Summer Times for Wednesday 3 January 2024

9:10 Checking in with the Thames-Coromandel district    

The Thames-Coromandel area has had a devastating 2023 with regular storms closing roads and destroying property. But with the new and improved State Highway 25A opened days before Christmas, there are decent signs of activity - particularly for the town of Tairua - in the region. Len Salt is the mayor of the Thames-Coromandel district.

9:20 Shark sightings spike 

Summer is here, finally, but with everyone flocking to the beach a run of shark sightings has seen calls for swimmers to beware. Lifeguards recorded more than 40 first hand sightings of sharks across Coromandel and Bay of Plenty in the past fortnight, Surf Life Saving said on Tuesday. Marine biologist Dr Riley Elliott has been tagging and tracking great whites in the area. He joins Anna. 

9:40 Simon Slade: Blades of glory

It's that time of year when your lawn starts languishing - so how do you keep it looking lush and green, especially in summer? Well, Simon Slade likely has the answers. Simon has spent countless dollars and hours on his Mount Pleasant masterpiece, which was crowned 2022's NZ Home Lawn of the Year - but he says it's all worth it. He joins Anna to talk about his love of lawns and how he became a green-thumbed master.

9:50 Birdwatching with Michael Szabo

It's free, it's outdoors and it's also been linked with better mental health. Alongside making sourdough and cutting your fringe, lockdowns helped spike interest in the hobby of birdwatching. The recent and somewhat contentious Bird of the Century competition stoked more interest in birds here and around the world. Michael Szabo is the editor of the Birds New Zealand magazine and began the Bird of the Year contest in 2005. He's also been on the coast of Northland with the dotterels and bar-tailed godwits. 

10:00 Road Trip with Rodger Fox

His name is synonymous with big band jazz in New Zealand. In fact, he is Mr Jazz. Rodger Fox founded The Rodger Fox Big Band in 1973. He is a jazz educator and teaches at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington. He's toured extensively in New Zealand and overseas, playing at international jazz festivals including Montreaux and Monterey, and of course, New Orleans, which is where he is right now. 

10.45 Dream Scenario director Kristoffer Borgli 

If you're a dreamer, you've probably had a few weird people pop into your dreams. Some more welcome than others! A new film starring Nicolas Cage explores this idea more fully. Cage's character, a university professor irritated by his lack of recognition in comparison to his peers, starts appearing in the dreams of millions of strangers around the world.  At first, he's loving the newfound fame. But things soon take a nightmarish turn. 'Dream Scenario' is written and directed by Norwegian Kristoffer Borgli, who spoke to Anna before the film came out on the first day of the year.

11:10 Rachel Louie: Kempo blackbelt 

It's a martial art you've likely never heard of ... but it has a fiercely loyal community in Aotearoa. The Kiwi Kempo Club has recently returned from a grading trip to the famous Budokan in Japan.
Anna speaks to Rachel Louie - who has the highest female blackbelt grading in the country.  

11:25 Sit back, relax ... and donate blood this summer

The New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) needs to fill 32,000 appointments over summer ... a tough ask at a time when donations tend to dip. But there are still ways to give blood and plasma while on holiday. Asuka Burge, New Zealand Blood Service's national marketing and communications manager, let us know how, and where, we can roll up our sleeves to help the NZBS reach its goal. 

11:45 Food with Lucy Corry

Time for dessert.

Lucy Corry is RNZ's executive editor of lifestyle and entertainment and she's got a few recipes up her sleeve she's keen to share with us over the next few weeks.

Today Lucy talks us through an ice cream dessert, with a twist.

Lucy's famous vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate sauce and spicy nuts

This is creamy, chocolaty, nutty, spicy heaven – the perfect solution when you need to show up with dessert but lack the time, energy, equipment or creative spark to make something. Part of its success lies in the interactive element (everyone loves being able to customise their own dessert).

Don’t show this recipe to too many people or you’ll be eating it at every barbecue and dinner party you go to from now ‘til next Christmas.

Serves 8-10

• 300ml cream
• 250g dark chocolate (I use Whitaker’s Dark Ghana 72 or 60 percent cacao), roughly chopped
• 175g honey-roasted peanuts (or other roasted nuts – roasted salted cashews would be extra luxurious)
• A couple of tablespoons of dried chilli flakes
• 2 litres vanilla ice cream

Heat the cream in a small pot until nearly simmering, then stir in the chopped chocolate. Remove from the heat and stir until smooth. Scrape this lovely chocolaty goo into a jug and take it to the table with the vanilla ice cream, nuts and chilli flakes (to look like you’ve made more effort, put the nuts and chilli flakes into your fanciest bowls).

Now comes the fun part: get everyone to help themselves to ice cream, then chocolate sauce, then nuts, then chilli flakes. It can take a bit of delicious practice to get the ratio of ice cream to chocolate sauce to nuts and chilli flakes right, but there's a lot of fun to be had in finding the perfect balance.

12:00 Urban Jumble Quiz

Every day we're giving you three words. Within each word are letters which spell out a New Zealand town or city. Each letter can only be used once. While some words may have more than one answer, the correct answer must be the town or city we're thinking of. So have a pen and paper and a map at hand and have a go. 

 

Playlist

Track: Take it Away 
Artist: LAB
Time played: 9:10am

Track: Attention
Artist: Masaya 
Time played: 9:25am

Track: Catching Feelings 
Artist: Drax Project & Six60 
Time played: 10:10am

Track: Sister Sadie
Artist: Woody Herman
Time played: 10:20am

Track: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is 
Artist: Chicago Transport Authority
Time played: 10:30am

Track: Spinning Wheel 
Artist: Blood Sweat and Tears 
Time played: 10:40am 

Track: Dreams   
Artist: The Cranberries 
Time played: 10:55am

Track: Magic What She Do 
Artist: DD Smash
Time played: 11:10am

Track: Good Morning 
Artist: Coterie 
Time played: 11:35am

Track: Sweet Sounds of Heaven
Artist: The Rolling Stones
Time played: 11:40am