Pictures: Emily Chalk
It may not be where most would expect to find lasting love, but when the wheels on the bus go round and round for almost two hours a day all through your teenage years, it’s hardly surprising sparks might fly with fellow riders. Sixteen years later, Radio Hauraki breakfast host Manaia Stewart’s still happily loved up with his high school bus sweetheart Jess Burgess.
“There were only so many people our age on that bus,” explains Jess, who was 16 when she met Manaia on the rides from Waimate to their Oamaru schools. “We played lots of cards on that bus!”
Both small-town kids with big dreams, the teens quickly bonded and began dating.
“We both wanted to do something – she wanted to work at the zoo and I wanted to be on the radio,” says Manaia, 33. “The bus was pretty boring otherwise. My main memory is how this farmer dude would hang his home kill from a tree by the bus stop. You’d pull up and see a hanging carcass!”
Sitting on the couch of the couple’s Auckland home, Manaia still grimaces recalling the gruesome scene. Yet he went on to work with deceased animals himself after his media and marketing studies failed to get him work back home.
“You go back to South Canterbury with a degree in communications and where does that get you?” laughs Manaia. He worked on dairy farms and in shearing sheds through uni. “So I got a job at the freezing works as a boner – basically a butcher.”
Manaia then headed off to England for an alpaca-shearing gig, before returning home and studying radio while commuting to Ashburton to see Jess, who was working as a vet tech. She dreamed of becoming a zookeeper, so the pair relocated to Hamilton, where she furthered her studies. However, Manaia struggled to find work.
“I got rejected from the dole. Jess was working three jobs in Hamilton while studying to support me,” he admits. “It was pretty grim.”
An offer from an Auckland media agency finally ended Manaia’s job woes and fulfilled his desire to escape physical labour. And within months of moving to Auckland, he spotted an ad for work at Radio Hauraki.
Starting in promotions, he soon made it on air, “showing up desperately hungover and talking about sport” on Saturday mornings. In 2019, Manaia then started on the drive show with Leigh Hart and Matt Ward, but their contract wasn’t renewed.
“It was right as the Covid lockdown was starting and the media industry wasn’t hiring any more,” he says. “So I went down to the port and unloaded ships. For thousands of years, men have been able to go to the port and find work!”
Manaia eventually began working with sports broadcasting group the Alternative Commentary Collective (ACC). While he continues doing a podcast with them, he couldn’t turn down the chance to work with Jeremy Wells on Radio Hauraki’s breakfast show.
“We went to Germany together for Oktoberfest and Jeremy’s a very good tourist guide,” he says. “But the main reason I wanted to work with Jeremy is he genuinely gives a st about the show and loves making radio. When songs are on, he’s talking about what we’re doing next and how each bit fits together. He’s got 30 years’ experience doing radio. Filling the show with him has been easy. We’re having fun.”
There’s also been heavier moments. Manaia got very emotional during a recent interview with Kiwi cricketer Lou Vincent, who was banned from the sport for match-fixing.
“I almost cried because this is a guy whose whole life is cricket, then he got three life bans and went, ‘That’s the end of me’. Now they’ve lifted the ban and he’s getting welcomed back into the old cricketing circle. It was a real tearjerker.”
Adjusting to the loss of anonymity that has come with his podcast and fronting Hauraki Breakfast With Jeremy Wells & Manaia Stewart has been a challenge, especially when it comes to listeners yelling, “Fk South Canterbury!” to him on the street.
The phrase started on the ACC podcast as a dig to the South Canterbury rugby team’s winning streak.
“Everywhere we go, people are yelling that,” says Manaia. “At first, Jess was like, ‘Do you know these people?’ and I was like, ‘Not at all!’ I was walking in Christchurch with my mum and these guys on a stag do were going, ‘Fk South Canterbury,’ and my mum’s from South Canterbury too. Someone even yelled it at the airport, then DM’d me apologising!”
While Manaia is loving his radio role, Jess, 33, has also landed her perfect job. She’s an ungulates keeper at Auckland Zoo, which involves highlights such as training white rhinos.
After achieving their childhood career goals, the couple’s next dream is owning a chunk of land with farm animals. However, Manaia notes he’s not as rural as Radio Hauraki ads made him sound.
“They were like, ‘He’s been a boner, shearer and milker,’ and talked about my work at the freezing works as though I was there 15 years, not just one season. Compared to Jeremy Wells, yes, I’m very agricultural! But I’m no expert.
“The reason I have so many jobs on my CV is because I sucked at them, hated them and left. I’ve always wanted a fun job and now I have that. What’s more fun than sitting around talking st with your mates and getting paid for it?”
Listen to Manaia on Hauraki Breakfast With Jeremy Wells & Manaia Stewart now on Apple Podcasts.
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