Lynn Freeman
Commissioned: Local Government Commission Chair Sir Wira Gardiner
Sir Wira Gardiner is chair of the Local Government Commission overseeing our 78 local authorities, 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities. Rodney, Waiheke and the Wairarapa could all have… Audio
The Great Outdoors - Tramping
We're a nation of walkers living in a country where the weather can turn from nice to nasty in a heartbeat. Lynn Freeman meets keen Wellington trampers Illona Keenan and Peter Barber. Audio, Gallery
Annabel Langbein: companion planting
Which plants make happy bedfellows and which don't? Cook and gardener Annabel Langbein talks about good combinations of plants - like tomatoes and basil, beans and corn, and beans and potatoes, and… Audio
Policy speak poem
When The Weekend asked listeners to send us the words they didn't want to hear; the correspondence kept coming. 'Learnings' came in as a strong contender of a word people didn't want to hear, as did… Audio
Commissioned: Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft
Over the next 18 months Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft will oversee the latest shake up for the ministry responsible for the wellbeing of children and more broadly families.
The… Audio
Media: New Zealand Doctor's Barbara Fountain
For 20 years editor and journalist Barbara Fountain has raised important health issues and got our doctors talking to each other through the publication New Zealand Doctor. That dedication to… Audio
Smoking ephemera
Smoking now gets more expensive with a 10% increased in the tax on tobacco There'll be 10% rises on January the first, each year until 2020. It's estimated 15% of adult New Zealanders smoke daily… Audio, Gallery
The Great Outdoors - Everyone's Adventure
Children with wistful eyes and empty pockets used to hang around a kayak rental boatshed in Eastbourne in Wellington. Now, thanks to a new project called Everyone's Adventure, there's a very good… Audio
Rebecca Lees - Incredible Edibles
They have runnerbeans growing up the side of a police station in Canterbury, and if you pick them you won't get arrested. They're there - like many of the fruit and vegies growing in Geraldine - for… Audio, Gallery
Regional Snapshot - Coromandel Peninsula
News Director at the Hauraki Herald Julie Kaio tells us what's been happening in her patch. Audio
Remembering Michele Amas
Michele Amas - outstanding actress and poet, has been farewelled at her funeral in Wellington. In life she was on stage in countless plays mainly at Circa Theatre, and a writer - especially of poems… Audio
New Year Honours - Dame Valerie Adams
New Zealand's golden girl is now a Dame - and she says she feels like a child in a candy shop. With the announcement of the New Year's Honours list, Shotputter Dame Valerie Adams can now share her top… Audio
Deborah Challinor's new novel The Cloud Leopard's Daughter
With 15 novels to her name, Hamilton's Deborah Challinor is a prolific and successful historical fiction writer - here and overseas. Her popular series include The Convict Girls, Children of War and… Audio
Remembering Featherston Military Training Camp
More than 60,000 men went through Featherston Military Training Camp in World War One, and a plan to remember them is gathering momentum. The group behind the project believe it will highlight just… Audio
The Charles Brasch Studio - no more kitchen table art!
The "residence" part of Dunedin's Caselberg House Artists In Residence scheme is working fine. But the "art" part... Well, let's just say, many of the artists and sculptors have had to draw on the… Audio
Juliet Arnott - rekindling Kaikoura
Materials from red-stickered buildings being dismantled in Kaikoura are likely to find a new home rather than ending up in the tip. Locals are so keen to recycle they brought in Juliet Arnott from the… Video, Audio, Gallery
Cinema Club queen Hilda Brodie Smith
Home movie making was huge in The 1960s. But while most people filmed domestic scenes, in Porirua Hilda Brodie Smith was writing, directing and starring in mini dramas and filming documentaries. Hilda… Audio
The choreographer and the supermarket trolleys
Supermarket trolleys as dance partners - who'd have thought? Yet Australian choreographer Shaun Parker has been working with Kiwi dancers to create a street ballet leaping into, out of and around… Video, Audio
Alexandra Tidswell's new novel inspired by secrets
From impoverished wife of a good for nothing charmer in Warwickshire, to respectable settler in New Zealand - the story of Martha Grimm is told in a novel by her several times great grandaughter… Audio
George's Marvellous Medicine becomes a stage play
The late children's writer Roald Dahl is still a phenomenon, with his dark, often surreal fairy stories scaring and delighting readers, young and old. 2016 is the 100th anniversary of his birth. Audio
