Nine To Noon for Wednesday 25 February 2026

09:05 White Island guide recounts fatal eruption

Whakaari White Island guide Kelsey Waghorn wasn't even rostered on to work on the December day when the volcano erupted killing 22 people and injuring 25 others. Called up that morning, Kelsey was among the injured with life-threatening burns that saw her in an induced coma, facing multiple surgeries and a long drawn out physical recovery. But it was the mental struggle which really threw her for a loop. Kelsey details her remarkable journey in a new book - Surviving White Island and everything that came after.

09:25 Health services and increasing privatisation

As part of effort to solve the problems facing the health service, the government has turned to the private sector to try to reach some of it's own health targets. These include directing Health New Zealand to sign 10 year contracts with private hospitals to perform elective surgeries. Now an Auckland academic, who is comparing privatisation here with the health system in the United States, says New Zealand is reaching a tipping point with increased investment from private equity and increased consolidation of GP practices, at primary level. Professor Jaime King, who is an expert in health law at Auckland Law School, also points to  increased investment by current physicians into businesses they refer patients to, such as imaging services and laboratories.
 

09:35 Heat pump giant on NZ expansion

The world's biggest heat pump and air conditioning manufacturers has expanded its presence in this country. Daikin has now moved into a new $30 million warehouse facility in the Christchurch suburb Hornby. The move follows the growth in popularity of heat pumps - according to Stats NZ two thirds of homes in New Zealand now have the devices installed. The technology has also played a big role in industrial companies decarbonising equipment away from gas or coal boilers where possible, many of these have been co-funded by the now closed Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry Fund. Daikin New Zealand's head of sustainability, Ryan Philp talks to Kathryn. 

09:45 Australia: PM's residence evacuated overnight

Australia correspondent Annika Smethurst joins Kathryn with the biggest stories out of Australia, including the evacuation of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese from his official residence, The Lodge, overnight for several hours.

Annika Smethurst is a political journalist for The Age

10:05 Sita Walker on how life's biggest lessons can be learned at lunchtime

It starts like any other lunch hour at Parks State High School - tired students stream out of classrooms, anxious for a break. Teachers gather in the staffroom, swapping stories of problematic kids. But over the space of THIS hour, one teacher's life is about to be blown up by an image posted to social media. How the kids and adults react is the premise of a humorous and remarkably insightful book by Australian author Sita Walker called In a Common Hour. Sita's insight comes from spending 20 year as a high school teacher herself. She says in her view: "Most people, most kids are good kids - most of the time. And even the bad kids are good kids, underneath it all". This is Sita's first novel, but her first work was an intergenerational memoir called The God of No Good, which detailed her experience growing up in the Baháʼí faith.

10:35 Book review: My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney

Elisabeth Easther reviews My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney, published by Macmillan.

10:45 Around the motu : RNZ's Jimmy Ellingham

Manawatū school bus woes, Tongariro fire recovery, and the end of the old Ōpiki toll bridge.

11:05 Music with Yadana Saw: Festival fever

Music correspondent Yadana Saw plays three tunes to celebrate the festival season, including one from indy band Dads So So Modern who'll play the Newtown Festival early next month and Nigerian artist Obongjayar, who's in New Zealand for Electric Avenue this weekend.

11:20 HealthPost's journey from Golden Bay kitchen to e-commerce platform

 It all started with sales of barley grass out of a Golden Bay kitchen. Linley Butler's desire to connect rural people with natural health products led her to set up HealthPost in the late 1980s as a mail order catalogue. The company turned to e-commerce, and Linley handed over the reins as CEO to her son Abel in 2009. HealthPost is still based in Golden Bay, employing nearly 90 people and sells over 15,000 products from over 500 brands.  It has a strong sustainability focus, supporting biodiversity projects in the region - it's also B-Corp certified and very much still a family affair, despite Linley's passing. Abel's sister Lucy is the company's Sustainability Lead. Abel talks about how he's continuing his mother's legacy and why health supplements are booming.

 

11:45 Science: Silk from clams, construction carbon and Yangtze fishing ban

Science commentator Laurie Winkless looks at how Korean researchers have taken waste from an abundant species of clams to recreate the silk produced from another, endangered species of clam. A study out of Canada has found that construction produces the equivalent of 1 - 3 metric tons of carbon per person each year - and it needs to drop by 10 % to stay on top of emission reduction targets - so how can it be done? And a fishing ban on the Yangzte River appears to be working, with fish biomass increasing.

 

Laurie Winkless is a physicist and science writer.