She’s reported from a penguin’s nest in Antarctica and interviewed heavy-metal band Megadeth, but now intrepid journo Samantha Hayes has pulled off her most adventurous gig yet.
With her partner-in-crime both on camera and off, cameraman and boyfriend of one-and-a-half years, Hayden Aull, 28, by her side, Samantha has run 21km through Kenya’s Maasai Mara national park during the Great Migration.
So not only did the fiery redhead jog alongside some of the African nation’s best runners – she was also joined by wildebeest, warthogs, impala and gazelles!
“It was great to have Hayden there to reassure me before the race,” Sam, 31, tells Woman’s Day from Kenya, the day after her run on August 15. “It was nice to see him popping up around the course – it gave me a psychological boost.”
But unfortunately for Sam, he wasn’t just there for support – he had a job to do. “He was filming from a moving vehicle at times, which meant I ate a lot of dust,” she laughs. “At the finish line, all I really wanted was a hug, but he had to stand back and keep rolling.”
Usually open only to people tucked safely inside 4WD vehicles on safari tours, the park becomes a cross-country course for this unique event every year. Sam was roped in by Kiwi charity So They Can and she personally raised $4000 for the cause. Partnered with cosmetics company Trilogy, the foundation’s latest project is supporting women in Africa who grow sunflowers, harvest the seeds and create an oil that Trilogy uses for a natural perfume.
Sam travelled with So They Can to cover stories for 3D and Newsworthy, TV3’s late-night offering, which she co-hosts with friend and flatmate David Farrier. “They asked if I wanted to do the run with them and, in a moment of stupidity and weakness, I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’” she laughs.
A regular runner, Sam was already quite fit prior to the race. However, the most she had ever run was 10km, with bestie and former TV3 reporter Claire Robbie, a few years ago. “I remember thinking at the end of it that it was horrific and I would never do anything like that again!”
Now having run double that in 28°C heat, Sam’s dislike of long-distance running has been well and truly reinstated. “It started out well,” she tells. “I felt good and I was enjoying myself – I was running in the Maasai Mara!”
But the sweltering, dry heat got the best of her and she had to slow to a walk 17km in.
“I really wasn’t sure I was going to make it,” she recalls. “I was overheating and exhausted, and my legs weren’t cooperating, but I managed to run the last few kilometres and made it across the finish line in two hours, 40 minutes. I did a couple of quick interviews, then almost passed out. I felt really sick for a while – my legs were shaking and I thought I might throw up. It took a few hours to come right.”
“I wasn’t sure I was going to make it,” Sam tells us of her extraordinary charity run.
Unreal adventure
The adrenaline junkie, who has travelled for work to Costa Rica, the US, India, Europe and the Pacific Islands, says the experience was unlike anything she has ever done. “I’ve been to game reserves before because Mum is South African and we have a lot of family over there, but with those, you’re not even allowed the windows down in the car,” she tells.
“To be out in the open and see all those wonderful animals so close was unreal. At home, we’re used to seeing animals behind fences, but here there are huge herds of buffalo, zebra, impala and wildebeest mixed together alongside warthogs, giraffe, lions and leopards.”
Unfortunately for Sam and Hayden, there was no day of rest, as it was on to the next location to film for another story. “People think when you go overseas for work that it’s quite glamorous, but that couldn’t be further from the truth – at least for me, anyway. It’s full-on and you do not stop,” insists Sam. “It’s such a privilege to be given the opportunity to go overseas and film stories, so I always feel like I’ve got to fit in as much as I possibly can.”
And there’ll be no rest on her return to Auckland this week either, as Sam continues fronting 3D on her own after co-host Duncan Garner moved to Story earlier this month. Sam laughs at the mere idea of taking a break from her two jobs any time soon, which keep her occupied six days a week.
“But I’m so lucky to do what I do – I wouldn’t change it for the world. I get to work with some amazing storytellers as well as meeting people with the most incredible stories to tell. What’s not to love about that?”
Sam and her partner in crime, Hayden Aull
