Lately for Monday 21 March 2022

10:20 Ruapehu heats up 

News broke today that Mt Ruapehu is heating up again. The temperature of the Crater Lake, Te Wai ā-moe, temperature reached 31 °C. Observation of the temperature and seismology around Ruapehu led GNZ Science today to raise the volcanic alert level from 1 to 2. Ruapehu's last major eruption was in 1996 but it's an active volcano and they have their own temperaments. Karyn is joined by Volcanologist Professor Shane Cronin from the University of Auckland. 

10:30 Builders face Gib woes 

Builders are having to stop work because they just can't get the wood. Some sites are waiting up to 6 months just for Gib boards to turn up. Materials have become extremely scarce around the country and builders are having to think differently about how they balance workload. This comes after years of shortages which are getting worse. Julien Leys is the Chief Executive of Building Industry Federation of NZ and he says while times are hard, creative thinking might offer some ways to work around the problem. 

10:40 The mystery of a 100 year old postcard 

In 1915 during the First World War a New Zealand soldier in his early twenties by the name of Bert Cooke from South Taranaki  was on the island of  Malta in the Mediterranean receiving medical care before returning to the front line to fight the Turks, and he sent a postcard from Malta to his brother in law, who was only 14 at the time, Roy Coombridge -- who lived on the family farm in Te Kiri in Taranaki. Earlier this month, 106 years later, the postcard turned up, at an ATM in a shopping centre in Townsville Australia. Karyn speaks to Roy Coombridge's daughter Doris Elphick.

10:50 Europe treads gently 

BBC World Service correspondent Pete Ross joins Karyn to discuss the war in Ukraine, European political reactions to it and ongoing negotiations over the future of Afghanistan.