RNZ: Spectrum

Tenants of Hanson Court in the Wellington suburb of Newtown have had their apartments upgraded by Wellington City Council. But alongside the Housing Upgrade project, the Council is also helping tenants with various schemes aimed at allowing them to develop their interests and potential and to lead richer lives.

It's art. Tiffany Singh uses rice and lentils in her work, she's dusted her bees-wax effigies with spice, and hung thousands of tiny bells and bamboo wind chimes in parks and art galleries. And for this year's Auckland Arts festival she's got help from three thousand local school children to paint their hopes or dreams on rainbow coloured Tibetan-style prayer flags which'll fly over Aotea Square during March.

Residents of Christchurch's historic riverside community The Avon Loop, gather to walk their streets for the last time.

Blue lines on Owhiro Bay roads indicate tsunami safe zones. Their faces also painted with blue lines, children of Owhiro Bay primary school and kindergarten sing about coping with an earthquake and tsunami which could devastate communities dotted along Wellington's rugged south coast. Spectrum's Jack Perkins found that the children are just one part of a community effort to raise awareness about the threat posed by tsunamis.

Every parent wants to see their child grow up and achieve their own independence. For parents of children with a disability this can seem an impossible aspiration. But John and Jane Taylor have found a way for their 24-year-old son Lawrence, who was born with Down syndrome. A furniture-maker by trade, John refined the design of a Cape Cod style chair and then worked out a production system that would allow Lawrence to assemble a chair from scratch, with only minor assistance. Try21 chairs, which refers to trisomy 21 (another name for Down Syndrome),were born. Lisa Thompson takes a tour of Lawrence's workshop and learns about crafting not just furniture but a future.

Photographer, artist, publisher and environmentalist Craig Potton looks back on a life of adventure and achievement as he reaches 60 alongside a new young wife and a two year old daughter.

Like-minded folk who travel the north island in housetrucks, vans and buses cluster on a playing field at the back of Waitara central school, north of New Plymouth. Their stalls offer a variety of wares which helps them eke out a living. But as Spectrum's Jack Perkins discovers, it's love of the life-style which keeps the Gypsy Travellers on the road.

Pre-schoolers Taylor, Samuel, Honor and Brayden may not know how lucky they area... yet. One of their classrooms is their own Wild Woods, complete with trees to climb, a balance log, eels-in-a-stream and cow pats. These children go to Open Spaces Preschool near Whangarei, run by Cherry Daly who's an ardent advocate of a world-wide movement to bring children to nature.

In 1913, 23-year-old Florence Harsant rode on horseback through the gumfields and isolated settlements of New Zealand's far north. Florence was working on behalf of the Women's Temperance Movement, combatting the excessive use of alcohol amongst Maori but she also witnessed a smallpox epidemic: most of the 2000 cases reported were Maori as were the 55 who died. In 1974, Spectrum's Alwyn Owen talked with Florence Harsant. This repeat broadcast marks the centenary of the epidemic.

Bill Tilman was lost at sea in 1977 en route to an unclimbed peak on a remote Antarctic Island. It was a typical adventure for the sailor and mountaineer who'd already explored many of the world's mountainous regions. Spectrum's Nick Atkinson speaks to a small group of Tilman's fellow antipodean adventurers.

Ever fancied riding a 50cc scooter across the Southern Alps in the middle of winter? No? Funny that. And yet earlier this year, more than two hundred mad men and women did just that. Spectrum's Justin Gregory visits Safari headquarters the day before the big ride and follows the epic journey.

Just days before Christmas, a Christchurch homeless man shares his world with Spectrum. In the wasteland near the central city but outside the patrolled red-zone, vagrants and squatters have never had such choice or such surveillance.

Young Aucklander Eddie Vazey died in World War Two. His family has just heard his voice for the first time since then. Twenty four year old Eddie was lost when HMS Neptune was sunk in the Mediterranean on December 19th, 1941. Only weeks before, The New Zealand Broadcasting Service Mobile Unit had visited Neptune to record Christmas messages from the kiwis aboard. Spectrum records the moment in 2012 when Eddie Vazey's niece and her three children hear his voice 71 years after his death.

Dannevirke's main street boasts a Fantasy Cave, maintained by a tight core of 13 cave-dwelling locals with an impressive array of skills, supported by an army of volunteers. Beginning in 1989 as a Christmas-themed grotto, the Fantasy Cave has grown into a display of southern Hawke's Bay history and a fairytale wonderland which attracts visitors from around the world.

Members of the Association of Blind Citizens visit The Suter Art Gallery in Nelson and take a rare opportunity to touch the art and sculpture on show.