Aaron came back for a morning to talk about dolphins and seabed mining and our councillor, Lisa, says she's going to be on the radio at 9am on Thursday.

We listened to an Instagram promotion for the bus (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSGJK2rEqLC/?igsh=azI1Zm5sbDMxazJt) and to our Regional Councillor, Noel, asking a question about the bus; it seems there will be further consultation before they make any changes to the bus and that we might have electric buses from November next year. Also next Monday, 9th, councillors are having a round-table discussion to gather insights from elected members on public transport challenges and opportunities - so now's the time to contact [email protected] and [email protected] to say what you think the bus challenges and opportunities are.

A look at the weather, local politics and what's on, together with an interview with Green MP, Kahurangi Carter, about her 6pm meeting tomorrow evening in the Supper Room. Also a hope that our district and regional council politicians might want to talk to their voters, but at present they don't.

Still some technical problems, but at least RTR was recorded this week and the interview about Friday's 6pm Pizza & Politics with Kahu in the appropriately named Supper Room can be heard.

In a draft decision the fast-track approvals panel hasn't approved seabed mining. Vera and I reminisced about Kiwis Against Seabed Mining's campaign and hope the final decision won't require even more work by KASM. This was a photo of Vera giving evidence to one of the many hearings - this one in 2014.

RTR took over the Morning Show for a while this morning to talk to Ross about the Surfside Church plans for Wi Neera St, Wainui Reserve and other issues. The agenda is at https://waikato.civicclerk.com.au/web/UserControls/DocPreview.aspx?p=1&aoid=712&token=ae5a8564-1da4-4e24-9590-7372b937b63d and a summary of it at https://docs.google.com/document/d/166RwcXMWIOP3opQKewUkdfkQsKKR_tStOoPqqAjGFuU/edit?usp=sharing

With Aaron away, technical problems left a short silence, but at least the recording worked this week. It includes the usual events of the week, a summary of recent news and a look back at some of the stories from 2025. Enjoy it!

This week starting to look at what happened a century ago, in 1926 Whāingaroa, when the population was only 302, only about 10% had cars and hardly anyone listened to a radio.

Not much news at Christmas, but the mayor is encouraging us to join the new Community Voice Panel (https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waikatodistrict.govt.nz%2Fnews%2Farticle%2F2025%2F12%2F17%2Fcommunity-voice-panel-now-open-for-registrations) and Go Raglan to fill in their survey (https://form.jotform.com/253141482123043?fbclid=IwY2xjawO3F_VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeEEX3NLPya3tlCoX1Lm_k3hEvVCpqIHrmA0TVWb85mUsym_jaAYQQt3FgAwA_aem_kdxZazsdaZemddE7LMEt0A).

After the technical problems of the last few weeks, it's good to have RTR without them.