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okay Runners only with dime Harley Runners only with Don Harvey and Hayden Jones g'day mate
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you're going very well thanks for coming over um you must be sore today uh we're
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recording this on a Monday and on Saturday you ran the ring of fire and um we're at tonkadero yes it sounds like a
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Pepper eating contest or something but it was a run around uh from two I did the 50k which sounds like
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a bit of a sellout because the whole thing is 70k but I did uh I did the 50 so start at two dollar and end up at um
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whakapapa and it broke me yeah so there's there's numerous um with this event Ring of Fire there's numerous
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different events um I I'm mad at you though for for like selling yourself short and calling it a cop-out it's
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still an ultra marathon and 50k is nothing for anyone to scoff at especially when it's an off-road thing
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just because it's not the biggest event on the day you gotta stop this shut the
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[ __ ] out I didn't think I was going to start with the telling off but check
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yourself well Aaron too yeah so you you're quite a late bloomer to running when did you start how are you 47 now I
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am I am 47. um oh I guess so well if you want the long story this is a long conversation isn't it yeah yeah well
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let's set our stalls um well my family were Runners and they were in kind of
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Athletics you know in the 80s when John Walker was running around with A Beautiful Mind of he and all dick quacks
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and all those sort of guys so my mum and dad actually started the gore Junior Athletic Club and my earliest memory of
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running what's being very very annoyed that the family relay there were four
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four by 100 meters and there were five in our family and I was about three so I wasn't running and I was never selected
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for the Jones family reload very very annoyed so it started with kind of Junior Athletics and stuff and I ran the
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old half marathon and then just kind of descended into middle age to it and working in kids and marriage and
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traveling and just life got in the way and then last year I just think I was just
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I give everything so I just started running longer distances started small with 5Ks
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and then a friend of mine ran Ultras she's still running Ultras hi Helen Baron and um just got into it and for
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some reason the body loves to be punished what do you what do you mean when you say you got into it because
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you're a bit sick of everything oh just I have quite a rigorous I shouldn't
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really complain every a great job at TV and zebra get to go around and meet people around the country but it's also
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long hours early flights late nights you know um so it's really tiring and I've got
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three kids and a wife you know I'm just like everyone we've August got life and
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I just sometimes I just you just get worn down I felt like I needed to go find something that Set Me Free a bit
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Yeah brilliant brilliant so someone said to midlife crisis and I feel like um the
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phrase on itself midlife crisis gets bad rep but when you do something like that
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I feel like it's a good thing it's almost like a midlife reset yes right
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like if you keep the you if you're doing things like 50k runs and you did the
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Kepler challenge which is 60ks this is going to set you up for the second half of your life you're going to be a better
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husband a better dad a better person a better employee hope so I do feel more alive like uh when I did the the first
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Ultra I did was the The Tall Paul one it was 50ks and I afterwards I felt amazing
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like my wife said I don't know what's happened to you but you need to keep
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running because you've either sprinting down the beach on the Monday after doing
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it on the Saturday and just feeling so alive and remember doing the Kipling I was at an
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aid station and a guy said to me because I talk a lot I'm sorry to all the people
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that I run with but I talk a lot and ask people questions I try and distract myself from the actual pain of running
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by talking to people so it's a full-on you know talk show all the way around
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the track and I stopped at an aid station and the guy said to me hating you are high you are high as a
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kite on dopamine you just I must have just been blithering away and eating jet planes and
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just high on life oh yeah it's a fantastic feeling it's like like nothing
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else and you just feel I I don't know I think even though you have lows in these runs when you reach
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that finish line and you achieve something that you wondered if you were able to do you just feel like a million
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dollars and you feel like anything that you put your mind to as a human being you can do yeah really hard to explain
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and it still sucks going out when you get out the front door and you've got to
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run for a training run in the first K I still feel like in a complete plotter and like I'm not going to last till 2ks
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that just I don't think that ever goes away my body's like oh do we have to run
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today what's this all about yeah so were you like largely um like lazy or inactive in your 20s and
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30s or what'd you do like so I've always chased some sort of inflated ball like
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usually a football and then I've played cricket and Tennis has always that kind
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of kid who played everything not amazing at any of these sort of things played a
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few reps of but just really enjoyed Sports and loved team sports like if you moved through a lot of towns and um if
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you go to a new town just join us sports team and you meet your buddies yeah it's
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fantastic actually funny you should mention cricket um I I messaged a mutual friend of us
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Mike Peru yesterday um only because I worked with Mike and radio for a number of years and yeah
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he's from Gore um so I thought I don't know he must know something about Hayden and I said
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oh what can you tell me about Hayden he goes oh I didn't really know I'm that
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well in Gore um but all I remember is very good at Cricket ah Mike Peru yeah he's like three of us from Gore Berry so
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if I used to live beside his mum and Mike Perdue who was the same year as me and was big on the radio and and me as
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well yeah he was great Mike still does great yeah yeah so so you're from Gore
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um where did you why did you decide to get into radio or TV initially right yeah yep well my first
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job uh was at the gore enzyme which at the time was New Zealand's smallest daily paper 12 Pages six days a week
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they called it the two minute silence because that's how long it took to read
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it and so I started in there just writing uh when I was at high school I just thought well I might as well give
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it a go I want to be an accountant and then I realized I couldn't count so went
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to the newspaper and just said can I write for you guys and they said yes because working for free is one of the
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ways to get up in the world that when you're a kid 100 that's how I got my
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start as well yeah exactly the same on the radio station door yeah I I did like a work experience thing at um 2xs which
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was the station in Palmerston North yes and just volunteered kind of made a piss
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to myself and if they needed someone to help out on the weekends with sausage scissors or whatever I was that guy yeah
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and then when a position came up they just gave me the job because they knew I was trustworthy reliable and desperate
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and cheap yeah he's been working for free for two years what do we have to pay him yeah Oh no you're so right but
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it's still a it's still a way now like one of my um recent producers in radio
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Carl Thompson he got in the same way didn't do any study or anything just came and he had that hunger and that
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desire and uh it gets you a long way and still can work that way oh still the same rules still apply so I did that and
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then um went to University and otago for a year and then the sports reporter resigned at
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the at the gorian zone so they rang me up and I'm like oh I'd love to do that I'd
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love to be a sportsporter that'd be fun for New Zealand's smallest Daily
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Newspaper but offering all the support events but but I just gone to otago University
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from Gore and it seemed like Disneyland like just you know everything going oh it was fantastic I was in Campbell and
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Hall were having the just the time of my life so I did decide to pack it in and go back to gore for you which was
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difficult but they I just learned so much from just working as a journalist and then I moved to Palmerston North and
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freshman agree at Massey and used to listen to you on the radio and I actually apply I um helped out at your
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radio station Steve Road did you actually yeah when were you there I did uh radio commentaries for was it magic
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oh Magic 828 yeah the AM station yeah that's a hard case well did our paths cross never no I've never met you
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officially but just same building and then I helped out at ZB down the road and Steve I didn't mind that either so I
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worked for both competing companies at the same time well they go gave me some money or 10 bucks an hour or something
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or yeah yeah [ __ ] all no doubt free pizza um so so that was um that was in the 90s
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yeah like uh mid 90s yeah and then it was then how did you end up in Canada you end up in Canada right yeah
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um finished my door and then the same guy in Palmer's North Raymond said there's a job going
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in New Plymouth got a job up there and um you may not remember uh there was a uh the police shot a guy called Stephen
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Wallace and white oh I do I do yeah smashing windows in the main street of town yeah big story and I covered that
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for radio and that just um must have done a good job and then started getting offers after that worked
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up here uh for radio news station and then um went overseas and we moved to Edmonton
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with my now wife and she was doing a scholarship there in physical education and uh I've tried to get a job on radio
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there were no radio jobs so I just rang up the TV station and went in and the first two TV stations gave me a job so
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it will offered me a job so I worked for CBC there and then I just kind of made coffee and made phone calls and then and
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some everyone took holidays to the day let me do stories I always remember the first time I was on TV and the next day
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the boss comes over and I had my desk by the water cooler which no one wanted he
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comes there and he puts his cup and he kind of half fills the glass and he goes Hayden he takes us sir fills it up but
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mourning it that wasn't too bad and then you'll see me do stories so I came back
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to New Zealand with a you know a tape from an overseas News Network and that kind of you know got me in the door at
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tvnz and applied for a news job didn't get it bloody Charlotte Glennie got it
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who was amazing and um home swung me up and said because I was a bit quirky and bit weird
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and that's what they were looking for so they said come and do a couple of stories for us and then
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I was there for I'm still there now that's amazing now I I don't want to I
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don't want to patronize anyone that's listening to this but for anyone that
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doesn't know Holmes was the 7pm show on TV one uh now called seven chap um but it was like game changing
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groundbreaking current affairs TV it's a massive show yeah uh like any big start
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in New Zealand would go on homes yeah Paul Holmes died a number of years ago but he was at the Breakfast House on ZB
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for a number of years into this TV show like both ends of the day for many many years I also love to smoke and drink as
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well I have to love this buttery shahads loved his ziggies um he loved a big life a massive mess of
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life and a massive heart wow so how did it so so he so you didn't approach him
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he just you ended up on his radar somehow yeah that while they've obviously saw my tape when I went for
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this news job and yeah they rang me and said you can't can you come down and do
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a piece the assignment they gave me was can you go to the viaduct and um interview people about uh when someone
00:10:54
Russell coats was in a lingy for the America's Cup and he was like Public Enemy Number One so I went down with a
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clipboard trying to sign people up for the Russell Coots fan club that's um that's a blast from the past that was
00:11:08
a big deal as well yeah Russell cooked some bread butter with they were considered like a massive massive
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traitors [ __ ] now we're both sounding old yeah yeah no but it's funny I feel
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like um New Zealand's not the same now like if um bleach and Peter Burling decided to go and race for a different
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Syndicate I feel like I felt people be a bit more mature about it now I don't
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know maybe not so yeah yeah but homsy was amazing just gave his best and if we couldn't get someone on the show
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um I've never seen anyone else do this he would get on the phone personally and
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ring them up and he was great with people just so good with people and nine times out of ten they would get on the
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show if he'd always Grumble about it he thought the public didn't like him and
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would get in the car because I'd produce a lot of his field um field work and he'd be like oh do we
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have to go and do this this is going to be terrible I didn't go out there and he
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would charm them and get what he needed and amazing and he was one of those guys
00:12:01
so annoying he knew everyone's name we went to a like a teen mother's unit
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whether they were going to have babies obviously or they all had babies and it's like this room but eight of them in
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a circle and he shook them all and said hi all the way through I said oh yeah that's pretty good but on the way out
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and he said Thank you Lisa thank you share and just knew the whole that so yeah and I was like man that is amazing
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just everyone talked about homes having like the the common touch or being the man of the people or relatable or
00:12:28
whatever um did he ever do you ever yell at you he had a notorious Tantra model as well
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not a disrespects oh no I think but I feel I feel like this is part of the League this isn't this isn't um [ __ ]
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on a dead guy this is part of the homes part of the fabric of what made him wonderful we um we were going to the
00:12:46
Hawke's Bay because uh remember SARS I think it was SARS no that women too earlier than there's a bird flu or maybe
00:12:55
pigs pigs flew it's not a swine flux and so we were going to the Hawke's Bay
00:13:02
to view the doctors and look at the sealed unit and that sort of thing so we were on a plane and look I'm about to go
00:13:06
and the other reporters from the homes program it was like the the first victim was in Danny Vic and we knew but we
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shouldn't know and we were gonna go knock on the door and try and get them on camera and it was all like so I
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couldn't tell homes that we knew because it might intercept their relationship
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with the hospital people and so he kind of got one that I knew that something else and he was like you're not
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and we're not we are in the middle of a plane about to take off and he's on one
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side of the island I'm on the other and he's like got his finger at me in my
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face like the show the name was on the market what's the name on the market and I'm
00:13:35
trying to figure out what this Mark he's talking about and he's talking about the
00:13:38
name on the show and the name on the show's home you must tell me at all time anyway torn absolute strip off me
00:13:46
and then we got off the plane and we had a great day filming and went really well
00:13:50
and on the way home the planning oh there was probably about much on the way over but he was so likable and so
00:13:57
passionate about it you just yeah yeah you take the good with the bad at the time though being like a young a young
00:14:03
journalist uh working with the King of New Zealand media that must have been intimidating as [ __ ] like when he if
00:14:09
Holmes is telling you off it must yeah feel like a telling off oh the first few times I just didn't know yeah
00:14:20
the less he does he did yeah he just knew when he was going to blow and he was really
00:14:26
really sensitive in a little like if something was going down that he was in the pace and the paper's
00:14:30
a lot for stuff that wasn't to do with his job he was news yeah he was and he
00:14:35
we would like in the bottom floor of the tvnz car park he wouldn't want to walk
00:14:39
past the door where you could see end because he thought there might have been photographers there so we'd have to kind
00:14:43
of take the long way just to get to the car where we were going sometimes that sort of level of anxiety paranoia or
00:14:50
whatever was quite confronting for a boy from Gore who walked for the gore enzyme
00:14:54
back in the day it was quite surreal sometimes especially you'd go out with other people too and they would like
00:15:01
foreign it's funny I just want to pick up on something you just said because um Mike
00:15:11
Peru who I mentioned before this is something he said a lot he phrased it differently like whenever he experienced
00:15:16
some success in his life like whenever we won Radio awards together or had a good time in the ratings or he got a new
00:15:22
job had referred to himself as like um not bad for a like a small gay Maori boy from Gore
00:15:28
um you had a few lists adjectives there but do you think like growing up in a tiny small town like that you'd have
00:15:34
sort of lower expectations for what you should achieve well you don't have expectations like to tell you I mean
00:15:40
moving Telethon was in Dunedin we never drive that was too far for us but just TV never came to gore you never saw
00:15:47
anyone from your town on TV there was no other there was nothing else so the idea
00:15:52
that I would end up on TV was just Preposterous we're just like too much of a leap I thought if I absolutely kicked
00:15:59
every goal in life I could be a sports reporter at the south end times that would be just [ __ ] okay
00:16:06
absolutely and that is a great job and but just it's amazing it's just small
00:16:12
step say you just keep keep trying yeah and just got to find something you enjoy
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doing mostly because if you enjoy it you might actually be okay at it I'm from
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like a like a huge City compared to where you guys are from I'm from Palmerston North but I feel like it's
00:16:25
the same sort of thing in a place like Palmerston North like you you have low expectations for what you should achieve
00:16:31
um and I look back now and I think if I put my mind to just about anything within reason yeah I probably could have
00:16:36
achieved it you know um it's quite quite funny I wonder if it's still like that in the regions and
00:16:42
the provinces of New Zealand well maybe it's more accessible now because of the
00:16:45
internet so people can be the internet YouTube stars from their you know bedroom or garage you know you can make
00:16:49
a garage TV show or whatever which is so exciting because there was no access for
00:16:53
any of that sort of things so you've thought you'd make the local paper or
00:16:56
you know but you were big when I was at Varsity you were massive you and Mike West right yeah yeah that's right yeah
00:17:02
yeah yeah I I think we were quite um ahead of its time for like a regional a regional
00:17:09
radio show Mike is still there now he's still doing the breakfast show now it's
00:17:13
the station's not called to exist anymore it's called more FM but yeah he's been there forever and he was he
00:17:17
was so good to me and instrumental in my career like um yeah he was you had Paul
00:17:21
Holmes I probably had Mike West um yeah he just installed a work ethic in me and you know like tore me a new
00:17:28
one when he needed to yeah um but also praised me when it was deserved which was rare that's
00:17:33
yeah Jake either way if you've done a bad job then just let me have it I think I'd
00:17:39
rather I'd rather know that than um just get smoke blown up your ass at the time I feel like in today's culture
00:17:45
where we're at now it can only go one way though like you can't you you can't
00:17:49
hear someone a new one anymore it'd be an HR thing like Holmes would be a bully
00:17:54
yeah terms he would be he would be yeah but people used to have back in the day in
00:18:00
there when I you know at tvn's in the early 2000s people would have The Newsroom they'd be Rouse and people you
00:18:06
know especially in that kind of move to long form current affairs which is kind of 2020 I moved to but just kind of
00:18:11
upstairs in that Bureau there are hardened reporters and hardened producers and they all had their own
00:18:15
really distinct opinions so they'll be like stand-up routes all the time and
00:18:18
all that sort of rigorous debate oh yeah it was fantastic it was awesome some sort of drama going down and yeah I love
00:18:26
that it's healthy but I feel like you can't do it now you can't raise the
00:18:28
voice in the week no no which is probably for the better yeah but yeah the good blazing rounds always yeah so
00:18:35
um you're you're busy now and you've got a you're in a very unique position so
00:18:39
you work from taranaki uh and you do good sorts which is on um Sunday nights on one news at the end of the news uh
00:18:47
you also do fear go and you're the full-on for Jeremy Wells so if you if you turn on um seven sharpen and uh
00:18:54
there's a good looking guy there um how did how did you get this over was this your call like to leave Auckland
00:19:03
and move to taranaki and that must have been a terrifying Prospect because it's
00:19:07
um a lot of people in the media are very insecure so you think out of sight out of mind you get out of Auckland to get
00:19:13
out of the picture why people said my career was done yeah do they yeah like you know just why are you leaving
00:19:19
Auckland the media hub is Auckland how are you ever gonna carry on there's a
00:19:23
small step you missed um I wanted to give live television a go but couldn't really honestly crack it
00:19:28
they wouldn't give me a go on breakfast uh so um remember good morning yes between nine and midday yeah yeah Mary
00:19:35
lamby did it for a while Brendan pong yeah yes who else I did it with Brendan and Sarah Bradley for a year
00:19:41
and I always see their audience was those are in prison or those with new babies or those in Rest Homes so people
00:19:48
didn't really have any control their own free will but um it was weird it was like half half
00:19:54
advertorial yeah there was a lot of cooking was big at the time I couldn't cook to save myself
00:20:02
to be with this chef but there was great experience in terms of learning and getting the to relax
00:20:08
around live TV and just knowing it'll be okay and there's always in fact I find
00:20:12
life easier because um it's gone right it's like live radio it's gone yes and also I suppose
00:20:17
something like breakfast just the quantity of hours you're doing you're getting you know you're getting the hour
00:20:20
isn't it yeah you're getting your feet you've got to go and do it you just got
00:20:23
to somehow find the opportunity to go and do it no matter what it is if you can just get a chance to do it for money
00:20:28
for love if you're a high level or a low level like people ask me about broadcasting
00:20:33
um like student school students and stuff and I'm like man go and find your local Access Radio just give it a go and
00:20:38
then you'll know whether you like it so yeah so yeah now that you bring that up
00:20:43
um there's one clip that goes to one that went viral where Brendan pongia farted were you there that day were you
00:20:49
on that show do you know what I'm talking about I know exactly what you're
00:20:52
talking about it was before my time but I can confirm well according to Brandon prong yeah he did not fart
00:20:58
so I think it might have been on eating media lunch and I think dreaming well they added it and um they needed to oh
00:21:04
okay oh that's a bit means for it that's been pongia's story so who knows
00:21:09
yeah okay so you do you do good morning then so how do you end up back in taranaki with um with all these um
00:21:15
little jobs on your hands oh well I just um to be honest I found that a bit of a
00:21:20
challenge some of the content and good morning so after a year it was pretty much really
00:21:24
um I decided to leave and I thought that in TV they were offering the kind of things I've done back in Auckland so
00:21:30
it's a bit of a Crossroads really and um we just had my wife just had her first
00:21:33
child she was about one so I was like she wanted to go home to be close to her family and stuff and we'd meet new
00:21:39
plumbers so that was that was kind of really our home so I said okay so we went and did that and
00:21:44
I just worked a couple of weeks a couple of days a week on good sorts and looked
00:21:49
after my daughter and we hit every playgroup in the whole town trying to find the best baking and we had a great
00:21:53
time for a couple of years and then seven chat rang me up and said can you do some stories for us so I'm making
00:21:58
that change from oh there's been so many iterations of that show I can't remember which one
00:22:02
maybe win close up at sevens right Mark sainsbury yeah maybe sainsbury yeah so they I was in there so I helped them do
00:22:10
some stories for that and then kind of became a full-time gig and I kept doing good sorts throughout all that time so
00:22:16
and then kind of just just happened by accident I kind of I learned to shoot and eat it which I
00:22:21
really love so that kind of and so the tvz kind of gets the finished product which is a
00:22:27
control freak which we all are really yeah and also I suppose it adds more value to what you can do and makes you
00:22:33
more indispensable in a way hopefully um just backing up the truck a little bit so so your wife's family's from um
00:22:39
taranaki yes um so was there like a like a much of a debate there like you you saying to your wife Santa you know this
00:22:46
is going to be going to be career suicide for me I'm going to be [ __ ] or were you quite open to the idea no I was
00:22:52
hoping without dear and I'm wanted to maybe make some my own programs which I had to go out which
00:22:57
weren't very successful but um I really enjoyed the process and the freedom of it and um I just I think I
00:23:04
enjoyed getting out of The Newsroom it's probably good for my mental health because there's so many other people in
00:23:09
there and they all want to do this similar feeling I think it's great to just get some air and and just
00:23:14
concentrate on what you're supposed to do which is you know what they call it
00:23:17
content these days yeah content yeah so so the good sorts thing that was um a concept you came up with I read you um
00:23:23
you ripped the idea off from uh you saw it in America and it was called um it's
00:23:27
called heroes or something yeah so you came back gave it a more kiwi name and boom yeah it wasn't really the same
00:23:33
thing they did this thing was like half an hour and it was really so American and I have a blonde it was
00:23:38
amazing it was you know people pulling cats on fire out of trees and saving disabled it was just amazing
00:23:44
and it was like highly highly produced it would have been a crew of thousands and I thought what about if we just had
00:23:49
something that's a couple of minutes long and people in the community get to
00:23:53
say who goes on TV and the sort of low-level things that never ever make the news ever they do now in other
00:23:59
places but when I first started it was all victim TV and some really heavy stuff going on television I thought what
00:24:06
about something that is really family friendly and that you can sit down with your family and feel a bit inspired and
00:24:11
stuff that it happens in 99 of our communities but never makes a news because it uses the top 10 worst things
00:24:17
that happened in the world today and descending order from worse too yeah yeah well I mean for anyone that hasn't
00:24:22
hasn't seen it and I'd struggle to find anyone that hasn't seen at least good
00:24:25
sorts once um yeah it's just right at the end of the Sunday night news just before seven
00:24:30
o'clock on one and uh you're just basically awarding you know just acknowledging people that are doing good
00:24:36
[ __ ] in the community yeah in their Community yeah pretty much they feel amazing too that's been good for long
00:24:41
time that's speed dating because so 50 a USA yeah for your high 40s em at 40 is a
00:24:51
year and then yeah for 14 15 years you're joking yeah so you've been in taranaki that long no no I started doing
00:24:57
good thoughts in Auckland okay in 2009 I think it was 14 years yeah every time I
00:25:02
knew I don't know what the boss every time there's a new director of news or
00:25:06
something do you like sort of fear a little bit that they're going to be you
00:25:09
know how a new boss comes along and they always want to change direction or do something different yeah is there an
00:25:13
element of theory every time a new person comes into The Newsroom I think none of them have been brave enough just
00:25:18
getting rid of it because it's such a nice positive thing yeah and I think I
00:25:22
think the number of crunches at tvnz would like they call Accelerated flow so it helps the news program flow into
00:25:29
country calendar without people having the chance to swap channel so keep them happy get him out of the new show into
00:25:34
country calendar don't change the channel um it's quite a science is there one that
00:25:42
stands out as your as your favorite of all time or um um they just you've done
00:25:46
too many to well I love them all for the week they're on and then you know they do
00:25:51
drift back but there is one called Joe Poland who is she's from Port waikato
00:25:55
and I just had my corner of circumstances in my life but I just had uh my first child I've got three now and
00:26:02
um so I was really big on it and she was about 60 odd it's very dangerous to try
00:26:07
and guess a woman's age it's just dangerous territory but she if in doubt
00:26:11
just have it she was 30. she um her one of her relatives had got addicted I think methamphetamine
00:26:21
addiction and um she got an email went round the family and there were triplets and it was who's going to take these
00:26:27
kids or they're going into stake here and she was 60 odd just starting you know getting near retirement at a time
00:26:33
in her life where her own children were out in the world and it was kind of her time and she took on three
00:26:40
three-year-olds and there was like parenting books by a beard because she was like it's just different but the
00:26:46
same and I'm not sure how I'm going to appear and I just thought changing your whole life on a dime she
00:26:51
said the photos in the email was what got him when she saw the photos of the kids she thought I was gonna have to I
00:26:56
gotta do this and I just saw man that's so selfless isn't it yeah and life-changing for three of those kids
00:27:02
well that's three humans that you'll like swinging their life around it and I saw
00:27:06
them 10 years later I did a where are they now kind of good sort special and I drove them to boarding school well
00:27:11
they're important get in there to get the boarding schools leave again I said
00:27:13
I'd get in the car I'll take it you know it's just amazing they were kind of
00:27:16
telling me in the car about just the aspirations these days and what Joe had done in here it was like good
00:27:22
honor God that is cool yeah do you keep in touch with many of the people yeah yeah like social media if you will hit
00:27:29
you up for bits and pieces and you see some in the street and your brain is like I'm on a full Panic about [ __ ] who
00:27:33
is this well it's been a lot of years [Laughter] wow yeah but it is really nice you can
00:27:44
go in the most towns and it'll be someone someone you know so it's a real
00:27:47
um honor and a joy to be able to do it for so long and it's also hard work in terms of getting
00:27:53
to the place every week or you know sometimes it's Friday nights or Saturday
00:27:56
nights at the laptop and the lounge cutting stories madly because it you can't miss a Sunday and there's no I'm
00:28:01
sick I'm not going to do it this week or I've taken annual leave that doesn't
00:28:04
work either so it's you know I haven't missed one in a long time so it's yeah
00:28:09
it's a it's a commitment but it's worth it like anything in life yeah real
00:28:12
rewarding um and I suppose there's no shortage of applicants as well no and the best ones are like just kids will go
00:28:18
can you my mum's pretty good can you come and see her so I've done a few of
00:28:22
those and you just back yourself to find something because no one's boring you
00:28:26
just need to spend the time with them and they'll they'll tell you things yeah
00:28:29
yeah that's really sometimes do you do you go away from a session and go oh [ __ ] you know you know it's good but I
00:28:36
haven't you know what I mean it's like oh it's no who's the lady you said
00:28:39
before Joe Joe Poland yeah it's not it's it's good but it's no Joe Poland OH it's
00:28:45
not well you've got to just set your expectations yeah you know it's it is
00:28:49
what it is so you don't want to create something that's not there and you've
00:28:53
just gotta trust this story and I've there's just funny little things that people do that
00:28:59
don't even know they're doing that I really focus on and find quite Illuminating I can't give you an example
00:29:03
at the moment but just yeah there's stuff all the time yeah oh that's cool
00:29:06
and and fair go um hand on heart I need full disclosure I haven't watched it in in years but it
00:29:13
was part of the fabric of our family growing up uh back I think maybe this is even before TV3 when there was just two
00:29:19
channels in New Zealand Virgo was a big thing and you'd even you'd even overhear
00:29:24
people at restaurants or supermarkets or whatever or at the mechanics shouting out I'm going to take this to Fair go I
00:29:30
feel like um surely like over the years with social media and stuff that sort of
00:29:34
diminished what what does Figo look like now um is it more quirky than what it was
00:29:40
back in the day or still same sort of fabrics I think the the same fabric is there in terms of the people are really
00:29:48
pissed off and like it's the show that a no one wants to be on because you've
00:29:52
either been ripped off or you're ripping people off so no one wants to be on this
00:29:55
TV show so these people are desperate enough enough that things have happened so bad that I I'm going to tell the
00:30:00
country about it and the hope that they'll fix it yeah so there's a real
00:30:03
like and you've got to feel for them um the bad guys are still the same they
00:30:09
kind of go under categories it's kind of your dodgy trading they're still out
00:30:13
there they're everywhere and the problem is is you know a lack of kind of Licensing and stuff you can stick a roof
00:30:19
up and no one really you know or you know plumbers sort of thing I'll get in
00:30:22
trouble um and but there's also crafty corporates like you buy a phone these
00:30:26
days it's like a four-page contract terms of conditions they're locking your
00:30:29
doors no one's reading it no one is reading them so this kind of crafty corporates your dodgy tradies there's
00:30:36
people that just skip town there's um food producers who stick like three chips in the chip you know there's
00:30:44
all sorts of crafts and things they're making big boxes with tiny things in them
00:30:48
it's and and the internet is full of just don't buy stuff on Facebook people
00:30:51
the Internet is just full of things we've good honest people are just going wrong they're being duped or ripped off
00:30:57
so in fact with the internet and stuff we're needed more than ever but people
00:31:01
think we're a public service oh can you guys fix this so this guy hasn't paid me this money or this
00:31:07
thing's broken yeah pretty much and then and then you go oh yeah that's great so we'll come
00:31:12
around with the camera um next Thursday at two and they're like oh no I'm not going on TV
00:31:19
I just want you to fix it and you're like you know come on it's all about
00:31:23
content you don't relate to a TV show yeah this is how the whole game works is
00:31:28
that you know you have to go on TV so yeah and what aspirations do you have like what do you want to do next any
00:31:34
goals are you just quite happy cruising and doing what you're doing you seem to
00:31:36
have quite a good balance between your family life and your life in taranaki and the super stardom of Auckland yeah I
00:31:42
like to keep creating so yeah there's a thousand ideas and I find the ideas of
00:31:46
the easy part in your brain to you know and running is one of those things where
00:31:51
you've got hours and hours to contemplate your life and where you're going I'm quite impatient and quite
00:31:55
itchy so um yeah I think I'm just gonna keep playing on down the track but I I love
00:32:01
I'm very lucky to be able to you know live in the provinces they have those sort of provincial values kids can run
00:32:06
around and bare feet we're not you know there's no traffic there's you know
00:32:10
everyone down your street I really love that but also I get to see the best parts of New Zealand on Figo the worst
00:32:16
parts of New Zealand all in the same week so okay that's pretty lucky yeah good so it's in bad so it's yeah you
00:32:22
want to be on the Sunday show not the Monday yeah um now you mentioned your wife Xander
00:32:27
before so you go yes you guys must have been together a long time so you went to
00:32:30
Canada together so you met you met when like late teens early 20s oh um for those who are familiar with new
00:32:36
Plymouth um we met through friends she was a bit younger than me so maybe my friend of
00:32:41
asking my babysitter that sounds really dodgy how big is the age Gap it's five years
00:32:47
five years five years so she was really babysitting her younger brothers and sisters it's got to get back to you yeah
00:32:51
but um what was the question um yeah how did you guys meet oh well we went through there and then you know we
00:32:59
got we were friends for a year and then um we wrote letters to each other gosh she was at a Target she was at otago
00:33:05
University and I was working at um energy family Plymouth so um we wrote letters to each other and
00:33:11
then she came home one summer and kind of followed her overseas and yeah amazing this is It's funny little
00:33:20
things like that really age the conversation it's like the commit like writing letters to each other is that
00:33:25
because toll calls were just so [ __ ] expensive it would have been a remember when yeah yeah you made a tall call and
00:33:30
it was like a zillion dollars a minute or something do you remember the five dollars or you can talk week years you
00:33:37
could bring one phone call once one phone number once for five bucks and I'd
00:33:41
come home from the pub and palmy and ring my girlfriend and Dunedin and fall asleep on the phone in the in the hall
00:33:47
because the phone was only in the hall to give value for money yeah yeah they did like a yeah talk they had animals on
00:33:54
the TV and it was a big Telecom special yeah yeah people just taught for hours and
00:33:58
hours and I was like the whole country ground to a hole because they were getting their five dollar phone call I
00:34:02
mean we didn't know any different at the time because it was just how it was but
00:34:07
um yeah yeah and people would do the OA and go overseas and you wouldn't you
00:34:11
know you'd feel well your kids and they'd go over to the UK for a year you
00:34:14
may not hear from them for three months I have no idea what they're up to yeah
00:34:17
letter writing was the most effective form of communication yeah [ __ ] crazy doesn't seem like that long ago
00:34:22
something on a piece of paper someone it's crazy um so um you've got three kids how old are
00:34:32
your kids uh 13 11 and 9 right which is a great age hilarious all good kids all quite different nah they're red bags no
00:34:41
they're great they're good uh 13 year old wants a phone we haven't given her a
00:34:45
phone yet so that's a big kind of debate at the moment um but everyone else in the class has
00:34:50
got one they have she's like she's literally the only person at school that
00:34:54
doesn't have one we offered her um one of those phones kind of Granddad phones
00:34:59
it can only text and and cool and she said that's it's more embarrassing
00:35:02
knowing one of those and did not have a phone so right I feel sorry for her yeah
00:35:06
it's a funny thing because it's um my sister she's got kids from similar age
00:35:09
like 13 and it's like oh Edie's got a phone but it's just for emerging season
00:35:12
I'm thinking we I don't know we never had emergencies back in the day hey they were just yeah yeah so that's
00:35:21
uh Molly's uh 13 and I got Archer he's 11 so he's kind of into everything he
00:35:25
ran the last couple of guys with me on Saturday so that's that's kind of cool
00:35:29
to finish classification Finish Line with your kids that's real fun and Perry
00:35:34
is uh as nine and yeah she's all over it too soon oh that's cool yeah that's cool
00:35:38
are you a good dad you think you're I mean no I mean there's always there's
00:35:42
always room for improvement but you um yeah I suppose where I'm getting with
00:35:46
this we'll get into getting to your your past what if you want to yeah that's
00:35:51
okay um yeah you lost your dad very you lost your dad at five years old yeah yeah
00:35:56
yeah and uh he was out running as well yeah I think about my own children being the
00:36:03
best parent I can be I'm like geez I never had a dad so I really want to be the best one I can be and you know
00:36:10
there's obviously we all get tired and cranky and all that stuff and that's
00:36:13
yeah I'm all of that but I do try and like if there's something happening at
00:36:17
school or an event on or whatever or if they need a cricket coach or whatever I'm you're dropping I'm putting where
00:36:22
can where it can be sick and I'm getting down there and I'll just work later on
00:36:25
at night or whatever so that's I know every parent doesn't have that it's a
00:36:28
bit of a privilege but that's kind of um where my focus is so often look at my
00:36:33
kids and think man I'm they're not lucky but I'm so glad to be around
00:36:38
and being able to offer that that I didn't have when I was a kid yeah yeah because you're dead Murray Jones
00:36:45
um so you you were five when you lost him um uh yeah there's an article on stuff
00:36:51
about this um which you you wrote it like about 10 years ago and uh do you like do you want
00:36:56
to you want to talk about the accident um yeah I mean I feel like it's one of those one
00:37:02
of those events that can't help but shape who you are as a person today yeah
00:37:05
well I do think about it it's still like losing a loved one everyone will know
00:37:09
who's lost a loved one it doesn't the hurt never leaves but it kind of diminishes but it does come back from
00:37:14
time comes comes and waves sometimes and so dad was um as you if you're listening to the
00:37:21
earlier part of the podcast about 45 minutes ago uh Dave was into running he was a big Runner and we just moved uh
00:37:26
from a ototo you'd call it now but back then it was hot out here um he was in the um post office which uh
00:37:35
I feel like I had to explain this to the post office was postage surprise surprise uh telephone calls and banking
00:37:41
it was all in one funny operation uh government owned so he was a phone technician so he used to move every
00:37:48
couple of years to these kind of country exchangers and maintain them and drive around these little boxes that look like
00:37:52
sewing machines inside them so I mean there's a kid running up and down aisles
00:37:55
of looked like the inside of a sewing machine so we just moved to gore and we just been in this house uh 10 days and
00:38:01
he was out running other camper friends and um it was just by the gore Racecourse and a
00:38:08
car came it only had one headlight on and um so there were three of them in the first guy uh moved just down onto the
00:38:16
road Weaver because they thought it was a motorbike with one headlight obviously and he died straight away my
00:38:22
dad was second and he was in hospital for 10 days and the third guy survived luckily so
00:38:28
um I do remember going to see that and um Mama kind of told me on the phone that
00:38:35
uh because he'd just been in hospital and he has wisdom teeth out so I said is
00:38:38
it like that and she goes yeah it's kind of like that and I don't present her for
00:38:42
because I was five so she didn't know how to no frame it either yeah I yeah I've never heard anything about that but
00:38:50
um so I went to see him and remember talking to him and that sort of thing and then I don't remember being told
00:38:55
that he died but I remember going to his funeral and we went to counseling as a family which
00:39:00
I think was a really good thing and I remember Scout um Scouts sucked a bit because we'd have to
00:39:07
go the Father and Son Dennis and you'd be at the end of the table with the four other kids at the new dad's the
00:39:13
poor old scout master was very busy but there was um I always loved my football coaches and
00:39:21
that sort of thing because I kind of took them on upstairs and they were um dates
00:39:27
we would have one dead taught me how to fight that was pretty hilarious because yeah I read about them this article that
00:39:33
I referenced before that you wrote yeah yeah one of your mates his dad used to wrestle you and stuff yeah do you feel
00:39:39
like some um some um sorry I'm getting emotional as well this is a lot man um do you feel like some appearance like
00:39:47
that have like your mates they tried maybe extra hard with you because they knew that you had this sort of void in
00:39:52
your life do you know what I mean so yeah they would have been aware to pick up the slack a little bit yeah yeah
00:39:57
that's really cool it was funny that wrestling thing on there was like on the
00:40:01
lounge floor I mean okay yeah if he does let's do this and all this sort of stuff and it
00:40:09
was hilarious and really um I guess it you know it gave me some confidence I think there was a few
00:40:14
scrapes and cool yeah but um yeah my football coaches I was just I remember be like man
00:40:20
wish I had one of these these look pretty cool in the old um birthday cake when you pull out the candles always
00:40:25
wished for a dead that was like oh mate yeah oh [ __ ] and um in in this article
00:40:31
you talk about so um the accident occurs and then your dad's on um he's unconscious or he's on live support for
00:40:38
10 days and your mum made you go to the hospital and talk to him yeah do you remember much about that or oh just it's
00:40:45
funny the stuff you remember I remember the corridor a lot walking down the car and going the same when I mean my kind
00:40:49
of as um couldn't see any like physical D just looked like dead in a in bed really I remember you know you have the
00:40:57
wires out his arm and stuff and I've never felt weird talking to him because he couldn't talk back yeah
00:41:03
hi Dad how's it going and I've been doing this today and that stuff but we
00:41:07
only did that once which I think is probably enough but I it was a nice to go and see him
00:41:13
so I was thinking about you on my run this morning before you came in and uh yeah I'm uh I've just turned 50 recently
00:41:20
and I'm very very lucky that both my parents still alive I mean I was trying
00:41:24
to think about the memories I had of like my own dad before the age of five and there are some but I like do you
00:41:31
remember much about your dad yeah um man I wonder like I wondered I guess if the memories are stronger for you
00:41:37
because you didn't have any new ones to replace them or yeah it's funny at
00:41:41
Christmas because my brother and sister they're five and six years older so they
00:41:44
have more memories but there's like anyone the stuff you remember random at the dump chasing seagulls
00:41:54
because then we'd go to the dump and the dump was kind of wide open and there's
00:41:58
heaps of Seagulls so dad was driving around the dump chasing seagulls in the Cortina and he had a trailer on and it
00:42:04
jackknifed and he tried to blame us kids for encouraging them that is awesome yeah it's so cool
00:42:12
actually yeah like the weekend trip to the dump in palmy that was um I I used to hate it if I was out at sporting Dead
00:42:18
Winter dump without me I'd always go back with something you pick up some other junk that other people have
00:42:23
dropped off yeah the seagulls and the smell that dump smell yeah and you could give it a look through for everything
00:42:28
you said get out of the way of the the Digger the Digger occasion's life is obviously a bit
00:42:34
different but yeah it's like just stuff like that um you remember and I used to how follow
00:42:40
them around all the time and we had a good great veggie garden and um a terrific mow and you went a Chuck
00:42:46
house and hit a radio attached to a car battery and he'd have the radio on in the in the
00:42:52
garden while he was working and all these wires to this car battery and yeah just stuff like that and a real cool
00:42:57
train set that wound down from the garage ceiling but I wasn't allowed to play with it and I always wanted dying
00:43:02
to play with it just you know all that stuff and how's your mum she's still
00:43:06
still alive and kicking yep she's uh just cracked 80 and she runs she goes to
00:43:11
the Masters games and does 100 meters in about 25 seconds but so proud of it I got a bad news you should probably
00:43:18
give me a run at the moment yeah she surrounding and she talks about when dad died she really hit the Atomic in terms
00:43:25
of terms of reconna got her through so um it's interesting hey like you you should
00:43:31
have easily gone like the other one and just been you know triggered by running because of that the event he was doing
00:43:36
at the time yeah um so who was in the house so you how many other siblings I've got an older brother
00:43:43
and sister they're five and six years older so I think um my older sister took
00:43:47
on oh okay some responsibility of kind of keeping everyone online and and getting things done I think you know mum
00:43:53
obviously helped as well they kind of worked together I think um it's funny that the way he died I ran
00:44:00
a um a relay around the mountain relay on tunnelaki I ran a couple of leagues for a law firm the way you all again we
00:44:07
started my league was at six am in the morning and it was dark so I remember running and I didn't have enough
00:44:11
lighting I remember running along this road and these trucks it wasn't past me
00:44:14
I was like bloody hell this is too close for comfort this is like you know I felt
00:44:18
this is really it's trigger yeah I can imagine yeah it's strange there's sort of the
00:44:25
odd thing that pops up like that um but you know onwards and upwards yeah yeah I mean it must be something that um
00:44:32
like when you you your kids are all past the age that you were now like it must have been something that's like you know
00:44:37
very clear in your mind when they're the same age as what you were when you lost
00:44:41
your dance yeah things like that yeah it does um really make you um you know just really enjoy those
00:44:50
moments that you have with them and take heaps of photos and I've always got the
00:44:54
sometimes I have a camera out or there's a camera on my phone you know all that
00:44:57
stuff just you've got to make the most of it yeah yeah kind of you think I'd be proud of
00:45:02
um the man you've become oh yeah I'm not perfect by any means but um I think you're probably gonna chuckle
00:45:08
out of the hunting and stuff and um he was quite technical so he would have probably enjoyed all the technical bits
00:45:17
and pieces of tally because I'm on the technical side too into the main get making it and getting it up to Auckland
00:45:21
he would have uh loved all that he loved um he had a great mustache which tvnz don't like my mustache they keep telling
00:45:29
me to show them off you don't have one today when is it a movember thing or oh
00:45:34
no over summer usually right where you can just go over and then the odd time of Grandma and during the year and um
00:45:40
yeah the odd boss doesn't like it works I mean we whisper sorted out tidy it up yeah sort it out
00:45:47
we'll get someone else mate there's a million other people behind you that can
00:45:51
do your job yeah so with you with the move to taranaki I suppose um you know another piece that Springs to mind is um
00:45:57
Matt Chisholm uh yes similar sort of thing did a bit of TV current affair stuff was hosting Treasure Island
00:46:04
um he made a call to move out of Auckland moved down to the South Island and um hasn't worked as well for him I
00:46:09
don't think like he got he was quite open about being [ __ ] can from Treasure
00:46:12
Island last year as the host yeah they they it's quite funny because whenever
00:46:17
something like that happens they always say oh you can control the narrative you
00:46:20
know you can control the narrative and uh but he he went on Instagram and was very vocal about the fact that it wasn't
00:46:25
his call because um I worked with metals on Figo for a while yeah so and he was great on figure he loved
00:46:33
chasing people um he's such a chaser that he um I think he really and he'll openly about
00:46:40
he uh kind of consumed him the the demands of the jobs so I think going down south
00:46:46
family loves it and I'm very envious of his social media game with his you know
00:46:51
wide open space he's living in a beautiful part of the country yeah wife and kids and the rest of it's kind of
00:46:56
small fry isn't really absolutely yeah it is it is how some how's your mental
00:47:02
health been over the years oh oh it's good not pretty good I'm not a I don't
00:47:06
get too down my wife would probably disagree in terms of I'm quite impatience so if things don't happen
00:47:11
more quickly you know um tell me about that sort of thing and you know nearly in the air you you like
00:47:17
everyone you get tired you get to kind of November or December and I just don't
00:47:20
want to see another plane or another motel room and you know and Far Away places but
00:47:26
um other than that really good I've spent January at a little place called near like door Paul and that's kind of
00:47:33
just drag the kids around the lake on the boat and just run the tracks are amazing so I run lots and yeah watch
00:47:40
cricket on the couch and just chill out I think that's really important to try
00:47:44
and get rid of your phone and just you know chill out yeah are you quite good at knowing um what makes you feel good
00:47:51
mentally and you know what makes you makes you feel bad mentally and separating the two and yeah I think too
00:47:57
much looking at social media can you just because the world is perfect on social media and you can if you watch
00:48:02
too much of it you think ah they're doing this and you're doing that and so
00:48:05
you can feel inadequate like suddenly what you're doing is not enough or whatever which I think is a real
00:48:11
dangerous kind of rabbit hole to go down yeah so I think you need to just ease up
00:48:14
on there and um just get off it just just get off it it's hard though wasn't it because it's
00:48:23
um yeah I I said look you sound like my girlfriend she's always like oh you're
00:48:27
on Instagram again just zombie scrolling and I'm like oh no but I need to for the
00:48:31
podcast reality is I mean I could I could I could put like it's put aside like 30 45 minutes a day where I do my
00:48:38
work on Instagram or social media yeah um but instead every time I've got nothing to do I'll just pick my phone up
00:48:44
and I'm on it and I know it's uh has a negative impact on your mental health
00:48:47
yeah but it's um so [ __ ] addictive it's terrible it's dangerous this sounds
00:48:52
really cheesy but um we're lucky enough to live quite close no Beach views and
00:48:56
we live like probably 300 meters from the beach down the end of our road so take the dog getting it I got my first
00:49:01
dog like from four years ago and I'm like we are never getting a dog and then
00:49:06
this dog came into our lives and um because it wants to go to the beach every day and just walk down the beach
00:49:13
or I can run with me for about 5k and then it's had enough um and that's just the great reset even
00:49:20
if the kids are cranky taking down the beach and just throw sticks for the dog or have a swim or just it's just a great
00:49:26
reasons free share vitamin D yeah yeah all those things so were you um you would have been at tvnz when um Greg
00:49:33
Boyd was there yes yeah were you quite close with him or no no no I thought he was amazing and
00:49:39
so funny one of the most funniest underrated guys in terms of because he started he was the first host of seven
00:49:47
sharp with that yeah tell us some more and Jesse Mulligan yeah and I just never thought somehow it really
00:49:54
showcased how funny he could be because he was hilarious I yeah I was obviously shocked when he when he took his life
00:50:00
but I wouldn't say I was yeah close to him yeah my friend on radio that um took
00:50:05
his life a similar time to Greg and uh that sort of set me on a I don't know a
00:50:10
social I don't know like a mental health like journey of Discovery I guess and
00:50:14
yeah just because I my friend Daryl I thought oh if Daryl can can be this low then what's stopping anyone else you
00:50:22
know being in the same sort of position so it forced me to make some like big changes like personally which is good do
00:50:27
you feel free doing this now see what's happened I've started interviewing you
00:50:30
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um I I do I I love what I'm doing now I
00:50:35
I feel it's better for my soul yeah you know I feel good about having good conversations with people
00:50:41
um with less sort of restriction yeah unless it's the opposite of what you were doing right you were on the four
00:50:45
minute keep it quick and snappy yeah yeah getting the gags move on to something else sort of yeah well I mean
00:50:51
if if this was a radio interview and one of your answers went for like more than
00:50:54
say 30 45 seconds everyone would be looking at the watch like [ __ ] tell Aiden to hurry up his answer's too long
00:51:01
and we've got to get to a funny question yeah sort of thing but it's nice to have
00:51:04
these conversations with people where you can cover some deep stuff and let stuff breathe yeah
00:51:09
um but that's good because my wife's worst nightmare me talking for 45 minutes
00:51:15
um and what's um what's next for you like running wise what are you doing
00:51:18
you've got any events lined up oh well this was kind of I was going to take a
00:51:22
week break after this but the internet is full Oxford I was looking at the other day
00:51:27
it's New Zealand's toughest marathon and it's um I think it's three and a half K's
00:51:32
uphill so you just go up and down there's still one up another one and that's in like middle of April it seems
00:51:37
because I've got to a place you've already got the fitness well I'm quite
00:51:40
fit and it's like I don't want to completely waste it I play football during the winter but it's like but I
00:51:45
don't want to run and kind of grind away in Winter either because running is amazing but also you're tired
00:51:51
and sore sometimes on Sundays and I'm not a morning person so I came to run when it's dinner time
00:51:59
if you've got three kids you must be a morning person no like what time do they
00:52:03
wake you up or are they at ages now where they're quite respected it's up at
00:52:07
seven right he'll try and sneak in the lounge and turn the TV on if he can get
00:52:11
away with it um but but Perry will wake up at eight we have to drag her out of bed to get to
00:52:16
school you know by 8 30 8 45. Howard's pairing nine nine and the half 13 year
00:52:21
old's a bit of a sleeper too so um yeah we're not like early we're really
00:52:26
lucky early birds so no I can't I wish I could get out of bed at six and run for
00:52:30
an hour and be full of the joys of the World by seven and you know ready to kick ass and take names there there is
00:52:36
something very smug and satisfying about getting that long run done like Before Sunrise yeah you know what I mean so
00:52:42
you've got a 30k training run get up at four in the morning get it done catch
00:52:46
the sunrise and be finished before your kids even wake up yeah it's hard to do
00:52:51
to get you out of bed but once you've done it it fell a million dollars otherwise it doesn't don't you find it
00:52:55
just if you're doing it in the afternoon or evening it just sort of hangs over
00:52:58
your head all day oh yeah you gotta know you got to do it but I've found the joy
00:53:01
in night running so as long as you don't eat too much dinner give it a bit of
00:53:05
time give it like an hour I'd take the dog sometimes because she loves chasing cats and seems to be more
00:53:10
cats out at night so the cats are outside the dog's like all over the place you kind of got the place yourself
00:53:14
so you can run up some um some great walkways in your Plymouth you can run up and down and the moon's
00:53:18
out and it just there's no one else around it's really peaceful just the um
00:53:23
get home at 10 o'clock at night and you're you know oh you're going you're
00:53:26
going late late yeah night running yeah and yeah you gotta hit torch or sometimes we'll just run in the um with
00:53:32
the road lights but you get back at 10 and you're so you're super pumped and
00:53:35
you're not going to bed you're out yeah then you'd be wired just the endorphins
00:53:39
playing for a couple of hours yeah and I've got a real Joy of a cold beer after
00:53:42
a run yeah you've earned it so I do like I know all the nutritionists say you
00:53:46
probably shouldn't do that but especially I found you and get out of the mountain Mount taranaki so I never
00:53:52
really got up there a lot so I've been up there there was obviously good training and just yeah it's amazing up
00:53:56
there yeah what's your relationship like with alcohol pretty healthy one uh you I'm 47 now yeah so um tending to
00:54:06
knock it on there I find I still love a beer and you know there's a few weekends
00:54:10
there's 10 guys from Gore we all get together once a year and that we give that a good nudge but I've most of us
00:54:15
are like by midnight because the hangover just like never ending so no I'm matured yeah it's my boy from Gore
00:54:24
we all gave it a notice back in the day yeah no different to any other kid yeah it definitely seems like there's a
00:54:28
movement in the in New Zealand towards um you know non-drinking not not sort of becoming like the fashionable or popular
00:54:34
thing but definitely more of a movement I feel it more of an understanding of you people if someone says they choose
00:54:39
not to drink you're not gonna call them a [ __ ] or no or or bully them into
00:54:44
having just one yeah well I David Seymour on the podcast a couple of months ago and he he um just
00:54:51
prior to the last election he had like two years where he didn't drink at all
00:54:55
um and he said he'd go to a bar or something and ask for a non-alcoholic drink and he said he said I'd look at
00:54:59
him like he's got a penis growing out of his ear um which is a funny way of looking at it
00:55:04
but it's um yeah I feel like that is sort of being diminished now yeah I'd
00:55:09
like to think it is anyway stats that we're drinking especially young people
00:55:12
like we worry about the young people and all the stuff they're into but the stats
00:55:15
um say they're drinking less than yeah we did whenever we were around yeah so
00:55:19
also um back to this Marathon you're talking about the world's New Zealand's
00:55:23
most difficult marathon with a lot of videos yeah you're gonna do that or I give that a crack and then I was on
00:55:27
Facebook the other day and I saw a friend who had run the Milford track in one day because Milford tracked you or
00:55:33
it's all booked out all year well you can only go in summer but it's booked
00:55:35
out all summer but you can get the boat there and then run it and then get the boat out at night and you don't have to
00:55:40
book because it's still open as a track I thought oh that seems fun how fast the
00:55:45
move for track what's that 60 15 it's 52 yes I think and piece of History
00:55:52
um yeah just stuff like that like just have Adventures because there's not a
00:55:55
lot of Adventure left in life it's life is very structured and you can't do this
00:55:59
and you can't do that and you know there's but there you can eke out the
00:56:03
odd Adventure on Saturday I was stuck in what seemed like the desert on the far side of mounted who couldn't see anyone
00:56:10
trying to find where the next poll is you know suffering away and there's a part of you that just thrives for a day
00:56:16
it's fantastic yeah oh the policy tomato like those big middle warranties I think
00:56:20
there's no track over there it's just kind of hopping through rocks and we've
00:56:24
I got lost for a bit and then I saw another Runner kind of up a few hundred meters up the mountains had to kind of
00:56:29
go back up there and find the spot and just you feel alive I had to run like that a few years ago called the uh the
00:56:35
Moto tapu challenge which goes from um it goes from Wanaka to arrowtown and I thought this is a good entry level Ultra
00:56:42
it's like 52 55k whatever yeah so not too much further than a road Marathon but [ __ ] it was the steepest thing I've
00:56:48
ever done so much food and I was standing at the the start line with um with my head torch on the first couple
00:56:54
of K's are just flat on a gravel road before you hit the trail I was looking
00:56:57
around sizing up all my competitors thinking of that elderly lady I'll beat her yeah those those guys I beat them
00:57:03
and I was just smoked by everyone all these people with poles who obviously knew what to expect were just passing me
00:57:10
throughout the run it was the most challenging thing and there's Parts you you know these waratahs these poles that
00:57:16
you're talking about as a guide like you're running along and sometimes they're hard to see you can't see a
00:57:20
competitor in front of you or behind you but it's the most I don't know man
00:57:24
versus wild sort of thing like this you know City dwellers like us can experience that's why the thing I do
00:57:31
love about ultra running is it's not really a rat or not a My Level it's not
00:57:34
really a race you're not racing anyone so you catch up to someone and I stop
00:57:38
and I might stop we have a yam with them we check things out they have a gun and
00:57:42
are you doing where you're from what are you doing poor bastards they get bloody
00:57:45
interrogated by me but I got it you're not filming are you hey guys love your work and then he goes
00:57:52
have you considered covering the feel of the Fielding field day this isn't for your [ __ ] TV
00:58:06
there's one person across the swing bridge and there's a big pile up there
00:58:11
there the queue and the woman turns around and goes ah is this going to be on the news tonight
00:58:17
yeah I'll just put my camera out of my ass I've got no day off yeah but it is great then those Ultra events
00:58:24
that there's no real racing because you're just trying to survive and get to
00:58:27
the end and there's a kind of feeling of together rather than anyone's an
00:58:31
opponent it's just you know how are you doing do you need help yeah I agree it's
00:58:35
um yeah it's quite different to Road Road events say this that real sense of
00:58:38
community that's really cool and no one really well at the level no one cares
00:58:42
about time like I was eight and a half hours on um Saturday and you feel like you
00:58:47
kind of go oh maybe I could do eight but I've never done it before and then you
00:58:49
just I was about halfway with a 1-8 session I was like five hours I'm like oh my God I'm gonna be forever but you
00:58:55
don't not concentrating on your watch I don't try not to look at my watch yeah
00:58:59
it's not about that so you've got any aspirations to go real long like do a
00:59:02
100 Miler or I don't know my friend um it kind of coaches me on the side Elaine Baron she just did the 160k at um
00:59:12
tarawera and I was following her dot around the map like you know she thinks she finished at 2AM and I'm just like
00:59:18
this is insane it's horrible yeah 160 cases yeah that's the mile all right 100
00:59:23
miles yeah it's just insane it's like running Palmas North to Wellington yeah
00:59:26
I think she took uh Bonkers 22 hours or something yeah just a so much admiration
00:59:31
for it and also the Liberation for the event but admiration for the training because that's about that no one sees
00:59:37
and you know she was getting up at 3am and running 50 K's before breakfast and
00:59:41
yeah it's like yeah that's that's the thing that the event itself the 22 hours
00:59:46
which sounds like torture to most normal people is actually the Victory lap yeah
00:59:50
right that's the that's the thing you do with this um support Crews and Spectators and you get the Panama at the
00:59:55
end and you feel like a rock star for a couple of minutes but what people don't
00:59:59
see is the six months eight months 12 months before that where you're going out in the middle of the night doing
01:00:04
those 50k runs and their families by 6 p.m that day they must be totally rigged I don't know how people function
01:00:13
yeah oh well it's been great to chat with you today yeah thank you for having me it's
01:00:17
fascinating I really really appreciate you coming over I'm surprised our parts
01:00:21
have never crossed out at an event it seems like we've done a lot of it when
01:00:24
did you do Kepler last year no I didn't December which it was last year yeah
01:00:28
right I have seen you at uh they call it New Zealand's easiest marathon it's the was it the no mistake
01:00:35
marathon it's Mountain to surf in New Plymouth and you were always running the
01:00:39
half you know that's right I did that a number of years ago yeah how'd you enjoy
01:00:44
that I hated it it was awful it's straight down mostly mostly downhill a year starts at meant taranaki finishes
01:00:49
in waitara um but the last um the last 10 or 15 K's it's just like a flat road yeah into
01:00:56
white truck there's no no people cheering on the side of the road you look in front of you you can't see
01:01:01
anyone look behind you can't see anyone you wonder if you're on the right path
01:01:07
yeah it was um that was all right I I was supposed to get a Kepler last year as well but I um did you did you get
01:01:13
like a celebrity passing or did you have to get up at three in the morning and uh
01:01:16
reset the computer like everyone else no well I was doing a good sort in the root burn
01:01:22
track as a a warden Hut Warden and we had three hours to walk into his heart he was here to established a trapping
01:01:28
program and so we've got three hours to you know cheered away and he's told me how he'd
01:01:33
done this Kepler Challenge and the training had done at the time I'd never done much running
01:01:38
really back into it and at the time I thought oh imagine spending a weekend running God I'd be unpopular at home I'm
01:01:43
never gonna do that and then bloody Facebook it came somehow it must have heard me talking to the stock warden in
01:01:50
the middle of nowhere in the root bread and Facebook scrolled down and Kepler Challenge and I click interested and my
01:01:57
mum who must have a PhD in Facebook like 10 seconds later my phone's ringing are
01:02:02
you doing the keeper challenge I just saw you're interested in I'm like oh
01:02:05
no I'm not I mean I didn't think about it again and then at the deadline pass
01:02:10
because you gotta get up at 6am to try and oh yeah so it's easier to get tickets to Harry Styles than to get into
01:02:16
the kit it sells out in like a minute right yeah and then there's a wait list
01:02:20
that's longer than the actual list of competitors so it was none of this and I
01:02:24
thought oh so I emailed them and they said there's a charity entry we pay a thousand dollars
01:02:30
and you can get in with there's 20 places of those and the money goes directly to a Tiano organization I think
01:02:36
it was for new Cricket uh pitch and there's a shade sale the Kindle or something that yeah cool and I was like
01:02:41
okay I think I can do that and actually by paying a thousand dollars it made me really committed because maybe I'm a
01:02:48
tight ass but I was just like okay yeah I've paid a grain for this so I'm
01:02:53
you know if this money could be going to other things in our family so I'm that
01:02:57
made me committed which is really a good thing yeah you enjoy it oh loved it absolutely loved it yep just well loved
01:03:05
the first five hours hey hey hey I had the last couple but the first five hours that's up hella minutes downhill right
01:03:12
yeah uphill to um the luxemore yeah and then all the way downhill yes yes many cases in the mountains but they
01:03:19
say the race really well the event really begins once you've done the mountain section because you get down
01:03:24
right on the 30k mark and you think ah 30k is a flat I can do that but then all the mountains and stuff that your legs
01:03:31
have gone through oh your legs are just shot yeah so I got 10ks from the end I had a mate from invercargill and he I'd
01:03:36
never done this thing before and he'd never support group before I said oh can
01:03:41
you can you have a bottle of coke so I heard Coke's quite good for you to get
01:03:43
you oh flat coat yeah it's like petrol well Flat's the operative word he didn't
01:03:47
know even though it was supposed to be playing so I chugged this coke felt amazing for about a k and then my
01:03:55
stomach just absolutely and you just need to drop a couple of Mentos I was supposed to be um unless he's
01:04:06
Kepler I managed to get a spot um but I had knee issue um but they were the organizer had been kind enough to
01:04:12
defer my entry to this year and I just can't wait yeah I'm chomping to do it
01:04:16
fantastic it's like a lifelong gold do they keep the challenge well I say no
01:04:20
one cares about time and ultra distance but I you get greedy right so I did eight hours in one minute
01:04:25
so I'd love to go back and do something with seven somebody I'll see you at the
01:04:29
stat line I think that's that's the thing once you've done it once you have
01:04:32
like a benchmark don't you like a personal Benchmark to compare it to yeah and I met people on that track that had
01:04:37
done seven times eight times and all the time I was wondering why I would have brought them back but I can see now why
01:04:43
they would just pray for good weather yeah well maybe I'll see you there this
01:04:47
year yeah maybe we can share a room together at the distinction because there were this other place there's like
01:04:51
one hotel where you stay at yeah my friends remember cargo he stayed in the room with me a distinction we got we got
01:04:57
up at 5am sorry this podcast will never end we'll get up at 5am and like let's
01:05:02
role play this what's going to happen because what am I going to forget because I forget everything so I've got
01:05:06
all my bag on and got my gun I got my drinks got my food got my running shoes got my number what can go wrong Cocker
01:05:12
who got out got in the car got to the start line 10 minutes to go looked down and I'm like oh that guy must be on home
01:05:19
detention he's got an ankle bracelet and I'm like oh that's a transponder that
01:05:22
you need for your time my friend Nick drove 140 K's back how to get the transponder now I got there the minute
01:05:29
to go God but at the start of this panic but then at the end I was just sitting there
01:05:34
chatting to a Stuart to the guy with a steward and I was like oh look it's eight or ten hours of running if I start
01:05:39
five or ten minutes late is it really gonna matter yeah that's true that's a good way of
01:05:43
looking at it yeah but did you manage oh so you managed to start with the rest of
01:05:46
the day right at the back which I do like starting at the back because you can pass people which is good for your
01:05:53
morale and saying it's not a race but it always makes people you'd rather pass
01:05:56
people than be passed and there's plenty of people to check to on the way up and
01:05:59
it also makes me go slow so you don't have all sprinted out of the gate and then paid for it later on 100 what you
01:06:07
say it's good it's good starting at the back hello this is Kanye my dog he just
01:06:10
arrived Kanye that's Hayden how's it going buddy hey come here um well you say you love to chat to
01:06:16
people but if you start at the back last year it's lucky that you even yeah I
01:06:20
mean Brody Kane she was running last year she loves a conversation oh you're
01:06:24
lucky that you got past it well I don't know where she was yes because we um text away but
01:06:31
afterwards I said congratulations and stuff and I didn't see her I thought it
01:06:35
would have heard her you normally heard her before you see her she did a lot of instagramming while on the um on the
01:06:40
Kepler challenge yeah there's a lot of stories doing it yeah while she was doing it she looked like she was having
01:06:44
more fun than anyone else that day yeah Hayden Jones thank you so much for coming over Matt I really appreciate I'm
01:06:53
going to wrap this up now because my dog is trying to lick my face off full-on making out session
01:06:58
um it's been I was exactly the same as you you mentioned before you got a dog a
01:07:01
few years ago and you were the family member that was handbraking the idea yeah I was exactly the same did not want
01:07:06
this dog at all this was a a 40th birthday present to my ex-wife JJ yeah um but he loves me the most uh
01:07:14
and um I wouldn't have it any other way I'm obsessed with him he's a huge part
01:07:17
of my life they choose you yeah they do hey um thanks very much for your time I really appreciate it and you truly are a
01:07:24
good source thank you very much [Music]