{"id":377721,"date":"2025-12-29T07:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T07:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377721\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T07:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T07:39:10","slug":"it-tested-us-the-tipenes-on-pain-joy-and-a-new-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377721\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It tested us’ \u2013 the Tipenes on pain, joy and a new series"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was one of the most read on 1News.co.nz in 2025. It was first published on June 7.<\/p>\n

Francis and Kaiora Tipene on harsh times, the cure for anger, the joy of tamariki, Paris, Tonga and their new series of The Casketeers which aired in June and is available on TVNZ+<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Tipenes were in Paris, just the two of them, on a romantic trip with no work, no camera crew, not one of their seven children present. But by day three, Francis Tipene wanted to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had been a 36-hour flight to get there,\u201d says his wife, Kaiora. \u201cWe hadn\u2019t even been there two nights and he started to pine for our daughter. He said, \u2018let\u2019s go back to our kids\u2019. And so after a couple more days, they did. <\/p>\n

Casketeers stars on burial scandal that saw former employee jailed – Watch on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n

Francis agrees it was a long way to go, just to turn around. But after seven sons (he has one from a previous relationship, six with Kaiora), \u201cI finally got the daughter and man, that changed me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now almost two, Ngawaiata has just started K\u014dhanga reo. \u201cShe was counting at 11 months,\u201d says Francis. \u201cTahi, rua… And English too. All these things just make all my problems go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah yep, problems. Since before Ngawaiata was born, the Tipenes have been dealing with big, dreadful, public problems. <\/p>\n

First stop is Tonga in the new series launching Wednesday, June 11. (Source: TVNZ)<\/p>\n

To recap: Last month their long-term employee at Tipene Funerals, Fiona Bakulich, was sent to prison for interfering with human remains and obtaining money by deception. The victims, all grieving families, were subjected to experiences ranging from the distressing (lifting the lid of a loved one\u2019s coffin to discover the metal lining they\u2019d paid for was absent), to the financially gutting (Bakulich took a total of more than $16,000 from families, charging them for various bogus fees and fines as well as products, such as the metal liners, they didn\u2019t receive.) <\/p>\n

\"Fiona<\/p>\n

Fiona Bakulich, a former employee of Tipene Funerals (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The revelations of the trial were heavy, the coverage thorough and not always accurate (there were no bodies placed in rubbish bags). And while the Tipenes grappled with a sense of betrayal from someone they\u2019d considered a sister and a tuakana, they were also subjected to harsh scrutiny and public judgement themselves. Why hadn\u2019t they seen what was going on, checked for it, acted sooner? The media asked the questions and social media scrambled to provide the answers. <\/p>\n

The comments got ugly, says Kai. \u201cIn a way it\u2019s a good thing. It\u2019s teaching me that I don\u2019t have to please everybody. If you see the show, my husband and I are all about people pleasing.\u201d <\/p>\n

For a business and a TV brand built on light humour, deep respect and te ao M\u0101ori, the case was a lot to come back from.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it came to the process side of things, we knew how to deal with it,\u201d says Kaiora. \u201cBut when it came to the emotional side of it? Nah. <\/p>\n

As a couple, \u201cit certainly tested us,” she says. “I hope at some point we look back and go yeah well that was one ugly phase…”<\/p>\n

\"Francis<\/p>\n

Francis and Kaiora Tipene gave their first interview to TVNZ’s Marae. (Source: Marae)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen your business has been misconstrued in the public eye, you are judged and you start not liking yourself and it\u2019s easy to get lost,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou start losing control of everything. How can I give to my staff and my tamariki if I\u2019m not right? I could feel myself crumbling and going to the person who I lean on and he was crumbling… I thought, man one of us has got to keep it together or we\u2019re both going to fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaiora is driving and talking to 1News on the phone. Later we also talked to Francis, who was no less frank. <\/p>\n

The experience was his first real insight into depression, he says. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d be one of those people, in bed, close the curtains, \u2018don\u2019t talk to me\u2019. But when your face is plastered in the Herald for one week straight, it\u2019s like wow… <\/p>\n

\"Francis<\/p>\n

Francis and Kaiora Tipene with some people they met in Vanuatu. (Source: TVNZ)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful that my wife is such a strong lady. I look back and I’m like, why wasn\u2019t I the one keeping us going? I failed. I was like, close the curtains, turn the light off. The traditional male role is to keep the family together \u2013 I know times are changing and I don\u2019t want to get into that argument \u2013 but the public shaming, the way it was reported, it was devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with friends and whanau, it was the Tipene Funerals staff who saved Francis. \u201cMy staff were like, \u2018why do you always go missing every time something [negative is written] about you? Forget it! You were the one who put yourself on TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe staff were cruel but it was what I needed. Obviously, my wife was saying the same thing, but sometimes it takes someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The power of a suit<\/p>\n

One day, after a month of lying around in shorts and a T-shirt, Francis felt the urge to put on a suit. \u201cBecause I felt like a nothing. Then I also put my shoes on and thought, \u2018bugger it I\u2019ll drive to work\u2019. At the funeral home there was a grieving family and Frances was asked to do a prayer. It made him feel human again. \u201cBecause I\u2019d been feeling like the devil, stuck at home in bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

So their work as funeral directors continued, but what about the show? Would there be another season of the internationally successful Casketeers?<\/p>\n

There would. The seventh season launches on Wednesday and takes a fresh form with the Casketeers travelling around the world, learning how other cultures deal with death. For the emotionally struggling Tipenes, it was a tonic. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe production company were so understanding,\u201d says Kaiora. \u201cThey\u2019d say \u2018today\u2019s newspapers are tomorrow\u2019s fish \u2018n\u2019 chip papers!\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kaiora<\/p>\n

Kaiora and Francis Tipene in Canada. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Canada, India, Vanuatu, Japan and \u2013 most meaningfully for Francis \u2013 Tonga. He\u2019d never been there but his grandparents on his dad\u2019s side were both Tongan. And although he says the flavour of his upbringing leaned more M\u0101ori, the island of his ancestors felt familiar. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was eerily similar to the way I was brought up, up North, making do with what we had out in the yard. My kids don\u2019t do that, everyone is on the blimmin wi-fi…I had a nostalgic feeling watching the children making fun out of branches and bits of plastic. Everyone is so happy among all this… I wouldn\u2019t actually call it poverty, it looks poor to us, but they are happy and content, that\u2019s how I was as a kid. It felt like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘The anger comes in my quiet times’<\/p>\n

Each time the Tipenes were about to head off with the TV crew for another three-week trip, leaving their six boys with trusted whanau and taking Ngawaiata with them, Francis would worry. \u201cYou\u2019re always thinking, what is the point of this when all of this other stuff is going down? This mistake by one person has ruined us. But the minute we stepped onto the plane we forgot about it. You fly off and it\u2019s an adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then you fly home, and hell awaits? \u201cOh yes,\u201d says Francis. \u201cI\u2019d hear \u2018prepare the cabin for landing\u2019, and I\u2019d think, oh gosh, here we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even now, he wrestles with uncomfortable emotions. The depression has gone but bouts of anger have taken its place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re made out to be someone you\u2019re not and you have to wait until it\u2019s all over for the truth to come out. The anger comes in my quiet times. I\u2019m sitting there eating lunch and, oh, I\u2019m angry again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cure, he says, is deep breaths and taking a walk. \u201cYou think what the heck is a walk going to do? It does a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there are the kids. \u201cThey don\u2019t care, they\u2019ve got basketball, rugby… that\u2019s helped us move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ngawaiata has been a beautiful distraction through most of the ordeal – she was born five weeks early in 2023, the evening her parents returned from a painful meeting with one of the families affected by Bakulich\u2019s crimes. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she arrived things had broken out and we knew what was going on,\u201d says Francis. \u201cShe was the light for us and she still is to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Casketeers is on TVNZ+<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was one of the most read on 1News.co.nz in 2025. It was first published on June…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[45529,64,63,134,8514,1861,434,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-377721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-arts-and-culture","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-maori-issues","13":"tag-people","14":"tag-television","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}