Hadyn Jones

Hadyn Jones, 42, is a TVNZ current affairs veteran having reported for shows such as Holmes, Close Up and 20/20. These days, he wields a double-edged sword tackling the best and worst of society as part of hosting TVNZ 1’s Fair Go and Good Sorts (on Sunday’s 1 News At 6pm). He lives in New Plymouth with his wife Zanta, 37, and their three kids – Marley, eight, Archer, six, and Perry, five – and travels between Auckland and his home office which he has dubbed The Taranaki Bureau. Cass Marrett reports. What made you want to become a TV reporter?

I was living in Canada and there were no jobs for radio reporters. I just knocked on the door of a TV station and they were like, ‘Come on in. You can make some coffee and answer some phone calls’. A few months later I was doing stories for them.

Are any of your kids looking like future TVNZ prospects?

My son, Archer, is not afraid of the camera. He’s presented assembly a couple of times at school. He likes wearing a blazer so maybe there’s some sort of blazer gene that I’ve passed on that he’s got. Sorry about that for him.

Out of all the Good Sorts you’ve met, is there one who is the most memorable?

About seven years ago – I’d just had my first child – I met Jo Poland. She got an email one day from a distant relative whose kids were going to go into state care. Jo, aged about 50 (sorry Jo) maybe about 60 – never talk about a woman’s age – but, anyway, Jo saw this email and said,

‘I’m going to take (the) triplets and I’m going to look after them’. So at 60, she became a mum of three-year-olds and just started again, started her whole life again. Good Sorts is a bit like speed dating because you meet them and you love them, and then next week you meet someone else and you love them again.

Tell us about The Taranaki Bureau.

It’s quite an extensive news organisation – there’s me and that’s it. My kids come in for Friday drinks. So they get soda stream, but without the flavours so it’s a bit of bubbly water. I get to have a beer and that’s Friday drinks. But no, I really enjoy the freedom and being able to be away and collect up all my stories and go home and put them together at home. It’s either a feast or a famine for my poor wife because I’m either at home, I’m under her feet or I’m away.

What does life look like for you in New Plymouth?

Well, when you go shopping, you park right outside. There’s no walking more than 100m to get to a shop. If you want to talk to the mayor, you just ring the mayor. It’s like a village. That’s what I really, really like about it.

Did you move there for your wife?

They do say 80 per cent of all men live within 5km of their mother-in-law. So I’m one of the 80 per cent. She’s about 3km away. We wanted to raise the family out of town and I think my wife wanted to have her family around for support while we were raising the kids, so yeah. I wouldn’t say I did it exactly for her, but I was a willing participant in the move.

Has Fair Go influenced any of your decisions as a consumer?

We did a plastic special about 18 months ago and it just changed my life in regards to the way I consume plastic and recycling. I was even reading the other day that tea bags are no good either, so I’m going to have to change to loose-leaf tea. That special changed the way our whole family lives our lives actually.

What is your favourite Fair Go story of all time?

There’s the one where they got a couple of senior citizens to go through a tub of hokey pokey ice-cream to check how many hokey pokey nuggets were in. (It) was all going well – until they got hypothermia. Not on-screen luckily, but the next day they went to the doctor for hypothermia, which is unfortunate. But they did find out that there were not nearly enough nuggets in a tub of hokey pokey ice-cream. So that’s worthwhile journalism, taking one for the team.

What’s something people don’t know about you?

I do like five Weet-Bix in one sitting. Seems like a lot doesn’t it? My son can do three and he’s six. So he’s building up nicely. But you’ve got to have hot milk. And look, let me tell you, milkshakes. If there’s a consumer issue that really annoys me, it is the poor quality of milkshakes in New Zealand. So for a start – cafe owners, take note – you’ve got to have a tin cup. The milk has to be cold. You can’t use the milk you’ve been pouring the coffees for. You have to get fresh milk out of the fridge. And not too much flavour. You can’t have them too sweet.

What makes you a Good Sort?

I don’t know. I clear the dishwasher at home sometimes if I’m given the right motivation.