The Great New Zealand Road Trip: Nine Questions with... David Lomas

Each day on The Great New Zealand Road Trip, Shayne Currie catches up with a noteworthy New Zealander, measuring their mood and hopes for the country. We’ve heard so far from Matt Watson, Mai Chen, Simon Bridges and Ruby Tui and today it’s David Lomas, the host of the TV series David Lomas Investigates, which unites long-lost family members, and soon a new series, Breakthrough with David Lomas.

What’s the one word to sum up your mood right now?

Hopeful.

What do you wish people knew about where you live?

That Auckland is the best city in the world to live in. Sure, living for a year or two in London, Rome or Istanbul or just about anywhere would be amazing… but 40 or 50 years? Give me Auckland.

I’m lucky though, because my Auckland is actually the city’s two best suburbs.

During the working week, I’m in Ponsonby, with all its vibe: the cafes, the bars and the great diversity of people and all in an area that has a wonderful Green MP in Chlöe Swarbrick. Ponsonby is just a stone’s throw from the city centre and, also, just down the hill is the city’s best running route in the almost traffic-free walkway from the Harbour Bridge through Westhaven to the Viaduct Basin.

My weekend Auckland is the beach. My partner Clarinda’s home is in tranquil Devonport right by Cheltenham Beach. Devonport with its quaint village shops is really small town New Zealand right in the midst of the big city. It has great parks and beaches and there is grand walking up the old volcanoes Takarunga and Maungauika for the magical views of the city and Hauraki Gulf. There’s also the comforting feeling of being part of a community that comes from wandering into our local cafe Chateaubriant to a cheerful welcome not just from French owner Alan and his zany barista Zander, but from others who are locals.

TV host David Lomas. Photo / Warner Brothers Discovery

What are your passions?

Sport and journalism. They have been my life since I was a kid. While I played a lot of sport (rugby, cricket a bit of soccer, ice hockey and all the racquet sports) I was never great at anything. But sport has always been big in my life and it did lead me to journalism as I started covering sport for newspapers when I was at school.

I’m still involved in journalism and sport remains a passion. I’m a rugby fanatic and I run and/or ocean swim most days year-round.

Which New Zealander (alive or dead) do you most admire – and why?

Bob McKerrow. He’s not a household name but Bob epitomises so much about so many New Zealanders who do wonderful and heroic things. Born in Dunedin, he’s an adventurer, who’s made first ascents of treacherous mountains in many countries and he’s trekked across Antarctica and the North Pole. He’s also a poet and a writer. But it’s his humanitarian endeavours that I admire him for. I came across Bob while we were doing Coast to Coast in 1993, just before he went to war-torn Afghanistan to head the International Red Cross mission there.

The Great NZ Road Trip's fifth leg.

In 1996, with Bob’s help, I flew into Kabul with 60 Minutes reporter Ross Stevens to produce two stories on him and his work. We were there for five terrifying days, staying with Bob, as the Taliban bombarded the city. We filmed in hospitals constructed from containers and saw screaming men and a legless child being patched up after standing on land mines. We scarily crossed no man’s land in a taxi, to the frontline where there were zombie-like Afghani soldiers high on drugs waiting for the ever-foreboding Taliban assault.

Bob McKerrow "epitomises so much about so many New Zealanders who do wonderful and heroic things". Photo / NZME

Two days after we left the house next to Bob’s was hit by a Taliban shell and his three neighbours died. Bob voluntarily stayed in that hell that was Kabul for four years and later went on to lead the International Red Cross mission following the 2004 tsunami off Indonesia. He had other missions to the Philippines and India. Bob is just one of many Kiwi men and women doing such work all around the world. I salute Bob, on their behalf, because I saw firsthand the work he did.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Actually, my life at the moment. I have an amazing job, that has journalism as its core, that takes me to fascinating places while helping people find lost loved ones. I have a partner who I adore. And I am fit and healthy.

What is your greatest fear?

David Seymour. He’s our divisive Donald Trump.

What is it that you most dislike?

The obscenity of wealth and the sense of entitlement by those with money. It has led to the destruction of our once wonderful, almost egalitarian society.

What is on your bucket list?

It’s a bit ironic that this question should follow the last one because one thing on my bucket list is a bit indulgent. It’s that I’d love to go with Clarinda to Europe for a long holiday. While I’ve been to Europe more than 40 times in the last 30-odd years, they have all been work trips with just an odd day off to myself.

I did my OE way back in 1976/1977 and in 1981 I spent another three months in Europe.

So, four decades-plus later, I’d like to holiday in Europe, mainly in Italy where I’d eat pizza and pasta, sit around and watch the world while drinking coffee and wine and go and see all the things that I didn’t see or appreciate when I was in my 20s.

I also want to do some more of our Great Walks.

And I’d love to watch the All Blacks play and win at Ellis Park and Twickenham.

What do you hope/think NZ will look like in 10 years?

I hope the current politics of blame, crime fear-mongering and race bashing will have become a thing of the past and that the Government in power in 10 years time will take a long-term view on projects that are good for New Zealand instead of the short-term, knee-jerk actions that saw the recent cancelling of the Cook Strait ferry replacements and the Dunedin Hospital cut-back.

Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor