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Articles, Lost Christchurch

Charismatic, athletic and intelligent, Jonathan Roberts came from a respectable family. A native of Cornwall, he immigrated to New Zealand with his family as a small child in 1862. After leaving sc…

Articles, Lost Christchurch

From 1919 until 1963, New Zealand audiences were guaranteed ‘snappy scenes, bright singing, excellent dancing and sparkling comedy’ when attending a Stan Lawson Production.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

Many areas of Christchurch are underwater, dealing with what's been described as the worst flooding since the earthquakes. The high tide has just passed, with the rivers already running across roads and flooding into some homes. Schools have been closed, businesses inundated and dozens of roads around the city, closed. Already more than 70mm of rain has fallen in the past 24 hours, making it the city's wettest July on record. Now as the bad weather moves south the army has been put on standby in Dunedin for the expected deluge there. RNZ reporters Niva Chittock, Adam Burns and cameraman Nathan McKinnon are in Christchurch with the details.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

Christchurch has a big bill to contend with, if it still wants the multi-use stadium that's been in the works since the earthquakes 11 years ago. The problem-plagued project has blown out another $150 million, meaning it's going to cost $680 million and counting. The finish date's been pushed out too - to April 2026. Christchurch City Council's punting the hefty decision making back to the ratepayers. The options - increase the budget, scale back the project, or halt work altogether. Tessa Guest reports, and Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge talks to Lisa Owen.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

Four years ago Christchurch City Council vowed to get tough on the owners of 30 central city buildings left derelict since the 2011 earthquake. A wander through central Christchurch shows many of the buildings, nicknamed the dirty 30, still look unchanged. There are boarded up windows, tarps covering gaping holes, and containers keeping bricks from falling on passers by. But council says progress is finally being made on most Rachel Graham has more.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

It's hoped a new art installation in Ōtautahi Christchurch can help people talk their worries away through a series of telephones by the riverside. Twelve telephones have popped up across sites commemorating the city's devastating 2011 earthquakes. The group behind the project is Flourish Kia Puawai. Its associate director Sharon Torstonson spoke to Corin Dann.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

Survivors of our biggest national disasters say new guidelines will better supporting families in the wake of future tragedies. The new "Public Service Commission Model Standards" - to be released at parliament today - addresses what survivors say have been consistent shortcomings in the treatment by government agencies of those most closely affected by disaster. The standards were co-authored by the Pike River Families Group after consulting with families of survivors caught up with events such as the earthquake and mosque shootings in Christchurch, the Aramoana massacre, the Cave Creek platform collapse and the Whakaari White Island eruption. Sonya Rockhouse, who lost her son Ben in the Pike River mine explosion 12 years ago, spoke to Corin Dann.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

One of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, Kate De Goldi's short fiction, novels and picture books engage children, teenagers and adults alike. Novel The 10pm Question was published to critical acclaim, quickly becoming an iconic piece of New Zealand literature. Her latest, Eddy, Eddy is being met with similar excitement.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

The Ōtakaro-Avon and Ōpāwaho-Heathcote in Christchurch are some of the most polluted in the region.  While the Avon has received a lot of attention since the Canterbury Earthquakes with $100 million going into a new promenade and cleaning up its water quality, it's a different story for the Heathcote River where raw sewage and industrial chemicals are still regularly found. Niva Chittock reports.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

The much loved 'Dux de Lux' pub in Christchurch could be set to open its doors again in the next few years if enough money can be raised to restore it. The building was badly damaged by the earthquake in 2011 and a group looking to rebuild the pub say it could take around 12 million dollars to see it welcoming Cantabrians back. James Stewart of Gemelli Consulting had a yarn with Nathan Rarere about a couple of schemes to raise the money.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

There's been a huge outpouring of emotion in Australia at the death of cricketing legend Shane Warne, aged 52, while he was on a holiday in Thailand. Comedian, Ben Hurley, talks to Jesse about meeting him at a Christchurch earthquake charity match in 2011.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

In this week’s programme we’re featuring evening hymns, and you can hear a setting of Psalm 23 – it’ll be the third in our series so far. We’re also commemorating the Feast Day of German theologian Martin Luther, and the 11th anniversary of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

Nine to Noon continues to look at who's in the running to head up our biggest cities after local elections in October, with a focus today on the 11 candidates vying to be mayor of Christchurch. Three-term mayor Lianne Dalziel announced last July she'd be stepping down as mayor, having overseen nearly a decade's worth of the city's rebuild following the devastating earthquakes. The two major contenders for the role are Burwood city councillor Phil Mauger and former Canterbury District Health Board chief executive David Meates. Other contenders include the city's Wizard, a coffee boss, pro-gun pastor and a candidate who's stood in every election since 1971. For more, Kathryn is joined by David Williams, the South Island correspondent for Newsroom.co.nz.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

It was so nearly lost. As the Christ Church Anglican Cathedral is being rebuilt, historian Edmund Bohan is releasing a history of the distinctive Gothic building. It shows it was controversial even before work started on designing it, let alone building in. From the laying of the foundations to the official opening, it took 40 years, after squabbles over pretty much every aspect of its construction - not to mention the huge problems raising the money to build it in the City Centre. In Heart of the City: The Story of Christchurch's Controversial Cathedral, Edmund is critical of the former Anglican Bishop Victoria Matthews' determination to demolish the badly-damaged cathedral after the Canterbury earthquakes, to replace it with a modern church. And he tells Lynn Freeman he's very much looking forward to seeing the Cathedral restored to its former glory after a lengthy and pricey rebuild. But first he sets the scene. Back in the 1860s, there was controversy over where the cathedral should go, its design, whether it should be in stone or timber - even if there should be a cathedral built at all! Heart of the City: The Story of Christchurch's Controversial Cathedral, by Edmund Bohan is published by Quentin Wilson Publishing.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

Professor Lucy Easthope is one of the world's foremost disaster planners. Her first major job in emergency planning was responding to 9/11 and since then, her career has covered almost every major disaster; the Boxing Day tsunami, the London bombings, the Christchurch earthquakes, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down over Ukraine, the Grenfell Tower fire, Covid-19 and many more. It's her job to help get the bodies identified, repatriate survivors, return personal effects, look after the bereaved, and advise governments for the future. She speaks to Kathryn about her memoir, When the Dust Settles: Stories of Love, Loss and Hope from an Expert in Disaster.