Hadyn Jones explains why he resigned from Fair Go last year and what is next on his agenda. Photo / NZ Woman's Weekly
The presenter and his family had a good time losing themselves in Europe, but now he’s back in good sort mode.
When broadcaster Hadyn Jones resigned from Fair Go last year, he had no idea that within months, the TV version of the show would move to a digital-first treatment.
“I decided to leave because my contract was up and I was tired after seven years of travelling around the country,” says Hadyn, 48.
“I spent about three months of the year travelling for stories, staying in hotels and motels, and my eldest child Marley was 14. I just didn’t want to spend three more years doing that.
“I had lots of talks with TVNZ about doing other things, but by the end of it, I realised travelling would have been inevitable and I wanted to be at home more.”
Now, as he deals with the fact some of his friends at the show have lost their jobs after the closure of the TV version of the long-running and much-loved Fair Go, he still misses it.
“I still love the people on the show and the people you interview,” he says. “Helping people really fills your cup, but I was pretty tired with the long hours and stuff. So I was done.”
He also had a planned trip overseas with his family for four months beginning in October last year. He and wife Zanta had spent years putting away savings and working hard so that one day they could take their children – Marley, Archer, 12, and Perry, 10, to Europe.
Standing next to his friend and co-host Pippa Wetzell on his last show, he said: “Now, that’s it for me, I’m off on a wee adventure overseas with my family, but I’m leaving you in this woman’s capable hands. She’s amazing ... 54 per cent of the time!”
He recalls: “It was a funny and emotional time. I was sad to be leaving, but really excited about the once-in-a-lifetime adventure that lay ahead.”
Overseas, Hadyn was able to immerse himself in a great family experience, during which he found himself in Denmark holding hands around a Christmas tree singing Last Christmas by Wham!
“We had some friends who invited us to Denmark for Christmas,” explains Hadyn. “So we went there and in Denmark, they put the Christmas tree in the middle of the lounge, not in the corner like we do. And then they like to hold hands and dance around it on the 24th. Everyone chooses a song and when it got to me, I went blank and obviously didn’t know any Danish carols, so I just started singing Wham!”
He adds that in Denmark there’s no need for a beer fridge because it’s so cold you can just chuck the bottles outside for a few minutes.
Hadyn says he didn’t think he was having a midlife crisis taking the whole family away for four months, but it was a great reset.
“You quit your job, pick up the family, rent out the house, put the dog in care and go see the world,” he laughs. “It was a wonderful opportunity to have that time with the kids.
“There’s nothing like four months in a car driving around to really highlight how much we love each other and also despise the small things that drive us nuts.”
Hadyn says the family began their trip in Italy, where he and Zanta chose a little town called Rapallo off a map of Italy and booked an Airbnb for a month.
“We didn’t want to go from city to city – we just wanted to live in one place and experience Italian life,” he says. “It took us a week to get into it, but we’d go for walks, get a great coffee and we’d go to the same place every day. I would try out my Italian and they would correct me.”
Then youngest child Perry put a note under the door of their neighbours.
“Italians have a real softness for children and the woman next door was in her 80s. After that note, she became an honorary Nonna to my children and we would have her over for dinners. She introduced us to her son, who lived in the same apartment with his wife, so we would go for dinners with them too.”
Hadyn says they spoke not a word of English and his Italian was terrible, but they became good friends with a lot of hand waving, pointing and using Google Translate.
The TV star and his family travelled to England, France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark – managing to lose the children twice.
“I do have some advice for others intending to travel extensively with their children – don’t lose them on a bridge in Prague,” he says.
“We lost Archer for about 20 minutes. We had to do laps of the bridge searching for him and I was starting to get quite worried.
“And then there was this little kid having a cry with a couple who looked concerned and didn’t speak any English. So we’re all trying to give them a hug, which I’m not sure they were that keen on, to say thank you.”
Later in the trip, the kids also went missing at Buckingham Palace.
“So the only two places we lost them were major landmarks,” he laughs.
Now that the family is home in New Plymouth, he says they will often look at photos and a flood of memories will come back.
“I’m hoping there are everlasting things that will stick with them and also an appreciation that there’s a big world out there, and they should really go and have a look at it someday.”
Zanta returned to her job with Sport NZ and Hadyn returned to enthusiastically producing his Good Sorts segments which run at the end of TVNZ’s 1News at Six on Sundays.
Hadyn has been doing this segment, which highlights Kiwis going above and beyond in their communities each week, for 15 years.
“Good Sorts is a joy and it means I now take the 9am plane instead of the 6am plane,” he says. “It used to be a real crush to travel from Good Sorts to a Fair Go story, get home, start editing and try to organise next week. I needed eight pairs of hands, so I have a much more leisurely pace of life.”
Hadyn can organise his Good Sorts stories so he travels once a fortnight or every three weeks rather than the two days a week he used to do.
He now has the time to do other work, which he tells his wife is a hobby, not a business, because he doesn’t make any money from these projects.
Last year, he set up a T-shirt company called Mr Jones and Tees, which donates $5 from every tee or trucker cap sold to a charity.
He chooses a small town, his first is Fairlie, and creates T-shirts, hoodies, singlets and caps with mottos such as “Fairlie Good Farming” and “Fairlie Great Skiing”.
He explains: “With Fairlie, they have a population of 1000 people and the $5 goes to the local school, so that every kid can have a chance to go skiing, because that can be quite expensive. We’ve raised $2000 so far, so that’s not too bad.”
Next Hadyn is setting his sights on his hometown, Gore. He’s also using his experience of filming, editing and producing stories on his own to assist charities.
“I’m helping charities get into the digital world, producing videos and getting them on social media,” tells Hadyn. “They need a video to show potential funders what their story is, but they don’t have the expertise or knowledge to do it.
“With Good Sorts, I’ve been exposed to lots and lots of charities, and working with them makes me feel so good. It’s such a cliche, but that’s where my heart told me to go. I didn’t want to go into a commercial world, so I thought I would use my skills and expertise for the powers of good.”
Hadyn has also worked with a local charity, the Taranaki Retreat, which offers a place where people who badly need a break after a crisis can go to stay.
They have also taken over an old shopping plaza and set up a koha cafe, where you pay what you want, but you can also book a set of “listening ears”, where someone will come to give you companionship.
There is also another charity-based job coming up for Hadyn which he can’t talk about yet, but it would seem that 2024 is very much his year of good works.
He enthuses: “I tell you, it’s tremendously empowering, satisfying and gratifying. This work means so much to people and when you’re working in television every day, sometimes you don’t pause to imagine the benefit it can have.”
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