RNZ: Spectrum

Wellington Kindergartens developed The YMen project with help from government. It addresses the chronic shortage of men working in childhood education and also the high rates of unemployment among young men. Spectrum's Jack Perkins looks in on Ymen at Katoa kindergarten in Wellington's Porirua basin.

Spectrum's Lisa Thompson climbs aboard the almost 80 year-old yacht Ranui to meet former fisherman turned lawyer Richard Allen. Richard has had the sea in his blood since he was a young boy. He boasts an impressive cv - olympic yachtsman, antinuclear activist, he also carries out humanitarian work using the Ranui as a mobile medical unit.

'Innocents Abroad'. Between 1962 and 1974 Volunteer Service Abroad ran a school-leaver programme sending seventeen to eighteen year-olds fresh out of school off into remote corners of South East Asia and the Pacific. Deborah Nation attended a reunion of these VSA workers in 2004.

The Nelson Ark APART Programme brings together young people and animals as a way to teach empathy, compassion and tolerance.

The Nelson Ark APART Programme brings together young people and animals as a way to teach empathy, compassion and tolerance.

The Nelson Ark

Spectrum's Jack Perkins records at a self defence course for 11 to 13 year-old girls at Wellington's Holy Cross school. In 2011 alone, 11,463 girls from around the country attended Self Defence Project courses. From as young as 7, they are taught strategies and skills which will keep them safe in the face of threat.

Take twenty young Kiwi business women, add four ‘token’ males, plus two builder blokes, and send them to Sri Lanka. What do you get? Four new brick and tile houses. The New Zealanders were part of a contingent of  200-volunteers from round the world which, in less than a week, helped build twenty four homes for Habitat for Humanity. Helen Steemson was one of the young women and, using her i-Phone, she recorded this programme.

Spectrum's Deborah Nation joins Christchurch City Mission delivery truck driver Brian Smithers on a house-lot pick up, as the Aranui owners prepare their family home for demolition.

The original 2 roomed cottage, built in the 1840s, sits on whale vertebrae from Kaikoura's shore-based whaling station. The rest of Fyffe House reflects the hardships endured by the families who lived there and the growth of the South Island east coast community of Kaikoura. Spectrum's Jack Perkins explores Fyffe House, a New Zealand Historic Places Trust category 1 property curated by Ann McCaw.

Every so often Pearl, Basil, Monty and Cracker like to get together with thirty of their mates for a Saturday morning walk. Oh, and thirty humans come too. You see P, B, M and C are all beagles, a breed notoriously ruled by its nose which can lead an untrained owner seriously astray!

English doctor Angus Priddy 's love of sailing brought him across the globe to New Zealand and to Invercargill hospital. 'It's the bottom of the world' he admitted, but at least I have the Pacific as my playground'. Last year he spent 5 months as medical officer for a fleet of ocean-going wakas. Spectrum's Deborah Nation briefly caught up with Dr Priddy during the voyage of the waka fleet and also back in New Zealand.

Dr Arthur George Harvey practised in the southern Taranaki town of Waverly and its backblocks from 1895 until his death in 1927 at the age of 61. He served the district beyond the call of duty and met difficulties with zeal and ingenuity - his inventiveness was legend. Waverly locals, including Robert Bremer, who is related to Dr Harvey's wife Tilly, recreate the doctor's extraordinary story.

When Thomas and Mahrukh Stazyk purchased a disused dairy farm overlooking the Kaipara Harbour in 2003, they had a vision to establish a special retreat for people to relax and rejuvenate. However, after watching more and more nearby properties subdivided for development, the couple decided they would convert the farm back into native forest, eventually gifting it to the community. Spectrum's Lisa Thompson meets the couple who are planting for future generations.

Stonemason Mark Whyte puts sculpting commissions aside in order to respond to the Christchurch earthquakes and save classic street facades from the 1870s. Across the Red Zone and 3 generations of the Aires family- Bob, Rob and Suzie are at work on the Heritage Hotel which were the old government buildings.