Heartland - Desert Road

In my particular situation because I'm the Accommodation Officer and my husband is the tenant I've quite often sent my husband letters... if he hasn't mowed the lawns, he doesn't get off scot free either. You gotta be firm but fair in this game.

– Sue Harrison on her unwavering professional standards as Army Accommodation Officer

Now this little kitten was thrown out on the Desert Road, and was rescued by a following car...

– Turangi SPCA volunteer Bev Sutherland on a recent arrival

A lot of people take it for granted. They quite often think that it's government funded, and they're just going to be there when they get called. They don't sort of realise that it's all 27 men or 27 people, all volunteers...

– Turangi volunteer fireman Stan Allen on the town's volunteer Fire Brigade

I think that you have to rely a lot on the support of your friends because there aren't extended family here. A lot of husbands are away a lot, but you always know that you're never the only one in that situation.

– Waiouru-based mother of four Caroline Dawson on the realities of being an army spouse

You know what's going to happen in your day in the morning when you get up, or you know a week before. Here at this place you know a month before what's going to happen, because it's so well organised.

– Army Cadet Esther Harrop on the attraction of being in the NZ Army, near the start of this documentary

They represent tradition, unity...basically they are the soul of the corps.

– NZ Army Officer Hayley May on the significance of the army's Queen Colour (flag)

...a dust bowl. I remember our oldest two boys were at the high school, and they were sent home a couple of days because the dust was that bad that they couldn't sit in the classrooms. And they'd come home and all you could see was their lips where they'd been licking their lips. They were just absolutely covered in dust.

– Turangi resident Marina Allen describes the town in the late 1960s and early 1970,s when the Tongariro Power Scheme was under construction

I feel like I'm at my own birthday party.

– Gary McCormick enjoys a cup of tea and a pink wafer biscuit

I treat an inmate how I'd like to be spoken to.

– Rangipo prison officer Flo George on how she approaches her work

This must be a fairly cold and inhospitable sort of a job...

– Gary McCormick talks to satisfied roadworker Peter Smith, on a chilly Desert Road day

This country's not a real desert. In fact it gets heaps of rainfall — more than enough for a forest: 2200 millilitres of rain...

– Forest ecologist Geoff Rogers surveys the Rangipo desert (Te Onetapu)

It is meddling with nature, certainly yes — but man always meddles with nature doesn't he.

– Bill Brewer on the massive engineering project that is the Tongariro Power Scheme

They are the young, they are the physically fit, and one assumes, they are the courageous.

– Cadet school Lieutenant Colonel Castell sums up the calibre of young NZ Army cadets in training, near the start of this episode

May I say Yogi that you're looking a little bit underdressed for the weather.

– Gary McCormick chats to Yogi Peters, a truck driver wearing shorts

My wife Kiwi — she don't let me go.

– Italian Mansueto Zucatti on his wife's reluctance to trade Tūrangi for Italy

Let me say this: I wish I was 21 or a teenager again, because the future is boundless for our people.

– Tūwharetoa kaumatua John Asher expresses optimism about the forestry holdings of his tribe

New Zealand had rather a rigid policy. They were rather frightened that the movement would catch on, and whereas other countries allowed their conscientious objectors to be occupied in occupations other than actually physically carrying a rifle, New Zealand didn't allow this and sent them into camps — which really was a term of imprisonment for the duration.

– Historian Arthur Parish on the camp at Rangipo for WWll conscientious objectors