Nine To Noon for Wednesday 26 April 2023

 

09:05 Four bids on table for Ruapehu ski fields, but "time is running out"

Four final bids have been lodged to buy Ruapehu ski fields, but time is running short for one to be confirmed in time to open this winter season. Ruapehu Alpine Lifts which ran the Whakapapa and Turoa skifields, went into voluntary administration last last year, owing tens of millions of dollars. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is reviewing the four bids which were finalised last week.But PWC Partner and Voluntary Administrator John Fisk says the MBIE process has taken longer than expected, and a watershed meeting with creditors, set for the 9th of May will need to be delayed. He says a planned season pass sale had to be deferrred because of the uncertainty,  and he believes it will be very difficult to get a new operator in place for this ski season. John Fisk says it would be possible for PWC to operate the ski fields this winter, but that would require underwriting by the government.

09:30 Earthquake strengthening breakthrough

World-leading New Zealand research has made a breakthrough in earthquake strengthening higher-risk buildings. They've come up with some immediate repair solutions for buildings that are more than forty years old, including for more than 120 buildings in Wellington's CBD built before 1982.The breakthrough was announced at the annual conference for the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering in Auckland. Kathryn speaks with University of Auckland Civil and Environmental Engineering lecturer and lead researcher in a project to strengthen damaged or earthquake-prone concrete walls, columns, and in a world first, floors with carbon fibre patches, Dr Enrique del Rey Castillo.

09:45 Australia: Defence review, central bank overhaul, long Covid rates

 Australia correspondent Karen Middleton joins Kathryn to talk about the new Defence Strategic Review unveiled by the government that has a renewed focus on the Indo-Pacific region, an overhaul to the structure of the Reserve Bank following criticism it's handled its central task of overseeing monetary policy through setting official interest rates, a parliamentary inquiry has found that between 2 and 20 per cent of Australians infected with Covid-19 have developed 'long Covid' and there's been a deluge of tributes for Australian comedy legend Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna.

10:05 Pip Williams: lost words and the invisible history of female bookbinders

Australian writer and social researcher Pip Williams' first novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, was published just as the world locked down due to covid, and became an international best seller.  It tells the story of motherless Esme who spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers gather words for the first Oxford English Dictionary. Over time she discovers words relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded.  She's just published a companion book ,The Bookbinder of Jericho, which is the story of twin sisters who work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Pip Williams was a social researcher with dozens of peer reviewed academic papers in the fields of psychology, sociology, public health, medicine, work and family, and community development. But a few years ago she got fed up with academia, and "the only logical thing to do was give it up and drag the whole family to the other side of the world to work as labourers on organic farms." That adventure was documented in a previous book One Italian Summer. Pip Williams will be appearing at the Auckland Writers Festival next month.

10:35 Book review: Resistance by Jacinta Halloran

Catriona Ferguson reviews Resistance by Jacinta Halloran, published by Text Publishing

10:45 Around the motu: Samantha Gee in Nelson

RNZ Nelson reporter Samantha Gee joins Kathryn to talk about how residents affected by a tornado that tore its way through Upper Moutere are coping with the clean up two weeks later. Nelsonians have until the end of the month to make submissions on the Annual Plan for the next year - with a rates rise of 7.2 per cent and the issue of what to do about the city's library back on the cards. Tasman's toilet woes continue and health officials are warning whooping cough is spreading through the region.

10:55 Central Hawkes Bay Mayor on earthquakes

A series of earthquakes have hit in short succession near Porangahau in the Hawkes Bay. A magnitude 5.9 quake occured at 10:16 this morning followed by a 5.3 magnitude quake 2 minutes later.  Several after shocks were also felt.  There was no tsunami warning. Kathryn gets the latest from Central Hawkes Bay Mayor Alex Walker.

11:05 Music with Ian Chapman: Songs at the heart of glam rock

This week, Ian Chapman jumps back half a century to April 1973 and revisits the sparkling and provocatively gender-bending glam rock era that featured the pop perfection of acts such as T Rex, Elton John, The Sweet, Suzi Quatro and David Bowie.

Ian Chapman is a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Music at Otago University.

11:30 Teen creates science programmes for kids

As a child Hien Tran loved science, but says growing up in low-income neighbourhoods in Auckland meant she didn't have opportunities to engage with science in a fun way. When she was 16, she wanted to give back to her community, so she set up a not-for profit science programme for children. Hien created her own curriculum, covering topics like physics, biology, chemistry, engineering and environmental science. Rising Scientess now runs out of libraries around Auckland and in Nelson, and even abroad, with friends running the programme in Vietnam, Thailand and United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile Hien, now 18, has just been offered a scholarship to study later this year at Yale University in the United States, and is waiting to hear back from three other colleges.

11:45 Personal finance: How new couples should talk about money

 Simran Kaur joins Kathryn to look at what can be a tricky issue for some couples: money. She says it's important to talk about debt, particularly if they have large credit card or student loans they haven't disclosed. She says it's also a good idea for those in new relationships to talk about income disparities and how they view splitting household bills - is it 50/50 or based on income levels?

Simran Kaur is the co-host of the podcast Girls That Invest. This discussion is of a general nature, and does not constitute financial advice.