Our Christchurch correspondent, Katy Gosset takes us on a musical journey with the help of one of the city's longest serving pianists. For 23 years Peter Lewis played the piano in the Crowne Plaza Hotel before being made redundant by the February 2011 earthquake. Peter has since struggled to find a way to share his music with others. Today Katy seeks out some city pianos and takes him on a mystery tour to rediscover the pleasure of playing.
Ang Jury of Womens' Refuge talks about the announced changes to family violence law and if the government's got it right. Labour's Andrew Little "rejected" yesterday's One News Colmar Brunton Poll so the party released its own results today. Bruce Springsteen has announced dates for a New Zealand tour including a concert in Christchurch for the anniversary of the February 2011 earthquake. Your feedback about the long hours hospital doctors work.
Today RNZ's Midday supervising producer, Denise Garland, looks at two brand new podcasts. Collapse is a podcast from Stuff, all about the Christchurch earthquakes in the lead up the to 10th anniversary of the devastating quake on February 22nd. She also looks at NZ Wars - Stories of Tainui from RNZ which over the three episodes covers the war of Waikato in the 1860s, the great war for New Zealand, a defining conflict of New Zealand.
Red Cross aid worker Rosemarie North is in the Banten province of Java where authorities have lifted the alert level for the Anak Krakatau volcano to its second-highest level. She has worked on and off for the Red Cross since 2003 in all kinds of situations, including post-conflict in Sierra Leone, landslides in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, refugee camps in Chad, earthquakes in Nepal and Christchurch, and tsunamis in Southeast Asia and Samoa. [image_crop:72149:full]
It's been a long road to recovery for one of Christchurch's biggest post-quake projects. Eight years after the route connecting Sumner to Lyttleton was blocked off by the earthquakes, the road through Evans Pass will reopen on Friday. Sumner residents will now have a second route into the suburb, as well as a renewed connection to Lyttleton. Sara Templeton is the councillor for Heathcote Ward, which covers Sumner, and speaks to Guyon Espiner.
Australia's controversial offshore detention regime hits a massive stumbling block; Fiji's parliament votes against reinstating the Great Council of Chiefs; Stalemate over probe into high profile PNG fraud case; Pacific thinking about collective action over long line fishing; Lessons from the Christchurch earthquakes used to heal in Fiji; CNMI school group to challenge court gun ruling; Secret to Pacific growth in its growing working age population; Fiji disappointed after Radradra picked for Australia.
Gaylene Preston has been making feature films and documentaries with a distinctive NZ flavour for over 30 years. Her latest venture is an epic six part drama series called Hope and Wire, which she produced and directed. Set in Christchurch in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes, Hope and Wire is a fictionalised mix of characters - families that fly apart, others that come together - and what happens to a city that loses it's centre in an instant.
Meet a local town hero from Auckland's Northshore - 86-year-old Māori Warden Peggy Hughes.
Peggy has been serving in her community as a volunteer for about 60 years and officially as a Māori Warden for almost 50 years.
She's won dozens of awards for her services - from working at the 1981 Springbok tour protests, supporting Christchurch residents after the 2011 earthquakes, serving at many memorable Waitangi Day events to the recent Black Lives Matter protests.
Topics - A Christchurch resident says he just wants to get on with his life after his house was flooded for the ninth time since the 2011 earthquake. Fairfax newspapers today feature the story of an elderly gentleman who has been burgled so many times he's afraid to sleep in his own home. In Southland - A 72-year old woman has had her 30-year church membership revoked because she is living in a de facto relationship.
Police prosecutor jailed for dealing drugs;Sharebrokers getting late rush of MRP investors;Pressure mounts on MP Aaron Gilmore;Police rule out anyone else being at risk;Mother of electrocuted son is pleased that electricians been named and shamed;NZ Post signals to Government it will need to invest in KiwiBank in two years;Judge says young killer could have made something of himself;Elderly in Christchurch say they are low on priority list for earthquake repairs and payouts.
Twelve years after the CTV building collapsed during the Christchurch earthquake, families of the victims killed inside have told an engineering disciplinary hearing they want justice and accountability. 115 people died when the six-storey building came down in February 2011. A complaint against an engineer whose firm designed the building is being heard by an Engineering New Zealand disciplinary committee. Dr Alan Reay lost a High Court bid to stop the hearing. Anna Sargent reports.
As a three-year-old in China, Quin Tang's mother was shot in front of her and her father taken away. After moving to Christchurch 25 years ago, she walked out of an abusive marriage with two young children, no money and speaking little English. Tang then attended Canterbury University, teaching herself to read English from the text books there. She attained four degrees with an A+ average, and began working as a psychiatrist and counsellor. Quin was working in the CTV building when it collapsed. She took two weeks off work to recover, then came back and began counselling other victims of the Christchurch earthquakes. She has written and self-published the story of her life, called Half a Walnut Tree.
Topics - Twelve charges laid against the former Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall in relation to the 2010 disaster at the mine have been dropped. In a shock development in the Christchurch District Court today, the Crown said that after an extensive review it was "not appropriate to continue with the prosecution against Mr Whittall''. More than half of the 2.15 million KiwiSaver members are either not contributing to the retirement scheme or not saving enough to collect the $521 annual tax credit from the Government, according to the Inland Revenue Department. The number of people with dire needs on Housing New Zealand's waiting list has tripled since the Christchurch earthquakes.
Two teens. Two tragedies. And an unlikely friendship. Christchurch author Blair McMillan opens his novel with the escalating war in Syria, and the plight of Amir and his family. His surgeon father decides to try to send him and mother away from the violence - and Amir finds himself on a perilous journey - one that puts him on the other side of the planet. His path crosses with Milly, an angry teenager still reeling from the loss of her mother in the Christchurch earthquakes. Blair McMillan runs a swim school with his wife Karen by day - and Here Upon the Tide is his debut novel. He joins Susie to talk about it.
The Anglican church is considering whether to sell Christchurch's cardboard cathedral to plug a shortfall in the budget for restoring the original descimated in the earthquakes. The church leadership will discuss the future of the cardboard building during meetings at the weekend. It opened opposite Latimer square in 2013 as a temporary place of worship, but soom became popular with tourists too. Meanwhile a 2017 estimate put the cost of restoring the actual Cathedral at just over $100 million, but that's since ballooned to north of $155 million. Harcourts real estate agent, Mark O'Loughlin, speaks to Lisa Owen from Christchurch. [embed] https://players.brightcove.net/6093072280001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6336786667112
National MP Gerry Brownlee says it's a great tragedy that the former chairman of government insurer Southern Response has been treated the way that he has. Ross Butler resigned on Tuesday night after a State Services Commission inquiry found Southern Response had broken its code of conduct and possibly the law, when it used private investigators to secretly record meetings of earthquake victims. The Minister for Christchurch Regeneration Megan Woods says Mr Butler was aware of what was going on, as was Mr Brownlee when he was a Minister.
Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 7 December. This week ...... not everyone was keen on The Hobbit world premiere party, measuring and assessing innovation, expecting excellence of all students in education no matter what race they are, a world wide gathering of "Dobson's" tour ancestral South Island locations, The Christchurch Fiasco - what is going on with insurance companies post earthquakes, getting touchy feely with art and reggae star Jimmy Cliff on his spiritual life and learnings
A review of the week's news including the aftermath of Auckland's killer Tornado, the pros and cons of the castration of serial sex offenders, the current state of the property market, the RNZAF's first revamped Orion on show, a Penthouse posing teacher's registration is revoked, Rugby World Cup opportunities for NZ business, a heroic ship wreck rescue remembered 80 years on and a true story of 'the show must go on' in the aftermth of the Christchurch earthquake.
A review of the week's news including the aftermath of Auckland's killer Tornado, the pros and cons of the castration of serial sex offenders, the current state of the property market, the RNZAF's first revamped Orion on show, a Penthouse posing teacher's registration is revoked, Rugby World Cup opportunities for NZ business, a heroic ship wreck rescue remembered 80 years on and a true story of 'the show must go on' in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake.
A review of the week's news including: Prosecutions against thirteen of the seventeen people arrested in police raids in the Ureweras and elsewhere are dropped, the Christchurch earthquake one year on, health officials take expert advice on containing a deadly meningitis outbreak in Northland, a group of Dunedin volunteers are making a photographic record of thousands of the city's old gravestones, more Kiwis will have their calls monitored by researchers at Victoria University and DOC and an enthusiastic Rugby World Cup welcome Tongan style.
A review of the week's news including: The aftermath of New Zealand's worst aviation disaster since Erebus, Ports of Auckland industrial negotiations break down again while a report calls for privatising ports, the earthquake recovery minister is offside with the Christchurch business community, how safe is hunting in new Zealand? notorious criminal Dean Wickcliff behind bars again, turning Wellington's white knuckle flight arrivals into an opportunity, and something different for the kids these school holidays... adopt a pony.
A UN report warns today that the world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy, The Government says residents forced to sell up and leave their earthquake-damaged houses in the red zones of Christchurch can't expect to be told when their former homes will be demolished. A big story in the current Atlantic Monthly concludes, after looking at many studies, that cellphone use isn't harmful to your brain.
If you've used your eftpos card, caught a bus or taxi, taken a photo on your smartphone or mapped a run or walk then you've probably used GPS - the global positioning system developed by the US military. Christchurch city council is using location technology to keep tabs on the city's rubbish bins. With nearly half a million wheelie bins in circulation, it's hoping to track down 16.000 wheelie bins that are missing following the February 2011 earthquake.
The Canterbury earthquakes have provided the opportunity to reconsider the Christchurch CBD - and arts and culture have often led the discussion. No more so than during the bold biennial weekend celebration of urban creativity which is Festa, which first gave the public access to the red zone back in in 2012. FESTA returns this Labour weekend and joining Mark Amery this week are festival director and architectural historian Doctor Jessica Halliday and Kairaranga or weaver Benita Wakefield, who is part of FESTA project Kono for Kai.
The EQC Minister says she is concerned a threatening letter sent to the Earthquake Commission may have been sent by the same person who sent staff a bullet in the post two years ago. Police are investigating an anonymous threat in a letter sent to EQC staff on the 1st of May. The threat made reference to the Christchurch mosque attacks and has forced EQC to increase security at all its offices. Indira spoke with insurance advocate of 26 years, Dean Lester.
How do we choose who we admire? Sports commentator Lavina Good talks about the latest Australian rugby league player to be caught being lewd. What the Panelists David Farrar and Tony Doe have been thinking about. Lawyer Duncan Webb discusses the criteria for charitable trusts after one set up by the Head Hunters was eventually deregistered. And the Christchurch couple told they can't use part of their property because the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) might need access to it.
Education advisors are warning that children could suffer mental health problems for years to come if schools botch their return to the classroom.
They say the Christchurch earthquakes and Australian bushfires show teachers should resist the temptation to launch straight back into normal lessons after a major event.
Principals are hoping to learn today when they will move into alert level two and how many of their students will be able to return to school.
RNZ's education correspondent John Gerritsen reports.
After being trapped for hours on the 22nd floor of a hotel following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, Andy Cleverley decided life had to change. Chucking in his corporate life, he bought an old school bus, converted it into an off-grid motorhome and set off travelling the country with his young family. Documenting everything along the way he created Bus Life NZ - followed by over 46,000 people and viewed by millions. Now he's done it all again with a second bus and a second YouTube season.
More than a year after North Canterbury's 7.8 magnitude earthquake forced its closure, State Highway 1 north of Kaikoura will re-open to the public on Friday. Thousands of cars and trucks have been diverted inland since one million tonnes of rubble, in the form of 85 landslides, came down on the road, which was the main route between Picton and Christchurch. It's meant a tough year for some of those based along the highway. Reporter Maja Burry checked in with locals and filed this report.
Topics - Would you like a pay rise of $10,000 a year? That's what the lowest paid Auckland Council staff will get if a plan to implement a minimum wage of $18.40 an hour goes through. The Insurance Council has received a briefing today after a report revealed hundreds of properties on Christchurch's Port Hills are on unsafe land. The GNS Science report released yesterday shows a major rain or snow storm could cause land already loosened by the earthquakes to move.
