Nine To Noon for Friday 2 May 2025

09.05 Chaotic winds lead to flight backlog out of capital

Two hundred flights were cancelled in and out of Wellington yesterday after a day of chaotic wind in the capital, but the airport is back to operating again. There are still some delays and cancellations, as airlines work to clear a backlog. There have been reports of dramatic attempts to land, with one Jetstar flight failing in two attempts and having to eventually head back to Auckland. Winds were so high yesterday the Metservice put its highest red warning on the capital. The forecaster said there was a threat to life because of falling trees and other items. At Wellington Airport, a Qantas flight from Sydney arrived last night around midnight and a number of flights have departed this morning but there are still delays and cancellations happening. The airport is cautioning there may still be some weather disruptions today. Matthew Palliser is head of operations at Wellington Airport and Kate Boyer is head of airports at Air New Zealand.     

09:15 The possible consequences of simplifying early childhood education regulations    

Early childhood centre owners say the details of planned changes to preschool regulations are still not clear.  The Regulation Minister, David Seymour, last week confirmed Cabinet had approved all the recommended changes to rules he has described as  "arbitrary or outdated". Legislation is due in July. The minister's moves have sparked strong reactions, in a sector where there are differing views over the role of centres, and the level of qualifications needed to provide a good service. Kathryn is joined by Toni Christie founder of  Childspace early learning  centres  in Wellington and Simon Laube the CEO of the Early Childhood Council which represents centre owners and managers.

09:35 Open source library software used worldwide, started in Levin

Open source library software developed in Levin, is now used by 19,000 libraries around the world. Koha started in 1999 when a little library trust in Horowhenua needed to fix a Y2K bug it had in its own system. That led to a collaboration with small Wellington business Katipo Communications, and the creation of the open-source Koha software.  More than 19,000 libraries around the world now use it - ranging from small toy libraries to Turkey's entire public library system.  Later this year, Wellington will host KohaCon - a conference celebrating 25 years of the open source software. Chris Cormack's worked on Koha since the beginning, and across three companies. He is now digital facilitator at Wellington's Catalyst.net - one of 60 companies around the world that support the Koha software. 

09:45 Asia correspondent Ed White

Edward White discusses the ongoing reaction in Beijing to Donald Trump's trade tarrif war; in Kashmir military tension is rising again between India and Pakistan after a deadly terrorist attack in the borderlands; the Chinese military appears to have seized a tiny, yet strategic strip of sand in the South China Sea;  and Singapore goes to the polls on Saturday.

Ed White is a correspondent with the Financial Times based in Shanghai.

10:05 Latest on Canterbury states of emergency

States of emergency remain in place in Banks Peninsula, Selwyn and Christchurch.  In Banks Peninsula more than 200mm of rain has fallen in 48 hours and a number of slips have been caused. Canterbury's civil defence and emergency management group controller Phill Mackay.

10:10 Screenwriter Angela Franklyn:  overcoming adversity 

Angela Franklyn's stage and screen career in London was stopped in its tracks when she was diagnosed with a rare health condition. She'd spent 25 years here and in the UK in opera, musical theatre, film and TV. So the New Zealander decided she'd have to find a less strenuous way to stay in the world of performing arts, and turned to writing. Last year she was one of a handful of disabled writers chosen for a BBC writers access scheme and is working on a crime drama pilot - set in the UK and New Zealand. She speaks to Kathryn from London.

10:30 Canterbury and Wellington weather updates

Back to the wild weather that has been battering the country - in particular Canterbury and Wellington. RNZ journalists Tim Brown and Ashleigh McCaull with the latest.

10:35 Book review: 38 Londres Street by Phillipe Sands 

Lisa Adler from Unity Books Wellington reviews 38 Londres Street by Phillipe Sands published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

10:45 Around the motu: Tom Hunt in Wellington

Tom discusses the latest events in Te Whanganui-a-Tara including local government updates, the missing Wellington Water report, and the council is looking to sell land from under new offices to pay for a $40m refit.

Tom Hunt is a journalist with Wellington paper The Post.

11:05 New music with Grant Smithies 

Superb Auckland dream-pop quartet Phoebe Rings has a new album on the horizon, released in June via prestigious American label, Carpark. We'll hear two advance singles from that today, followed by some rickety Spanish post-punk from Zombies and an Afro-funk classic from K. Frimpong & His Cubano Fiestas.

11:30 Sports commentator Sam Ackerman

The right kind of selection headaches for the Black Ferns, the wrong kind for the Blues - Sam Ackerman talks about utilising popular talent, as well as the rest of the focus points around New Zealand and the sporting world.

11:45 The week that was

Our comedians Irene Pink and Donna Brookbanks with a few of the funny stories from the last week, including the British boy who's won his second consecutive gull screeching championship.