For stunning Ngahuia Piripi, playing a major part in dramatic, death-defying scenes on Shortland Street while heavily pregnant is all in a day’s work.
Last year, while 30 weeks pregnant with her son Niau, the actress – who has starred as surgeon Esther Samuels for the past seven years – very carefully performed stunts, watched the on-screen father of her child meet a violent end and even acted out giving birth for the gritty online series Shortland Street: Retribution.
Playing a mum on the run in 2021 web series Shortland Street: Retribution.
This year, at 35 weeks pregnant, Ngahuia’s character ends up in another sticky situation in Shorty’s shocking Christmas cliffhanger.
“Ferndale is definitely not the place you want to be around during Christmastime!” laughs the bubbly 32-year-old. “Esther ends up in a dire situation with the people she loves most. We were shooting these scenes on location at night and I had to wade into some water.
“Everyone on set was worried about me being pregnant and in the water, but I wasn’t worried about that at all. The only thing that was terrifying me were the eels. They were everywhere and they were huge! I think we did the scene in one take because I wanted to get out of there as quickly as I could!”
Water drama! In deep while filming this season’s cliffhanger.
Ngahuia says she kept this pregnancy under wraps for quite a while before she revealed the happy news to her castmates. “I was just as surprised as everyone else, to be honest! It took me a while to get my head around the idea of being pregnant again. I had a bit of morning sickness in the beginning, so I was secretly hanging around by a rubbish bin on set just in case I had to chuck!”
She shares a dressing room with Rebekah Randell, who plays nurse Dawn, so she was one of the first to know, but Ngahuia didn’t really discuss it widely while she considered how she’d manage two little ones, her older daughter from a previous relationship and a demanding television role.
“I wasn’t keeping it a secret, but it wasn’t something I went out of my way to announce to everybody either. I feel like some people didn’t find out until I was maybe 30 weeks. Of course, once it was in the storyline, that was when everyone went, ‘It’s real!'”
Esther’s pregnancy was written into the show, with soap fans learning a month ago that the surgeon is having a baby with fellow doctor and on-again, off-again lover Marty Walker, played by Scott Smart.
Once the cat was out of the bag “everyone was so super-stoked for me”, she says. “A baby is such a blessing and I’m really lucky that I’ve got such great family support.”
Her partner and former Shorty co-star Teone Kahu, 30, helps Ngahuia manage work and parenting, along with a small army of doting aunties and her mum Poto, who is minding Niau while her famous daughter chats to Woman’s Day.
It’s an exciting time for Ngahuia and her partner, former Shorty star Teone.
“She’s amazing,” gushes Ngahuia. “She’s so good with him, but I do try to let her live her own life some of the time!”
Niau’s sister Owairea, 13, is also a big fan of her gorgeous baby brother. “She loves him. She’s almost like a second mum. ‘Sister’ was his first word, then it was our cat Nika’s name, and then Mama and Papa!”
Big sis Owairea adores Niau as much as Mum.
Ngahuia gave birth to Niau in level-four lockdown last September, which she describes as “a little bit terrifying”.
She recalls, “I went to hospital and I was confined to my room, where I had my baby. But I got to go home four hours later. I was so lucky I didn’t have any real complications.”
This time around, the actress hopes the hospital setting will be a bit more relaxed!
A huge fan of Christmas, Ngahuia will have Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You blaring and her home will smell magnificent thanks to a real tree adorned with special decorations for each family member.
She and Teone did have plans to escape Auckland, but understandably those have been shelved for the moment. “Originally, I was going to leave town, but because I’m due to pop, I’ll be home for Christmas this year,” she smiles.
“My birthday’s on Boxing Day and I’m due on New Year’s Day, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to celebrate with family and good food, and not be in labour on those special days!”
