{"id":394533,"date":"2026-04-23T23:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/394533\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T23:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:55:08","slug":"on-the-up-the-rookie-stars-melissa-oneil-and-lisseth-chavez-spotted-in-rotorua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/394533\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Up: The Rookie stars Melissa O\u2019Neil and Lisseth Chavez spotted in Rotorua"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colleague AJ Moke didn\u2019t believe her at first. She told him to go and see for himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were both giddy, and we couldn\u2019t believe it because we had been talking about them coming to New Zealand only a few weeks ago,\u201d Savage said. <\/p>\n

They \u201cproperly\u201d introduced themselves to the actors.<\/p>\n

Savage said they were \u201cincredibly warm and down to earth\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point, we ended up sharing hugs … it was such a genuine, special interaction.\u201d <\/p>\n

Savage said the atmosphere in the store made it \u201cmore meaningful\u201d. The song Wait\u012b Wait\u0101 by Te Whare Tapere o Te Arawa was playing. <\/p>\n

\u201cMelissa became quite emotional; you could see how much it moved her,\u201d Savage said. <\/p>\n

The encounter was one Savage and Moke would \u201cnever forget\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil and Chavez selected \u201cseveral\u201d Mountain Jade Pieces, including pounamu toki to take home for their families.<\/p>\n

Savage said the pair were \u201creally interested\u201d in returning to Rotorua to meet the store\u2019s carvers and take part in a carving tour.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil and Chavez later the same day went to Atticus Finch on Eat Streat, where manager Pratham Juneja said he didn\u2019t know the actors.<\/p>\n

But when one of the waitresses realised who was sitting outside, \u201cshe couldn\u2019t even breathe\u201d, Juneja said.<\/p>\n

She got to serve the actors that night. <\/p>\n

\" Atticus Finch staff Brooke Anderson (left), Charlise Colle and Briana Lang (right) with The Rookie actors Lisseth Chavez (middle left) and Melissa O\u2019Neil. Photo \/ Supplie<\/p>\n

Juneja took a photo of three \u201creally excited\u201d waitresses with O\u2019Neil and Chavez \u2013 they were all fans of the show. <\/p>\n

They ordered Irish whiskeys alongside other drinks and a meal, and were given dessert on the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t really interrupt them,\u201d Juneja said.<\/p>\n

It was the first time he had seen someone famous at the restaurant in more than two years working there.<\/p>\n

The Rookie stars also visited \u014ctorohanga\u2019s Fat Kiwi Cafe<\/a> at about 3pm. <\/p>\n

Cafe staffer Nicole Hemara, a big fan of the show, told the Waikato Herald that Chen and Juarez were her favourite characters.<\/p>\n

Hemara said they were \u201cthe most lovely people I\u2019ve ever met\u201d, and just like their on-screen characters.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil has been on the TV show since season one and her character is now a sergeant, while Chavez joined the show in season five.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil is in New Zealand for the Armageddon Expo in Auckland this weekend.<\/p>\n

Season eight of The Rookie is on TVNZ, with earlier seasons available on multiple streaming platforms.<\/p>\n

Annabel Reid<\/a> is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke\u2019s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colleague AJ Moke didn\u2019t believe her at first. She told him to go and see for himself. \u201cWe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6946,95,430,201755,6259,156,78,201754,74216,111,139,69,90,190766,12886,17891,1327,9636,5436,2069,223,210,28355,810,55857,1316,12767],"class_list":{"0":"post-394533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-actors","9":"tag-and","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-chavez","12":"tag-door","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-in","15":"tag-lisseth","16":"tag-melissa","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-on","21":"tag-oneil","22":"tag-professional","23":"tag-rookie","24":"tag-rotorua","25":"tag-spotted","26":"tag-stars","27":"tag-stay","28":"tag-the","29":"tag-through","30":"tag-trying","31":"tag-up","32":"tag-walked","33":"tag-when","34":"tag-worker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}