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. 

In this full-length episode of Intrepid Journeys, Dave Dobbyn arrives in the Kingdom of Morocco, and finds himself bowled over by the sites, sounds, the sense of living history, the friendly people — and the sugar-heavy local tea. Uplifted to heights both spiritual and comedic, he wanders the world's largest medieval city, in Fez; visits Hassan ll Mosque in Casablanca, one of the world's largest, and finds himself donning a British accent as he starts a camel trek in the Sahara. From Casablanca to Marrakesh, the journey offers Dobbyn a sense of delight and creative renewal. 

This 1985 New Zealand tourism promo showcases Aotearoa society and industry. As the title suggests, the NFU-made film offers an impressionistic take on the subject. Bookended by a dawn and dusk chorus, the narration-free survey cuts between primary products (milk, logs, wool etc) and their manufacturing processes, and then shows people at work and play — from futures traders to pounamu carvers, contemporary dancers to cricketers. Date stamps of the era include a mass aerobics class, hydroslide action, and saxophone and guitar solos on the soundtrack.

Created by animator Cameron Chittock, with help from Kiwi animation legend Euan Frizzell, this part claymation series follows a boy named Oscar as he goes off on adventures with two imaginary friends: daring Doris and the sometimes cowardly Bugsy. In these 26 five-minute episodes, Oscar meets pirates, oversized bugs, a frog princess, jumps on a flying carpet and travels through time and space. The series screened in New Zealand from 1995 to 1999. Overseas screenings included on ITV in the UK, where it became the 10th highest rating children's show on the network. 

With his impassioned enthusiasm and trademark beard, English naturalist David Bellamy made this well known 1989 community service message for the Department of Conservation. “It’s a nasty, horrible plant and it’s smothering and killing New Zealand’s native bush, and that is a catastrophe ... a trim is not enough — we’ve got to destroy it in every way we can — old man’s beard must go!”. Bellamy is a long-term advocate for the conservation of NZ’s natural heritage, presenting the Moa’s Ark series, as well as famously promoting Woolmark carpet.

From the time-honoured music video making tradition of "throw a party, add a horse costume and film the results" comes a frenetic clip directed by Andrew Moore. Love's Ugly Children were at their belligerent best on this song from their second album. Drummer Jason Young was the waylaid missionary; and guitarist Simon McLaren got to talk to a horse on the phone and display hitherto-unseen break-dancing skills. The carpet of their flat came off second best in an encounter with some red body paint. Extra marks for the cheese and pineapple hedgehog.

Interior designer and socialite Sally Ridge opened up her home — and life — to television cameras for this TV3 reality series. Episode one opens with Ridge and 19-year-old daughter Jaime moving from their plush home into a huge, rundown villa. Sally and self-confessed "clean freak" Jaime leap onto chairs after they discover a plump mouse running around their new kitchen. Sally bemoans having to rip up carpet on her own and deal with a huge renovation project. None of Sally's three other children — two to Adam Parore, and one to Matthew Ridge — appear in the series. 

The Mainland Touch was a popular regional news magazine programme broadcast from Christchurch between 1980 until 1990. In excerpts here, Christchurch Botanic Gardens welcomes the arrival of spring with a daffodil festival while local gardening groups prepare a floral carpet. The Wizard of Christchurch battles Telecom over the colour of phone boxes and joins opponents of a proposed restaurant tower in Victoria Square. Punting on the Avon is extended, and a cockatoo hitches a ride in the garden city.

Summertime daylight saving was reintroduced in New Zealand on a trial basis in 1974, for the first time since 1941. In this NZBC clip newsreader Bill Toft announces that clocks will be put forward one hour on 3 November. Despite concerns — dairy farmers fretting about having to rise in the dark all year; worries about effects on young body clocks, chooks' egg-laying and carpet fade —  the change became permanent in 1975. Citing benefits to recreation and tourism, the Government has since extended the daylight saving period twice, lastly in 2007.