After a romantic wedding in March followed by their first overseas family holiday, seasoned broadcaster Sam Wallace and wife Sarah look at each other with wry smiles and sum up their 2022 in one word – “expensive”.
In a rare quiet moment for the couple – whose son Brando, 4, is at preschool and 22-month-old twin daughters Sienna and Cosette are upstairs taking a nap – the realisation suddenly hits as to how big their past year has really been. “It’s only now I’m reflecting on it that yeah, it’s been massive,” says Sam, a breakfast host on Coast FM and television co-host on Ten 7: Aotearoa.
“There’s also recently a sense of normality coming back to our lives, now we’re out of the survival mode of newborn twins. It’s taken us almost two years to get to that stage where we can have a bit of time back to ourselves rather than every waking moment chasing little people.
“Someone said the other day, ‘One child is like having a pet, two is like having a zoo and three is Jurassic Park!’”
Sarah agrees, saying, “We’ve had a total of four nights where all three kids have slept through in the last two years. But you don’t expect them to – and that’s fine. We know that when they’re teenagers, we won’t be sleeping for other reasons.”
For now, they’re looking forward to a slower place over the summer break and some quieter time to get jobs done around home before heading to a campground on the Coromandel Peninsula.
Tent-wrangling will not be part of the plan though. “We’re going in a caravan – we’ve gone big, it’s not a muck-around one,” grins Sam. “It’s got three bunks in it that we’ll have to put some mesh around to contain the twins. First time camping with all three kids, so good luck to us!”
However, the biggest day at their place over summer is January 21 – Sarah turns 40 on the same day as the twins’ second birthday. She doesn’t yet know how she’ll celebrate her milestone birthday, while Sam asks whether it’s his job to organise something special.
“We’ve celebrated ourselves a lot this past year with the hens’ party, stag do and the wedding, so I might just like to go to lunch,” muses Sarah. “And the plan is to return to Russell up north to celebrate our first wedding anniversary in March, because we absolutely loved getting married at the Duke of Marlborough and it’d be nice to reminisce and eat some beautiful food.”
Food has been on Sam’s mind a lot of late. While in previous years, summer represented copious amounts of hokey-pokey ice cream and a cheeky glass of gin in the sun, he’s currently on a health kick and determined not to fall victim to a “dad bod”.
When the Weekly arrives at their house on Auckland’s North Shore, Sam answers the door holding a small dish of pasta he’s eating after his daily one-hour gym workout.
He has also given up alcohol and sugar – other than “being made” to drink a full-sugar soft drink and half a bottle of maple syrup before Christmas while portraying Buddy from the Elf movie for a Coast video skit. “I’ve finally got a routine, and my eating and exercise is on track after two years of not doing anything,” explains Sam, who turns 42 in February.
“I’m not Celebrity Treasure Island Sam any more,” he adds, recalling how he was in top physical shape while taking part in the 2019 reality show, which he won. “And it’s less about weight loss, and more about gaining strength and energy. In fact, I’m two kilograms heavier now than when I started, due to gaining so much muscle.
“I just got to that stage of finding that every time I tried to exercise, I was so unfit. The cost of trying to get back into shape made me more exhausted as opposed to giving me more energy.
“Exercise has always been such a big part of my life, but the last two years since the twins came along undid me. It’s only now I’ve been able to sneak away for an hour a day after work.”
Sam notes that other parents might see someone working out at the gym as a “selfish decision” to not be spending that time with the kids, but he believes in the long run, you’re actually giving more back to your children because you have more energy for them.
“My mental health is better if I train every day too – I’m not so grumpy. I actually feel sorry for Sarah, who exercises at home and nine times out of 10 is doing press-ups in the lounge with a child on her back or climbing up her legs.”
She shares, “But I think the beauty of that is they see that exercise is normal for us, and they join in and try and do squats, sticking their little bums out, which is so cute. Or Brando burns energy off and does burpees with me, which is so cool. We’re all springy afterwards.”
After the family came through Covid during the year (“holding a baby each with 39-degree fevers when you have a fever yourself is pretty rugged and you can’t call in help”), they decided to take a family trip to Hawaii. Both Sam and Sarah’s parents went along too.
“The family trip was not as relaxing as the Coast one to Hawaii a month before,” Sam jokes. “Sarah and I would do whole beach days and not even look up at [landmark volcano] Diamond Head because we’re trying to stop three kids under five from falling into the sea.
“It was really lovely to have the sunshine and be in the warm water of Waikiki after a long, wet winter, and fun to give the kids that sort of experience, but it was really hard work. Honestly, there is no harder job than a nine-hour day flight with three active preschoolers.”
However, the couple did manage to go out for a couple of child-free drinks in the hotel bar downstairs, where a song happened to be playing by Kiwi band Six60.
“And we were singing and dancing along, and then they realised we were Kiwis and they were singing it back to us. So for that moment, Mum and Dad were just two young people on the town.”
Another highlight of the trip was visiting Oahu waterpark Wet’n’Wild.
Sam tells, “The kids were absolutely in love with the water slides. Brando went down the adult slides because he’s so tall, but do you know who else was? My 70-year-old dad Barry, who’s had two bouts of prostate cancer, and Sarah’s 68-year-old dad Ross were both hooning down the water slides together. Everyone saw these old boys coming down the water slides with massive grins on their faces, having the time of their lives.”
At this point in our interview, the twins have woken from their nap and are carried into the lounge, smiling and cuddling toy bunnies.
Sienna puckers up and asks for a “tiss tiss” before kissing Sarah. Cosette checks on her baby doll lying in a makeshift bed in a cardboard box and says “rock baby”. Although identical, the kids’ different personalities shine through.
“Sienna is very affectionate – she wraps her arms around Cosette in the pram – and has this really wicked sense of humour,” explains Sarah. “Cosi loves babies and is more cheeky and mischievous, and she’s speaking a wider range of words, whereas Sienna likes to have whole conversations that don’t mean anything.”
“They’re so amazing,” adds Sam. “They’re so cool, man. Every week is getting better. They all get on really well and play beautifully with Brando – mostly. He still does Kung Fu moves on them on the trampoline, but they’re tough. They get roughed about in a playful, fun way with Brando, who is full noise and wipes them out, and they are so used to it. They think it’s normal.”
“And then it’ll be something completely innocuous that makes them burst into tears,” points out Sarah. “But then you know they’re just hungry or tired.”
Viewers of the couple’s Instagram feeds will be aware how entertaining their children are. Recently, a video of Brando giving a stellar performance as Danny Zuko singing Greased Lightnin’ got nearly five million views.
“Of course, with that number of views comes a range of comments,” reveals Sam. “Some people thought we must just dump him in front of the television all day, but he’s probably only watched that music video eight times and just picks up the lyrics straight away. He’s such a performer.”
“Just like his dad,” laughs Sarah.
The year ahead sees a few changes in store for Team Wallace. The twins start pre-school in February for two days a week, which means that on a Friday, their busy mum will get to enjoy a morning to herself. “Oh, what am I going to do?!” she ponders excitedly.
“It’s mind-blowing that this time next year Brando will almost be at school and how fast time goes,” she says. “Family life is still chaotic, but it’s so more fun now!”
River Haven features a cafe, vineyard, wellness space and The Bugger Inn pub.