Five minutes with Pippa Wetzell

NZBC didn’t know very much about Pippa Wetzell except that she’s tall, blonde, beautiful and very smart. But now we know she was born and bred on Auckland’s North Shore; travelled for a year after leaving school; returned to New Zealand to complete a three-year communications degree at what was then AIT; finished that at the end of 1998; and then went straight into a job at TVNZ. Since then, she has spent three years in Auckland, two and half in Wellington, travelled for six months, then returned to Auckland at the end of 2004, and has been here ever since. We also know Pippa judged non-fiction in the first ever Creative Writing Day at the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in 2004, and were recently devastated to find out she is married. Not that we discovered any of the above through our rigorous questioning because when Pippa gave us her phone number, we had to take a couple of weeks off work to recover. Every mention of Pippa on the internet (here, here or here, for example), is accompanied by an implicit swoon. People enthuse about her the way our girlfriends enthuse about John Campbell. Comments on this very blog have been of the sort usually reserved for our Muse, supermodels or for TV3 weather girls. Yes, our nation would like to see Pippa on its TV screens more often because she possesses the x-factor other Kiwi news reporters don’t. And she’s lovely.

What’s the origin of the surname Wetzell?
“It’s German — came to New Zealand one generation ago via several generations in Samoa.”

Who or what motivated you to get into journalism — is there a media role-model who inspired your chosen career path?

“Not really. I didn’t really set out with this career in mind, but various opportunities came up and I found myself here and loving it. Since I’ve been in the industry there have been plenty of inspiring colleagues.”

A lot of NZBC readers would like to see you reading the news. Is ‘news anchor’ something you aspire to and, if so, who do you think is New Zealand’s best television newsreader?

“I don’t think being a news anchor is on my horizon. That said, I really enjoyed my stint presenting on Breakfast and I’d love to try out some new challenges. I don’t think I could pinpoint the best single NZ newsreader — there are a lot I think are great, and I think the standard of news-reading here is very high. Simon Dallow and Wendy Petrie are wonderful to work with — they’re a lot more than just news anchors — and get involved with the stories that go to air. Susan Wood and Paul Henry are great interviewers. Bernadine Oliver-Kerby is an incredibly professional newsreader and wonderfully down-to-earth and fun. Judy Bailey was a wonderful newsreader and one of the nicest people I’ve ever worked with.”

In the past, Kiwi broadcasters have been lured by the promise of fame and fortune to Britain or the States. Is there any danger of us losing you to the foreign media?

“No chance at all — even if they’d have me. I love travelling and spending time overseas but I’m completely addicted to the NZ lifestyle. I love spending time at the beach and hanging out with friends and family.”

Don’t you find it patronising being described, as you were recently by Megan Nicol Reed in the Sunday Star-Times, as “the poised blonde in glasses”?

“No, not at all. There’s really not enough time to be insulted by comments like that — in fact, I’d much rather be described as poised than ruffled!”

What’s on your iPod’s ‘On the go’ playlist at the moment, or are you an iPod refusenik?

“Gosh. I have a Sony Walkman mp3 player — which I can’t really use — so I’m not sure what that makes me. If I managed to find the Sony equivalent of the ‘on the go’ playlist and figured out how to use it, it would probably have on it Ben Harper, Fat Freddy’s Drop, some Dire Straits (because I’ve recently re-discovered them), Jack Johnson, Counting Crows, Exponents, U2, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Tristan Prettyman.”

If NZBC readers only read one book this year, which book should it be?

“This is an easy one. I’ve read lots of great books this year but the one I’m just finishing off is the pick of the bunch. It’s called Freakonomics by economist Stephen Levitt. He applies economics to everyday issues and comes up with some pretty startling findings — it’s worth finding someone else who’s read this book because you’ll want to talk about it afterwards.”

Bust lanes

Bus lanes, despite seeming a very good idea, are not.

Drive down the Albany motorway and the reasons should become clear.

First, spending all those millions shifting hundreds of cubic metres of earth next to the city's twin rivers of cars to enable yet more road vehicles to enter town is misguided. If we really believe that we are approaching or have passed Peak Oil, why are we encouraging vehicle use? The swathe of land being carved out should be used instead for a new electric railway corridor, trains being fed to stations by regular buses. The station could be under QEII square, or, say, on the Tank Farm, with a light rail link to Britomart. Another light rail link should also go under Albert Park through to Newmarket.

Not so long ago, you would not have found a bigger advocate for motorways than me, but we needed them 20 years ago. Sure, we have to finish the Auckland motorway loop, but we should start now on building a rail loop next to it.

Second, if you remove cars from the motorway by way of buses, one of the effects is to speed up car traffic, so encouraging the vain, the selfish, and those with carparks to continue driving in, only with less stress. And don't even mention congestion charges to me. If we had decent trains, our elected reps wouldn't even be considering them.

Turning the bus lane into two rail lines, of course, means adding width to the bridge. This would mean that a walking and cycling lane would have to be added too. Can't do it, I've heard. Figure it out. It's embarrassing we can't walk over our own bridge.

While we're at it:

- If we're adding to our rail network, we need to extend the western line to Kaukapakapa, and our southern line out to Onehunga.

- While we're at that, look at subsidising a ferry service from Waiuku on the Awhitu peninsula to Onehunga. I have heard there's already one going from Port Waikato somewhere to Onehunga.

Oh, and if we are going to have bus lanes in town, they should be able to be used by cars with 3 or more people, and - yes - taxis with passengers.

Enough? For now. But NZBC invites your suggestions, no matter which city you live in.