I'm on NZ TV--with Piri Weepu!
Well, not WITH him, exactly. Let’s say that he’s involved.
When I got an email from Dan Parker from “Story,” New Zealand TV3’s current affairs show, it arrived in typical Kiwi fashion. No official masthead, just, “Hi, I’m a reporter for TV3, call me if you’d be interested in an interview.” If I’d been in the States, I’d have thought it was spam. Instead, I called him.
A week later, there I was, in Wellington, being interviewed for primetime TV! And what was more, the cameraman was Billy Weepu, former rugby league star and the brother of famous All Black Piri Weepu, one of the heroes of the 2011 Rugby World Cup and the longtime leader of the haka. Here’s Billy filming me in the gorgeous Wellington Botanic Garden.
Then it got funnier, because Dan and Billy told me that they were going to try to get Piri to read steamy excerpts from the book in his dressing gown in a flash hotel suite. I laughed HARD, but I thought, surely he wouldn’t. Except that I know Piri has a wicked sense of humor, and Billy IS his big brother, so just maybe . . .
Dan made it super easy (I was nervous; can you tell?) Then, on Sunday, it got even more fun when another cameraman showed up to film the Rugby Romance Tour group and me (plus wonderful Kiwi romance authors Tracey Alvarez and Kris Pearson!) at the cafe in the Botanic Gardens. Here Tony the cameraman is doing that:
He made me read from the book about 8 separate times. These poor ladies had to look interested at hearing the same passage from the book read 8 times in a row! They did pretty well, I thought.
On Saturday night, we were on the bus to the All Blacks game, and the guy across the aisle said, “I saw Piri Weepu on Sky Sport today reading from one of your books! It was a trailer for the story, and it was hilarious.
So yesterday, fortunately at my friend Anne’s house as I was nervous, I turned on the TV, and there I was!
When I had this wacky idea four years ago, a day after the 2011 Rugby World Cup final, walking around the rhododendron gardens of Mt. Taranaki, for a story about the All Blacks captain–I would never in a million years have dreamed that this would be the outcome.
So–thanks to my husband, who said, when I asked him, “Do you think I could write a book?” “Of course you could!” Who encouraged me to quit my job and write more (a leap of faith if I ever heard one), and who’s been so supportive the whole time since. Thanks to Daniel Parker and Billy Weepu of TV3 for making the magic happen. Thanks to Piri for being such a good sport. And thanks to YOU, my readers, for letting me spend my life doing this job! You are awesome!
