July 27, 2024 • 14 mins
Former TV host and journalist Matt Chisholm believes he's found his place after settling in central Otago.
Having left the big cities of Auckland, Chisholm and his family now live on a 29-hectare beef and sheep farm in Chatto Creek.
He's written about his new journey - and the lessons he learned on the way - in his new book, The Road to Chatto Creek.
He recalls one moment where he gave his daughter an immersive lesson about where food comes from.
"He (the butcher) turned up and shot and butchered a cattle beast right in front of our house while a dozen 2-year-olds and their parents watched from outside our living room window."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks edb Right from the.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Big Smoke to a farm in central O Tigo. Things
have certainly changed in the last few years for Matchism.
Having left Auckland, the former TV host and his family
now live on a twenty nine hectare beef and sheep
farm and Chattow Creek near Alexandra. It is a beautiful
spot and Matt has become a farmer. He has written
a book sharing his experience of joining the farming community.
It's called The Road to chatto Creek and Matchism joins
(00:36):
me now, Good.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Morning, Good morning, Francesca. How are you good?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you? How cold is it at home today?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Arts peachee must be about ten or eleven? Oh that's good.
I didn't even put a bushirt on when I went
out to feed out this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Tropical. You really do love sheep and cattle, don't you,
But just the really cute pretty ones.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
No, I love them all actually, And you don't want
to be you don't want to be real loud when
you say that. Said that in the rugby clubrooms last night.
I do love my sheep, so you don't want to
say that too loudly, but it's a weird obsession that
I've had for forty odd years. Yeah, the sheep and cattle,
they really do it for me. They don't have to
be the cute ones. I love all sheep and cattle.
(01:22):
It's really hard to explain, but it's just in my blood,
and yeah, I can't get enough of it.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
You've been attracted to the rarer species though, Yeah, I have.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I have not just the rare ones, but I've sort
of tipping my hat here to some old traditional breeds.
I've got into the South Down sheep, which is an
old English breed pure as the day is long and
short horns, which are pretty much the South Downs of
the cattle world. But I do have some of these
Swiss black nosed valet, which are the cute white, fluffy
(01:54):
wall with the black points and the horns, which come
out of Switzerland.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I was reading the book, admiring the photos of these
gorgeous lambs and looking at the coats on the lambs,
and I did think to myself, I don't think that's normal.
And then a couple of pages later, your father in
law confirmed my suspicions. Are you the only person that
has little gorgeous little coats on your lamps?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
No, I don't think I am, because the you know,
the PGG rights ins and the farmlands, they sell these
little coats so right across the country, so I can't
be the only person, but probably they probably steed more
toward the lifestylist, you know, where where everyone you keep alive.
It's really important to keep everyone alive, you know, like
(02:37):
the big time the serious farmers don't have time to
muck around like we Yeah, so you know I can't handle.
That's one thing that I really struggle with in this
game is the dead. The death, the dying. It just
kills me and it always has actually, and I sometimes
think that I'm not cut out. I'm far too sensitive
to be a farmer. But hopefully before I die, I
(02:58):
get I get I get to manage it and get
on top of it.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
On that note, you know, one of the reasons that
you move to the country is that you wanted your
kids to learn about life and where our food comes from.
But you kind of took that to a whole new
level at Breeze second birthday.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Oh we really did you actually you've read the book
Fantastic breemre We daughter was having a second birthday here
at the land and Mum had organized a big party
and so everyone turned up.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
And it was on a Monday, actually, which must have
been the day of a birthday. And prior to that,
I'd been trying to kill a cattlebeast for about three
months at the start of Wondrom. By the time we
finally got around to it, it was the end of winter.
And the butcher rang and said, hey, look, how does
Monday the fourth sound or something like that, and I said, yep,
let's do it. And I forgot all about it. And
then he turned up and shot and butchered a cattle
(03:49):
beast right in front of our house, while you know,
a dozen two year olds and their appearents washed from
outside our living room window. So you know, I like
to live in extremes, Francesca. I like to push the
boundaries in every way I live. And that was another
But it was just pure coincidence.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Actually, moving to the country was always a dream for
you and your wife. How easy is it to do?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Though?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Was it scary leaving Auckland?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
It was scary leaving Auckland than it wasn't. I mean,
it was, you know, I wasn't worried about the logistics
of it. I was worried about sort of parking my
ego and putting my career in second place behind living
a lifestyle dream, you know, like a lot of people
(04:37):
probably think, you know, my number one aim in the
world was to be on Italian be a journalist, but
it actually was. And I always wanted to return to
the country and live on a few acres and be
a farmer of sorts, you know. But that's not typical.
It's not usual. It's not the way we've sort of
conditioned I don't think in life as was anyone, but
(04:59):
especially as a provider, as a father figure. Maybe, And
I'll probably get in trouble for saying that, but so
it was really hard to turn away, to look away
from a career which in the end I was probably
you know, probably done, okay, even though it's hard for
me to say that, and you know, wave goodbye to
that and get out of the cold face and come
(05:22):
down here and not even be sure what I'd do
with my life, to be honest, And four and a
half years on, I'm still not even sure what I'm
going to do with my life. But we've managed to survive.
But seriously, my number one goal is to make sure
that my family and a roof over the head and
they have good food, and outside of that that we
just live a good life. And however I pay for that.
(05:43):
I'm not even too worried to be honest.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Because there's been moments, I imagine where you've probably thought
of what are we doing? But then you know, as
captured in the book, so many moments where you just
realize how how worth it it's been.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, that's right. There have been moments when I've thought, oh,
cheapest too long, have to sell some cattle here to
pay the mortgage this month. Or there was one moment
I was flying home from a gig in the North Island,
which I often do, and I went to order a
coffee at the airport, which I often do in Wellington,
and I couldn't I couldn't buy the coffee because my
(06:23):
card declined, you know, and I seriously felt like I
was back at Lincoln University at the bar of a pub,
only I was wasted and I'd run out of money,
so I didn't care then, but it was kind of
off putting. You know, I was a father of three
getting declined to buy a coffee. What had happened is,
you know, I thought I had about ten grand in
the bank. I had to do some invoicing, not good
(06:45):
at that. My wife had moved some money around to
do some things. And then all of a sudden the
mortgage went out, and all of a sudden didn't have
any money, and I transferred some money across on account
wasn't an od And then I couldn't afford a coffee.
And then when I got to Queensdowne Airport, I couldn't
afford to pay for the car parking. So I couldn't
leave the airport because I couldn't drive through the barrier
without ending up on the page of the Queenstown paper.
(07:08):
So I stuck at the airport. So I rang the
bank and they didn't seem to care that you know
I had. I was good for it. I wanted me
to fill in a whole lot of forms, and it
was Sunday and ate filling in forms, which is fair enough.
I'm not no more special than anyone else anyway, And
a fellow heard me, heard me on the phone, and
recognized me and said how much do you need? Two
(07:29):
hundred and five hundred slapped two hundred bucks and I
managed to drive out of there that day. So you know,
there's been moments like that where I've questioned, or you know,
lamming's a tough time and carving can be tough and
in droughts, and I'm super busy trying to juggle everything
from getting things organized to go away for three days
and coming back and the bulls jumped the fence and
put themself out with the cows a month earlier. Whatever.
(07:51):
But then there are so many just glorious moments where
I think, and mainly around my kids really, or special
moments with farmers, and you know, you've really embraced this
community and the solid down aready with farmers, and you
just think, far out, this is so good. We're in
the right place, and a lot of that's been happening lately,
when you know we've managed to survive some tough times
(08:14):
and you know, I've got myself right again, and you know,
you're hosting a gig, you know, in our community and
there's two hundred people there and it's a celebration and
you drive home and just think, we're very, very lucky
to live in such a beautiful place with amazing people
and have this phenomenal sense of community because.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
You thought, you've found this purpose to where you're an
ambassador for rural support trust and as you mentioned, you're
constantly traveling around the country and talking on their behalf
and turning up at all sorts of events. Is the
message getting through about mental health? Are we dealing with it,
especially in a rural setting.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yes, it is getting through. It absolutely is getting through.
And I've had some amazing conversations with people who just
who I never would have thought they would buy into
this stuff. So you know, times have Definitely, there's no
doubt about it. You know, I said in one meeting
(09:13):
if you like what I was at or one talk
was that, you know, I've never ever once been given
a hard time for putting up my hand and saying
I've battle from time to time mentally, you know. And
that's a guy who lost his father said that's because
you know, to us, you're not a you know, you're
not a for a bloody you know, wowser or whatever.
You're a bloody hero, you know. And and I'm just
about welling up talking about it now. Well, I am,
(09:36):
you know, and it's not easy to put your hand
up and say that you're a bit mad. But but
I've come to think that most of us are actually
a bit mad, and you're abnormal if you never go
through something in life, if you've lived long enough. So
I've forgotten the question now, Francisca, but at doing well,
And because you've got me emotional.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I know, I'm sorry about that, but it is, it
is really important, and it's and it's all. You know,
You've always been very generous with how you've shared your story,
and I think that is what allows other people to
open up and talk about these things. And you mentioned
it again in this book that you went through a
rough patch, especially round COVID when it was so difficult
for a lot of people and things. Do you live
(10:18):
in the moment more now?
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Absolutely? Yeah. Look, you know, I deal with a lot
of anxiety and so I've had to really really work
at that. And you know, like we're living the dream, sure,
but as I've described, sometimes living that dream can be
a bit of a nightmare because that's life. It's imperfect,
and you know, I probably you know, I definitely didn't
think that we'd move down here and I'd be bloody,
(10:42):
you know, cured, and it would be the silver bullet.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
But you know, I've worked.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I use a lot of techniques and things to try
and deal with my anxiety and minimize it. You know.
It could be as simple as going to bed early,
or coaching the kids rugby and soccer. You know, I
feel like I haven't got a lot of time to
do a lot of these things. But actually I can't
afford not to coach the kids rugby in the soccer
because it's so so good for me. Anything that I
(11:12):
can do to get out of my head stop thinking
about the mortgage or the cost of living crisis, or
food security or you know, kids bloody starving or getting
beaten or whatever. And I don't say that lightly is
good for me. And so I've just got to, you know,
like I haven't been brought up, I don't think and
most of us haven't in this country to put ourselves first.
(11:33):
But I just need to, you know, put myself first
to make sure that I'm sweet, you know. But it
doesn't you know, like you asked about the farmers and it,
you know, is this message getting through? But sometimes we're
all on a bit of a treadmill, and you know,
we've got to get through a rough patch or a
really busy patch, and so you know, like while we
(11:54):
can have all these tips and tricks and techniques and things,
sometimes we've just got to burn the midnight at all.
And you know, like, you know, we can look after ourselves,
but it doesn't change commodity prices or costs going through
the roof for whatever. So you know, there's really tough
times for a lot of people. It doesn't matter whether
(12:14):
you're in the country, you know, or living in cities,
towns and cities across New Zealand. So you know, they
they talk about what was that gluckman who talked about
this is we're going to have a mental health pandemic.
I think he might have called it. Yes, So we
did keep this stuff at at the front of our minds.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
I think I know that you've been working producing Nadi
Has Farm. But apart from that, do you watch TV anymore?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
No? No, I don't. I lie a little bit. I've
got a seven year old son who's very very similar
to me. He's turning eight soon, and he's obsessive and
he obsesses about things, and he's a handy weeek footy
player and he's he's found the rugby league, the Australian
Rugby League, the NRL, and he would ask me a
(12:59):
million questions a day. So I'd start googling, and you know,
I started watching a bit with him and now I'm
actually watching a bit of NR and it's probably mindless.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It is a no, it's addictive. Matt, My our DH
son got us onto the NRL, and we're a whole
in our old family. Now, we never never thought that
was going to happen.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
So much so that you know, I looked at taking
him to Sydney for his eighth eighth birthday, and you know,
in a month or two before I came to my
senses and winch that would feel like work to me. Matt.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Look, Matt, give yourself a break. Give it. Ten years
we took our my husband took our eighteen year old
son to the state of origin for the first time.
You've got ten years, You've got ten in eighteenth perfect
there you go.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Yeah, Look, I don't I don't watch TV. No, I don't.
I just don't. I just don't want to. I just
would prefer to be outside or you know when the
weather's good and it's light, or I just you know,
put the fire on and look at it. I just yeah,
it's you know. I don't want to talk disparagingly about
(14:05):
television and New Zealand, but it's just not me anymore.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Matt Chisholm, it has been a delight to talk to you.
Thank you so much for your time this morning. The
Road to Chatto Creek is in stores this weekend.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks edb Right from the.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Big Smoke to a farm in central O Tigo. Things
have certainly changed in the last few years for Matchism.
Having left Auckland, the former TV host and his family
now live on a twenty nine hectare beef and sheep
farm and Chattow Creek near Alexandra. It is a beautiful
spot and Matt has become a farmer. He has written
a book sharing his experience of joining the farming community.
It's called The Road to chatto Creek and Matchism joins
(00:36):
me now, Good.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Morning, Good morning, Francesca. How are you good?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you? How cold is it at home today?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Arts peachee must be about ten or eleven? Oh that's good.
I didn't even put a bushirt on when I went
out to feed out this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Tropical. You really do love sheep and cattle, don't you,
But just the really cute pretty ones.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
No, I love them all actually, And you don't want
to be you don't want to be real loud when
you say that. Said that in the rugby clubrooms last night.
I do love my sheep, so you don't want to
say that too loudly, but it's a weird obsession that
I've had for forty odd years. Yeah, the sheep and cattle,
they really do it for me. They don't have to
be the cute ones. I love all sheep and cattle.
(01:22):
It's really hard to explain, but it's just in my blood,
and yeah, I can't get enough of it.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
You've been attracted to the rarer species though, Yeah, I have.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I have not just the rare ones, but I've sort
of tipping my hat here to some old traditional breeds.
I've got into the South Down sheep, which is an
old English breed pure as the day is long and
short horns, which are pretty much the South Downs of
the cattle world. But I do have some of these
Swiss black nosed valet, which are the cute white, fluffy
(01:54):
wall with the black points and the horns, which come
out of Switzerland.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I was reading the book, admiring the photos of these
gorgeous lambs and looking at the coats on the lambs,
and I did think to myself, I don't think that's normal.
And then a couple of pages later, your father in
law confirmed my suspicions. Are you the only person that
has little gorgeous little coats on your lamps?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
No, I don't think I am, because the you know,
the PGG rights ins and the farmlands, they sell these
little coats so right across the country, so I can't
be the only person, but probably they probably steed more
toward the lifestylist, you know, where where everyone you keep alive.
It's really important to keep everyone alive, you know, like
(02:37):
the big time the serious farmers don't have time to
muck around like we Yeah, so you know I can't handle.
That's one thing that I really struggle with in this
game is the dead. The death, the dying. It just
kills me and it always has actually, and I sometimes
think that I'm not cut out. I'm far too sensitive
to be a farmer. But hopefully before I die, I
(02:58):
get I get I get to manage it and get
on top of it.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
On that note, you know, one of the reasons that
you move to the country is that you wanted your
kids to learn about life and where our food comes from.
But you kind of took that to a whole new
level at Breeze second birthday.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Oh we really did you actually you've read the book
Fantastic breemre We daughter was having a second birthday here
at the land and Mum had organized a big party
and so everyone turned up.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
And it was on a Monday, actually, which must have
been the day of a birthday. And prior to that,
I'd been trying to kill a cattlebeast for about three
months at the start of Wondrom. By the time we
finally got around to it, it was the end of winter.
And the butcher rang and said, hey, look, how does
Monday the fourth sound or something like that, and I said, yep,
let's do it. And I forgot all about it. And
then he turned up and shot and butchered a cattle
(03:49):
beast right in front of our house, while you know,
a dozen two year olds and their appearents washed from
outside our living room window. So you know, I like
to live in extremes, Francesca. I like to push the
boundaries in every way I live. And that was another
But it was just pure coincidence.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Actually, moving to the country was always a dream for
you and your wife. How easy is it to do?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Though?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Was it scary leaving Auckland?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
It was scary leaving Auckland than it wasn't. I mean,
it was, you know, I wasn't worried about the logistics
of it. I was worried about sort of parking my
ego and putting my career in second place behind living
a lifestyle dream, you know, like a lot of people
(04:37):
probably think, you know, my number one aim in the
world was to be on Italian be a journalist, but
it actually was. And I always wanted to return to
the country and live on a few acres and be
a farmer of sorts, you know. But that's not typical.
It's not usual. It's not the way we've sort of
conditioned I don't think in life as was anyone, but
(04:59):
especially as a provider, as a father figure. Maybe, And
I'll probably get in trouble for saying that, but so
it was really hard to turn away, to look away
from a career which in the end I was probably
you know, probably done, okay, even though it's hard for
me to say that, and you know, wave goodbye to
that and get out of the cold face and come
(05:22):
down here and not even be sure what I'd do
with my life, to be honest, And four and a
half years on, I'm still not even sure what I'm
going to do with my life. But we've managed to survive.
But seriously, my number one goal is to make sure
that my family and a roof over the head and
they have good food, and outside of that that we
just live a good life. And however I pay for that.
(05:43):
I'm not even too worried to be honest.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Because there's been moments, I imagine where you've probably thought
of what are we doing? But then you know, as
captured in the book, so many moments where you just
realize how how worth it it's been.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, that's right. There have been moments when I've thought, oh,
cheapest too long, have to sell some cattle here to
pay the mortgage this month. Or there was one moment
I was flying home from a gig in the North Island,
which I often do, and I went to order a
coffee at the airport, which I often do in Wellington,
and I couldn't I couldn't buy the coffee because my
(06:23):
card declined, you know, and I seriously felt like I
was back at Lincoln University at the bar of a pub,
only I was wasted and I'd run out of money,
so I didn't care then, but it was kind of
off putting. You know, I was a father of three
getting declined to buy a coffee. What had happened is,
you know, I thought I had about ten grand in
the bank. I had to do some invoicing, not good
(06:45):
at that. My wife had moved some money around to
do some things. And then all of a sudden the
mortgage went out, and all of a sudden didn't have
any money, and I transferred some money across on account
wasn't an od And then I couldn't afford a coffee.
And then when I got to Queensdowne Airport, I couldn't
afford to pay for the car parking. So I couldn't
leave the airport because I couldn't drive through the barrier
without ending up on the page of the Queenstown paper.
(07:08):
So I stuck at the airport. So I rang the
bank and they didn't seem to care that you know
I had. I was good for it. I wanted me
to fill in a whole lot of forms, and it
was Sunday and ate filling in forms, which is fair enough.
I'm not no more special than anyone else anyway, And
a fellow heard me, heard me on the phone, and
recognized me and said how much do you need? Two
(07:29):
hundred and five hundred slapped two hundred bucks and I
managed to drive out of there that day. So you know,
there's been moments like that where I've questioned, or you know,
lamming's a tough time and carving can be tough and
in droughts, and I'm super busy trying to juggle everything
from getting things organized to go away for three days
and coming back and the bulls jumped the fence and
put themself out with the cows a month earlier. Whatever.
(07:51):
But then there are so many just glorious moments where
I think, and mainly around my kids really, or special
moments with farmers, and you know, you've really embraced this
community and the solid down aready with farmers, and you
just think, far out, this is so good. We're in
the right place, and a lot of that's been happening lately,
when you know we've managed to survive some tough times
(08:14):
and you know, I've got myself right again, and you know,
you're hosting a gig, you know, in our community and
there's two hundred people there and it's a celebration and
you drive home and just think, we're very, very lucky
to live in such a beautiful place with amazing people
and have this phenomenal sense of community because.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
You thought, you've found this purpose to where you're an
ambassador for rural support trust and as you mentioned, you're
constantly traveling around the country and talking on their behalf
and turning up at all sorts of events. Is the
message getting through about mental health? Are we dealing with it,
especially in a rural setting.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yes, it is getting through. It absolutely is getting through.
And I've had some amazing conversations with people who just
who I never would have thought they would buy into
this stuff. So you know, times have Definitely, there's no
doubt about it. You know, I said in one meeting
(09:13):
if you like what I was at or one talk
was that, you know, I've never ever once been given
a hard time for putting up my hand and saying
I've battle from time to time mentally, you know. And
that's a guy who lost his father said that's because
you know, to us, you're not a you know, you're
not a for a bloody you know, wowser or whatever.
You're a bloody hero, you know. And and I'm just
about welling up talking about it now. Well, I am,
(09:36):
you know, and it's not easy to put your hand
up and say that you're a bit mad. But but
I've come to think that most of us are actually
a bit mad, and you're abnormal if you never go
through something in life, if you've lived long enough. So
I've forgotten the question now, Francisca, but at doing well,
And because you've got me emotional.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I know, I'm sorry about that, but it is, it
is really important, and it's and it's all. You know,
You've always been very generous with how you've shared your story,
and I think that is what allows other people to
open up and talk about these things. And you mentioned
it again in this book that you went through a
rough patch, especially round COVID when it was so difficult
for a lot of people and things. Do you live
(10:18):
in the moment more now?
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Absolutely? Yeah. Look, you know, I deal with a lot
of anxiety and so I've had to really really work
at that. And you know, like we're living the dream, sure,
but as I've described, sometimes living that dream can be
a bit of a nightmare because that's life. It's imperfect,
and you know, I probably you know, I definitely didn't
think that we'd move down here and I'd be bloody,
(10:42):
you know, cured, and it would be the silver bullet.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
But you know, I've worked.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I use a lot of techniques and things to try
and deal with my anxiety and minimize it. You know.
It could be as simple as going to bed early,
or coaching the kids rugby and soccer. You know, I
feel like I haven't got a lot of time to
do a lot of these things. But actually I can't
afford not to coach the kids rugby in the soccer
because it's so so good for me. Anything that I
(11:12):
can do to get out of my head stop thinking
about the mortgage or the cost of living crisis, or
food security or you know, kids bloody starving or getting
beaten or whatever. And I don't say that lightly is
good for me. And so I've just got to, you know,
like I haven't been brought up, I don't think and
most of us haven't in this country to put ourselves first.
(11:33):
But I just need to, you know, put myself first
to make sure that I'm sweet, you know. But it
doesn't you know, like you asked about the farmers and it,
you know, is this message getting through? But sometimes we're
all on a bit of a treadmill, and you know,
we've got to get through a rough patch or a
really busy patch, and so you know, like while we
(11:54):
can have all these tips and tricks and techniques and things,
sometimes we've just got to burn the midnight at all.
And you know, like, you know, we can look after ourselves,
but it doesn't change commodity prices or costs going through
the roof for whatever. So you know, there's really tough
times for a lot of people. It doesn't matter whether
(12:14):
you're in the country, you know, or living in cities,
towns and cities across New Zealand. So you know, they
they talk about what was that gluckman who talked about
this is we're going to have a mental health pandemic.
I think he might have called it. Yes, So we
did keep this stuff at at the front of our minds.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
I think I know that you've been working producing Nadi
Has Farm. But apart from that, do you watch TV anymore?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
No? No, I don't. I lie a little bit. I've
got a seven year old son who's very very similar
to me. He's turning eight soon, and he's obsessive and
he obsesses about things, and he's a handy weeek footy
player and he's he's found the rugby league, the Australian
Rugby League, the NRL, and he would ask me a
(12:59):
million questions a day. So I'd start googling, and you know,
I started watching a bit with him and now I'm
actually watching a bit of NR and it's probably mindless.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It is a no, it's addictive. Matt, My our DH
son got us onto the NRL, and we're a whole
in our old family. Now, we never never thought that
was going to happen.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
So much so that you know, I looked at taking
him to Sydney for his eighth eighth birthday, and you know,
in a month or two before I came to my
senses and winch that would feel like work to me. Matt.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Look, Matt, give yourself a break. Give it. Ten years
we took our my husband took our eighteen year old
son to the state of origin for the first time.
You've got ten years, You've got ten in eighteenth perfect
there you go.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Yeah, Look, I don't I don't watch TV. No, I don't.
I just don't. I just don't want to. I just
would prefer to be outside or you know when the
weather's good and it's light, or I just you know,
put the fire on and look at it. I just yeah,
it's you know. I don't want to talk disparagingly about
(14:05):
television and New Zealand, but it's just not me anymore.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Matt Chisholm, it has been a delight to talk to you.
Thank you so much for your time this morning. The
Road to Chatto Creek is in stores this weekend.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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