RNZ: Spectrum

Supergrans is a volunteer organisation which offers practical support to assist members of the community in acquiring life skills such as cooking, budgeting, menu planning, sewing and gardening. Amelia Nurse visits their Palmerston North base to get a taste of the range of services they provide.

60, 000 soldiers were trained at the Featherston Military Training Camp from 1916 to 1918. It was built in under a year by 1000 workers, driven by World War One's urgent need for men to fill the trenches of the Western Front. The camp was more like a small town but today a few foundations and walls are all that's left. John Hodder and Derek Hallett show Spectrum's Jack Perkins around the camp remains and re-create the life and times there.

It happens every year, and the good people of Eketahuna are used to seeing women with flowing locks and bearded men striding around garbed in leather, wool - and often chain mail, and carting a sword or bow. They're gathering for a medieval camp hosted by Les Chevaliers d' Argent - or The Silver Horsemen. Over the weekend medieval enthusiasts from all over the North Island will compete, re-enacting medieval horse and foot combat and skill at arms and archery. Amelia Nurse dons a floor length gown and joins in the rivalry and revelry.

The Catapult Cowboy, Messenger Mick, Simple Simon Green, The Skycop, all were heroes in comic books with names like 'Young Men of Great Britain', 'Beano' and 'Dandy'. From the late 19 century till after World War 2, the comic book was a thing of delight for youngsters. For 70 years the plots hardly changed:- find a good detective, cowboy or captain of the school cricket first eleven and throw in a rattling good adventure yarn. And all in 4 pages, once a week. Stiff upper lip boy adventurers carried the British flag to the ends of the earth by airship and later by aeroplane, the plots stayed the same, only the technology changed. Dark-skinned half breeds were often the villains, never the heroes. Foreign lands, deserts and mountain ranges provided the backdrop for heart-stopping deeds of daring. In 'When Tuppence Bought the World', first broadcast in July 1974, Alwyn Owen lingers fondly over comic books of yesteryear and re-creates their characters and adventures.

Jerome Cvitanovich drops in on luthier and musician Paddy Burgin. In his backyard workshop Paddy crafts guitars, bouzoukis, mandolins and harps, in fact, he can make any stringed instrument.

In 1993 the doors closed for the final time on Napier Prison, New Zealand's oldest penal complex, ending over a century of incarceration for inmates which included Te Kooti and Mr Asia drug syndicate boss Terry Clark. Join Spectrum's Lisa Thompson as she meets the prison's current care-takers and learns about some of the darker aspects of New Zealand's history.

Russian expatriates in Auckland ensure their children learn about their distant homeland.

A team of Marlborough women -and one bloke- take turns hand-milking Daffodil at 3pm each day. From the Jersey cow's milk they process a variety of goodies from cultured butter and cream to cheeses and have also come to appreciate the skills involved in the age-old practice of hand-milking.

Napier's homeless have been thrown a lifeline by one local family, determined to try and help through the common language of food. Kiri and Kevin Swannell, along with their children, spend every Monday evening in the central city doling out not only a hot meal but support to those struggling on the streets. Spectrum's Lisa Thompson finds out what prompted the Swannells not to look the other way.

Unitec Communication students use multi-media to better understand New Zealand as it was 100 years ago. The exhibition was devised by Unitec Communication programme Leader Dr Sara Donaghy, and an Auckland Council Oral Historian Sue Berman, to get students to look at what was happening back home in this country, while many of the men were away at the 'war to end all wars'.

Unitec Communication students use multi-media to better understand New Zealand as it was 100 years ago. The exhibition was devised by Unitec Communication programme Leader Dr Sara Donaghy, and an Auckland Council Oral Historian Sue Berman, to get students to look at what was happening back home in this country, while many of the men were away at the 'war to end all wars'.

Lifelong innovator and ideas man Lee Bennett has created a workshop space where he and assistant Wolf Hatch encourage young and old to experiment with technology, think like entrepreneurs and sow the seeds for future Kiwi businesses.

Spectrum's Lisa Thompson joins Mac Armstrong in the lead up to the 2014 Invercargill to Auckland pigeons race and learns what it takes to be king of the perch.

Scores of bikers ride their BSAs and Nortons, Indians, Harley Davidsons, Ducatis - you name it - to the Boyle Kawasaki shop in the Wellington suburb of Newtown. As well as the bikes, beards (mostly grey tinged) and black leather are prominent but so are the laughter and the stories at this 'Bikers Bit of a Do'. Spectrum's Jack Perkins drops in on what turns out to be something of a street party.

Devonport's Torpedo Bay has seen moa hunting and been a launch site for floating mines. Spectrum's Justin Gregory signs on for a sail through Torpedo Bay's history.