Long lost sisters reunited, missing fathers finding their way home, babies swapped at birth.
These are the types of scenarios that confront the producers of TV3's Lost and Found every day.
Seasoned journalist David Lomas is the host of the show and says he is always shocked by the number of estranged families in New Zealand.
"There is a massive, massive number of people who are adopted or have connected with an adoption in some way," he says.
"Then there is all the ones where the dads disappear and it always feels so rewarding to put it to air because so many people say it encourages them to do something which is really nice."
He says it is never easy choosing the small number of stories to tell because of the sheer number to choose from.
"It's complex because we get 1000 applicants, probably more so."
But there are certain things the production teams look for.
"To try and do the one hour program which we do now, we do two stories in an hour. We look for stories which are more complicated and complex and more people involved."
Tonight's premiere is the second half of season two which was split into two parts. The stories lead the team across the country and around the world.
"A highlight for me was the one in Austria where we solved a 70 year old mystery, which is a New Zealand soldier came back [from World War II] and said he had fathered a love child while he was a prisoner of war and his children 70 years later were trying to find that baby, which would now be a 70-year-old woman."
Lomas says he is excited to watch the first episode go to air but also nervous because the families are yet to see the finished stories.
He was invited to watch the first episode with one of the families who feature but he says he will be watching at home.
"The first programme on tonight is quite a stunning little one. The first story is about a 30-year-old Maori chap Jesse who is looking for his mum. He's had a troubled time, he was adopted," he says.
"It's one of those ones, every now and again you just pause and ponder and think am I doing the right thing reuniting people? And when I found his mum, she wouldn't be the mum most people would wish for in a way but when it happens, it's magic."
Lost and Found premieres at 8:30pm Thursday night on TV3
Newshub.
