Nine To Noon

Three generations of the Hitchings family have helped collect and document more than 50,000 specimens of mayflies, including 15 previously undiscovered species.

A $280 million plan to build the country's first purpose-built large-scale film studio complex near Wanaka has the green light - but the fast-tracked process has raised concerns. The complex, by Silverlight Studios will include10 sound stages, production facilities and the backlots of Venice, a medieval village, Paris and New York all set around an artificial lake. In addition to being a working film set, it'll include a film school and operate as a tourist destination. The fast-tracked consent process was brought in midway through 2020, and doesn't require notification or provide for general public feedback. Kathryn talks to two of the parties who were invited to comment on the Silverlight Studios project: Jerry Rowley, from the Mount Barker Residents' Association and Julian Haworth, president of the Upper Clutha Environmental Society.

Science commentator Dr Siouxsie Wiles joins Kathryn to talk about why a booster shot is important in this omicron outbreak, and the differences between the BA.1 and BA.2 strains of omicron. Associate Professor Dr Siouxsie Wiles is the head of Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland.

Landscape designer and gardener Xanthe White provides some tricks and tips relating to planting, pruning and harvesting.

Paul Diamond reviews 30 Queer Lives by Matt McEvoy, published by Massey University Press.

The last time Christine Leunens joined Nine to Noon it was from LA, just hours ahead of the Oscars, where Taika Waititi would win Best Adapted Screenplay for JoJo Rabbit. It was adapted, of course, from Christine's book Caging Skies. In the two years since then, she's been busy researching a particularly tumultuous time in New Zealand's history - the 1980s and the impact the Springbok Tour, nuclear testing in the Pacific and bombing of the Rainbow Warrior had at the time. The result is a new novel, In Amber's Wake, a love story set in Auckland, Cambridge and Antarctica, which is already destined for the silver screen, with help from Thelma and Louise producer Mimi Polk Gitlin.

Australia commentator Karen Middleton joins Kathryn to talk about the reopening of Australia's borders after 704 days, who are the first arrivals likely to be? Australian tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes is determined to persist with a bid to takeover energy giant AGL and retire some of Australia's key coal plants early, and there's a new flashpoint in the soured relations between Australia and China - this time literally - following an incident in which Chinese military ship aimed a military-grade laser at an Australian Air Force aircraft.

Fatigue among pilots, air traffic control and other aviation workers could lead to an aviation disaster - according to a leading union.The Airline Pilots Assocation or NZALPA - which represents which represents more than 2,600 New Zealand pilots, all air traffic controllers and the majority of flight service operators, says fatigue in the sector is a serious issue. It says the Civil Aviation Bill, currently going through parliament, does nothing to address the problem. NZALPA president Captain Andrew Ridling explains to Kathryn Ryan.

The new hospital being built on the former site of Dunedin's Cadbury factory has resurrected the thorny issue of what to do with the city's one-way street system.

Financial Planner Liz Koh discusses the best investment strategy when markets are volatile, how investors can best protect themselves from losses and the implications for KiwiSaver especially for those KiwiSaver members nearing retirement.