Michelle Hyslop, TVNZ, supplied
When New Zealand’s favourite adopted Aussie radio and TV host chats to Woman’s Day, she’s just back from the gym. “I haven’t been in a while,” Bree Tomasel winces. “But today I listened to my body… and I’ve realised it doesn’t like exercise.”
The reason for her reluctant return to the gym? The Celebrity Treasure Island presenter, 34, is recently back from a family holiday to Italy, where she indulged in “just so much food”.
Still buzzing from the trip, Bree grins, “It was my first time ever in Europe, which is crazy because my dad is Italian! It was amazing.
“I met my parents in Dubai and we flew to Venice, then went to Treviso, which is where my dad’s family is from. Italian is Dad’s first language and he speaks it fluently, so I pretty much just sat and watched him have a conversation with my relatives for hours while they were feeding us.”
It was the first time Bree, who also has a sister and a brother, had been on holiday with just her Australian-based folks. She says, “My Mum and Dad went on an amazing Europe trip before they had kids, and Mum has been nagging Dad to take her back ever since.”
Bree with her mum and Dad in Rome.
When we suggest she busted in on her parents’ second honeymoon, she guffaws. “It was such a romantic holiday!
I came to that realisation when we were on a gondola in Venice. My parents were sitting in the back seat, I was on this little chair on the side and this guy was singing a love song. I was like, ‘This is so weird!’ I felt like I was in a throuple with my parents and I was not into it.”
Cackling, she continues, “I can see the headline now: ‘Romance isn’t dead – and neither is incest!’ But honestly, I just wanted to reconnect with my parents and get back on the same page.”
Bree is tickled by the fact she was in one of the world’s most romantic cities without her long-term girlfriend Sophia Gould, but they did meet up afterwards in Barcelona, along with Sophia’s brother and his partner, for a “young people holiday”, before heading to London by themselves.
“My favourite thing was the food!” enthuses the ZM radio host. “Since COVID, I’d forgotten we could have a holiday, go overseas, experience different cultures and eat different food. In Italy, I was literally eating pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Bree and CTI co-host Jayden Daniels.
Although Bree and Sophia, 32, have set up home with their two dogs, Meryl Streep and Whitney Houston, and her followers on social media regularly ask when they’ll take the next step, wedding bells aren’t on the horizon just yet.
“When we went overseas, Sophia’s brother proposed to his partner and my brother’s getting married at the end of year, so I’m not going to steal anyone’s thunder!” explains Bree. “When the time is right,
it will be right, but it’s not right now.”
Bree with mum in Venice.
The winner of Personality of the Year at last year’s New Zealand Television Awards, she still finds her regular afternoon radio slot on ZM with Clint Roberts fulfilling and fun.
Her favourite part is making people’s dreams come true, like when they recently gifted Taylor Swift tickets to a single mum.
An emotional Bree recalls, “Being able to tell this woman she was able to take her teenage daughter, who is the biggest Taylor Swift fan, to the concerts, with free flights to Australia, was so special.”
Speaking of Treasure Island, Bree admits that while she has access to preview screeners, she prefers to watch it when it airs on TV “just to be in it with the audience”. She rates a recent episode where Eli Matthewson tried to save Jordan Vandermade from elimination, only to be thwarted by an “advantage blocker” from Blair Strang, as “one of my favourite episodes ever”.
Buckingham Palace posers! Bree and girlfriend Sophia in London.
She also reckons James Mustapic is “so funny” and she loved working with T¯ame Iti. After he left the show, Bree says, “I sat and talked to this guy for as long as I could. It was just the coolest experience. His energy and presence are unexplainable. They’re calling it the greatest reality show casting in New Zealand. Wasn’t my idea. I can’t take credit for it! But the vibe, the energy and the team we had…”
Clearly struggling to find the words for the love she feels for the show, Bree concludes, “I just love seeing people get enjoyment out of something that so many of us put so much work and effort into. It’s just the best feeling ever.”
Certainly a much more positive experience than going to the gym!
