (Dean O'Gorman) dumps her. Alice's flatmates — the hard-drinking Vicky (Lucinda Hare) and hippie Grace (Jess Holly Bates), plus promiscuous friend Zoe (Jess Sayer) — fail at their own love lives, but always have each other's backs. Shot on a low budget of just under $5,000, series one was selected for several global film festivals. Shervey based it on her own dating experiences.

This episode of the antiques appraisal series was recorded at Auckland Museum with host Dougal Stevenson, Marshall Seifert and Trevor Plumbly joined by Cherry Raymond, and Richard Valentine. Items examined include daguerreotypes, cubist pottery cats by Louis Wain, Edwardian Lavalier pendants and a Marconi radio. It also features a discussion about different types of valuation ... then there’s the piece of pottery, from Auckland artist Cameron Brown’s Titian studio (inspired by the 1956 Springbok Tour), which has the panel very much divided about its merits.

Love Story sees director Florian Habicht finding a movie, a plot, and a beautiful Ukranian on the streets of New York. The offbeat romance is part love letter to New York City, part the story of Florian and Mash... and possibly part true. The script to this genre-bending tryst is written before our eyes, via story ideas from real life New Yorkers. Love Story won Aotearoa awards for Best Film and Director, and raves from Variety and the NZ Herald’s Peter Calder — who described Auckland Film Festival audiences gasping at the "strange, surprising and wildly romantic ideas sprinkled through it".

This romantic feature is inspired by the couple behind the camera. Kiwi-Samoan filmmaker Nikki Si’ulepa (Snow in Paradise) and Rachel Aneta Wills have dramatised their bumpy journey towards marriage and put it on the big screen. Pākehā single mum Rachel (they’ve kept real names) meets Samoan filmmaker Nikki and is immediately drawn to her, but self-doubt, botched communication and a pesky ex are landmines in wait. Director Si’ulepa wanted to "offer a glimpse into same sex relationships" and tell a "true, romantic love story that people can relate to".

Director Paul Murphy follows Second Hand Wedding with a romance featuring comedian Rhys Darby, songs by Queen and ... a duck. Darby plays heartbroken nice guy Doug: after a close encounter with a native duck (a paradise shelduck) with emotional problems, he enlists expert help from a sassy animal specialist (played by Brit Sally Hawkins, a Golden Globe-winner for feature Happy-Go-Lucky). True to rom-com form, love ensues ... eventually. NZ Herald reviewer Russell Baillie called Love Birds “an endearingly funny, if sugar-coated local romantic comedy”.

Love, Speed and Loss is an extended documentary about racer Kim Newcombe, who turned heads in the 1970s on a König motorbike he developed and designed himself. Built around home movie footage and interviews with his charismatic, straight-talking widow Janeen, the film charts the couple's travels in Europe, and triumph on the track. Newcombe was killed racing in 1973, and posthumously finished second in that year's World 500cc Championship. Love, Speed and Loss won best documentary at the 2007 Qantas TV Awards and three Air NZ Screen gongs.