Hardship and the need for resilience were shared by the subjects of two of the Listener online’s two most popular profile stories, Vitale Lafaele and Suzanne Heywood. Then there was Russell Baillie’s interview with Kim Hill, where she looked back – reluctantly – on nearly 40 years on air. It was one of our most widely-read stories of 2023.
Why the man set to become NZ’s first Pasifika district commander was asked to resign
By Paul Little
“As a child, Vitale Lafaele survived the dawn raids of the 1970s and other challenges experienced by Pasifika immigrants of the time. Later, he spent seven years in the SAS and, after joining the police, had distinguished spells in the armed offenders squad and special tactics group (formerly the anti-terrorist squad), among other demanding roles. In his time, he successfully oversaw the rescue of three people who had been taken hostage by a gunman.
By 2014, he was on track to becoming the country’s first Pasifika district commander.But a piece of paper handed to him across a desk later that year brought a stunning career and personal trajectory to a sudden and shattering halt.”
You can read more about what happened to Lafaele, and how he overcame it, here.
Dumped ashore at 16: Woman’s traumatic upbringing at sea
By Louise Chunn
“What started as a three-year adventure ended up stretching over a decade, effectively the childhood of the Cooks’ children, Suzanne and Jon, aged four. Marked with danger, injury, isolation, scarcely any formal schooling and mounting family tensions, it turned from dream to nightmare, at least for Suzanne.
“Zig-zagging around the South Pacific, Wavewalker made several stops in New Zealand. In 1986, the stop ran to a year when her parents left Heywood, then 16, and her 13-year-old brother ashore, alone. She kept house, ran the accounts of her parents’ business and, using a correspondence course from a previous stop in Queensland, passed the senior year exams (her brother, by contrast, went to a local school).
Her fantasy of getting home and into university seemed doomed as she did not fulfil any of the requirements. But, extraordinarily, after an interview, Somerville College at the University of Oxford accepted her as a “wild card” – which she most certainly was.”
You can read more about Suzanne Heywood’s extraordinary adventures here.
Kim Hill: It’s good to leave before they throw you out
By Russell Baillie
“Hill didn’t like the idea of an exit interview. Instead, she offered to write a column, musing upon her departure, and possibly explaining why she was reluctant to be interviewed about it. Yes, please, we said.
But a few days before her deadline, and with the new arrival and three shows still to do, she realised writing something wasn’t actually easier than talking to someone.
So, here we are a few hours later: Hill, her daughter’s daughter and one slightly intimidated writer interviewing our greatest broadcast interviewer … and underachieving columnist. ‘Yes, sorry, I over-promised and under-delivered,’ she says. ‘I feel terribly guilty.’”
You can read more about what she and Baillie talked about here.
