Photography: Robert Trathen
Sitting in her sunny central Auckland home, former TVNZ broadcaster Louise Pagonis pulls out a couple of scrapbooks filled with stories she has done with this very magazine and laughs at
her then-big hair and even bigger earrings.
It’s been nearly three decades since she’s been on our screens as a reporter, newsreader and weather presenter, but she is still heard on our airwaves as a part-time newsreader for RNZ National. Born in Dunedin as the eldest of four children, her first job was straightening the labels on Gregg’s coffee jars at 15. After teacher training, Louise began her broadcasting career in 1981 as a researcher on Fair Go.
Outside the news booth, the language and history buff also now works as a media coach and tour guide, showing international visitors the hidden corners of Auckland city. The mum of two adult sons – Oliver, 33 and Will, 28, who both work in the music industry – shares candidly with the Weekly why a health diagnosis several years ago has been her biggest hurdle to overcome.
How did coming from a Greek immigrant heritage shape you?
We had hard work drummed into us. My grandfather on my father’s side lived in a small village in Greece, but he had heard about the opportunities in Australia from relatives. He told his mother he wanted to go and live there. She agreed he should go because “there’ll never be peace in this part of the world”. So in 1912, he immigrated to Australia, where he worked in a restaurant and slept under
the table, and then came to New Zealand and decided to settle in Dunedin. He met my grandma, who was half Norwegian.
Did you embrace your Greek culture?
Well, Dad didn’t get taught the language because in those days, you didn’t want to stand out. A lot of Greek families would anglicise their names. My father Ian was a confectioner and a jazz musician. And my mum Merle was a research biochemist. I remember she would take the family to visit Dad at the family milk bar and café on Friday nights. We’d sit on really high stools and drink milkshakes.
Was working on Fair Go the dream first broadcasting job?
It was. I’d been a teacher in Porirua and Wainuiomata, and it was a lonely job. So I loved being around other adults at TVNZ. It was the days of journalists Brian Edwards, Judith Fyfe, Hugo Manson and Warwick Burke. Hugo would wear bright yellow suits. My job was to read all the letters that came in, sort through them and see what could be a good story. I learned so much about accuracy and being on top of your facts.
How did you become a weather girl?
I moved to Auckland because I had always wanted a tropical garden. I started to work with Top Half as a reporter on the regional news with John Hawkesby. He was good to work with. I always had a lot of help and my colleagues were great in having the same mentality of wanting everyone to succeed. They held auditions for a fill-in for Jim Hickey and Penelope Barr, the then-weather presenters. I got the job. I believe I was the first weather presenter to be pregnant on screen.
Did viewers react positively to that?
Well, there’s a magazine story of me at eight months’ pregnant saying “Sorry Akaroa” because people from Banks Peninsula wrote in and said I shouldn’t be on TV while pregnant because my great big pregnant stomach blocked Akaroa on the map! Another viewer wrote in and said, “I can tell from the way you’re standing, you’re having a boy,” which turned out to be true. Fortunately, in those days, there was no social media, so I was shielded from a lot of nastiness. I had maternity outfits made by Patrick Steel, which had pleats at the back. I went back to work when my first son was six weeks old and would feed him while I was getting my makeup on.
While you had no trouble conceiving Oliver, how hard was it desperately trying for years to have a second child?
I went through 17 fertility treatments and five miscarriages. It was incredibly stressful and sometimes even if I’d just had a failed pregnancy, I put on a brave face and read the weather that night.
Did anything help you during this time?
Actually, it was an acupuncturist I was going to and reading about other women who had got pregnant in their forties that helped. It’s so important to give other people hope.
When would you have given up trying?
I gave myself until 45 years old. I had William at 43, so I just scraped in. I remember beforehand, the fertility doctor said to me, “If I have 100 women who are 43 come in this door and they all try for a year, only one will take home a healthy baby.”
I said to him, “Oh, that’s me.” It didn’t put me off. I was that determined. I knew instinctively I’d have another boy and I already had his name picked out. I knew that he would have brown curly hair. I finally got pregnant, but then at 28 weeks, there was a threatened premature delivery but, fortunately, that didn’t happen. Will arrived at 37 weeks, weighing nine pounds [four kilograms].
Tell us about the 1993 headline in this magazine:
“Louise’s kidnap trauma”… It was when I was suspected of kidnapping my own son because we didn’t share the same last name! After a holiday in Perth, I was about to board a flight home with Oliver, who was then 15 months, when we were stopped by an airport official whose job was to stop infants being taken out of Australia illegally. I told him I’d kept my maiden name, but he said, “I have my suspicions about you.” I didn’t have any documents linking me to Oliver, just my passport and ticket. But luckily, my then-husband was piloting the plane and was called back to identify me!
When did you divorce?
About 20 years ago and I’m happy being single at the moment. I made a group of friends in my first year of university that have been the bedrock of my life. We love doing things together, including an annual camping trip. I’ve also got a 98-year-old mother-in-law that I visit. She’s a treasure and was wonderful to me when the boys were little and looked after them when I needed to work. A long time ago, I made a decision to be happy.
What change came from that decision?
Over the past decade, I’ve been travelling to France off and on to study at language schools, living with homestay families. It’s pretty scary when the family only speaks French to you. But it’s been a real passion of mine and now I can speak conversational French. I don’t see myself settling there… it’s not as romantic as it might seem. There’s always a winter and always bureaucracy, and the everyday reality of being alone in a small French village isn’t for me.
Can you share what’s been the biggest challenge of your life lately?
Discovering in 2023 I have type 2 diabetes. I didn’t have any symptoms – no blurred vision and no huge thirst. When I found out, my doctor said to me, “There’s nothing you could have done to have stopped this.”
There are so many myths about type 2 diabetes, like only people who are overweight or who don’t exercise get it. In my case, I think it’s genetic. My father also had late-onset type 2 diabetes. But it really is a huge adjustment because you have to be careful about everything you eat and everyone is different. I try and exercise after every meal, and consume very minimal carbs, no sugar and I don’t drink alcohol any more. It’s been a hard thing to conquer mentally. Initially, I felt quite depressed.
Now when I go out, I always carry a mini food box in my bag, which has tuna or salmon and beans in it. And now that I’ve got my diabetes well managed, I feel excited again about the future – that it won’t stop me doing anything.
Food-wise, is there something you miss most?
Oh, I’d love a cheese scone. Or a tasty risotto washed down with a glass of chardonnay!
How did you get a side-hustle as a tour guide?
I had some friends staying, and we were having a wander around town when a guide stopped nearby and was giving a little talk to his group. I thought, “I’d like to do that” and took note of the name on his T-shirt. I gave the company a ring and they took me on. Now I’m with a bespoke tour company that caters for small groups and I walk them around the centre of Auckland. Sometimes we do a food tour, sometimes it’s an art tour. I’m determined not to retire and I aim to keep tour guiding until I’m 90 if I can.
