It was a surprise celebration in that \u201cFitz\u201d was unaware it was happening \u2013 but not surprising in its attendance list. Fifty years in television news is impossible without building some extraordinary relationships. <\/p>\n
It also takes an extraordinary person to fend off the cynicism of newsgathering for that long. Fitzgerald has not only done that, he\u2019s maintained the same youthful enthusiasm that he started with.<\/p>\n
Mike Fitzgerald and his dog, Barney. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n
On August 11, 1975, a 19-year-old Mike Fitzgerald simultaneously began his career at TVNZ and his lifelong love affair with television. He says pictures were always his thing. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d always had a camera since I was a little bloke. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just used to take photos. I wrecked my mum\u2019s laundry with enlargers and an old dryer drying the prints, and the family used to get pissed off because I always had a camera in my hands \u2013 black and white in those days.\u201d <\/p>\n
Working in photography after leaving school, Fitzgerald knew the visual medium was where he wanted to be. <\/p>\n
\u201cI got my diploma in it \u2013 because when I get my teeth into something …,\u201d he says, before finishing the sentence with silent gesticulation and the sort of conviction that only a man who has ticked over 50 years at one workplace can express. <\/p>\n
His interest in video was piqued when he came across a \u201csituations vacant\u201d notice. <\/p>\n
\u201cI saw this bloody ad that said, \u2018Cameraman for TV1\u2019. And I thought \u2018I can do that!\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
He applied and didn\u2019t get the job. <\/p>\n
But after being told that the camera position was no longer available, he was offered a role in sound recording in TV1\u2019s Christchurch newsroom. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can do that,\u201d he said, forming a mantra that he still echoes today. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was the biggest sponge, man. I\u2019d do anything.\u201d <\/p>\n
So began a career in news that would take him around the world \u2013 but his first steps were regional. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a small newsroom in Oxford Terrace, just opposite the pub [Oxford on Avon],\u201d he recalls. <\/p>\n
The newsroom then may have been small, but TV1\u2019s Christchurch staff numbers were anything but. <\/p>\n
\u201cBack in those days, I think TVNZ had maybe 350 people. Gloucester St was our main area. We had religious shows, That\u2019s Country, kids\u2019 shows like What Now?, After School and Woolly Valley.\u201d <\/p>\n
From the small newsroom, they would produce stories for regional news programme The Mainland Touch and its predecessor. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all learning, to be fair.\u201d <\/p>\n
THE POISONED PROFESSOR <\/p>\n
They were learning because television in New Zealand \u2013 let alone television news – was very much in its infancy. The first TV broadcast on these shores had gone out just 15 years before Fitzgerald began, and it had been broadcast in black and white until 1973. <\/p>\n
They were learning because they were writing and rewriting the \u201cbest practice guide\u201d as they went. They were learning because they were doing many things for the first time, and Fitzgerald has often been in the thick of that. <\/p>\n
He was instrumental in the first court trial to be filmed \u2013 the 1997 case of the \u201cpoisoned professor\u201d in the High Court at Christchurch. After weeks of planning between Fitzgerald and the courts, he would be the first to set up and film a high-profile case, over the course of 11 weeks. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was really nervous. I remember going around the microphones and testing with all the various people and said, \u2018When you speak, do you mind speaking into the microphone?\u2019. I was being very diligent, and I went up to Judith [Ablett-Kerr, defence counsel], \u201cExcuse me. When you talk, would you mind talking…?\u2019 She looked up and said, \u2018Don\u2019t you f***ing tell me how to do things in my court, right?\u2019. And I was, oh my God, what have I done?\u201d he says with a chuckle. <\/p>\n
Another first was broadcasting live from Scott Base in Antarctica. <\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of created the live shot down there. It was pretty ropey at the start, because you know [there is] not much data and there was no satellite. We came off their infrastructure, and it was belts and braces, man!\u201d <\/p>\n
TAKING SIR ED BACK TO THE ICE <\/p>\n
Fitzgerald estimates he has been to Antarctica as many as eight times. He was about to board a plane to cover the aftermath of the 1979 Erebus crash that killed 257 people before he was forced to give his seat up. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe got out to the airport, and [Sir Robert] Muldoon was the boss man at the time, he decided that they were going to put politicians on the flight, not media.\u201d <\/p>\n
Perhaps his most memorable trip to \u201cthe ice\u201d was with Sir Edmund Hillary in 2004. It was Hillary\u2019s last trip to Antarctica.<\/p>\n
Mike Fitzgerald, Sir Edmund Hillary and Mark Sainsbury in front of Shackleton’s Hut at Cape Royds, Antarctica.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went to Cape Royds, Shackleton\u2019s Hut. He went in and we put a chair in the middle because he was pretty unwell, and he sat down. And I said, \u2018Mate, I\u2019m going to leave you and give you some time, and I\u2019ll come back.\u2019 I was shooting exteriors. I shot him through the window and he\u2019s just sitting there. I went back in and he said, \u2018I saw him.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
Fitzgerald asked him to elaborate. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he said, \u2018Shackleton\u2019. I\u2019m in my big f***ing jacket, it was freezing cold and the hairs on the back of my neck are rising up and I\u2019m starting to sweat. It was kind of creepy,\u201d he recalls with great enthusiasm and his trademark gesticulation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ice is probably my favourite place ever. It\u2019s so different, it\u2019s challenging. It makes me feel at peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
TVNZ cameraman Mike Fitzgerald has travelled to Antarctica on many occasions. Here he’s filming in the Dry Valleys.<\/p>\n
There is little peace in capturing breaking news. <\/p>\n
ARAMOANA <\/p>\n
On November 13, 1990, David Gray began a mass shooting that would leave 14 people, including the gunman, dead in the coastal Otago town of Aramoana. <\/p>\n
Fitzgerald was deployed from Christchurch to back up the Dunedin crews. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a sense that it was big. We\u2019d only just kind of gone into one-man bands back then [camera operators without sound engineers].\u201d<\/p>\n
Aware that they were going to be there for some time, he requested back-up. <\/p>\n
\u201cI got Macca [Mike McLeod] down and we teamed up, and then I reverted to audio. <\/p>\n
\u201cI mean just going in and seeing where Gray had killed the kids. And what they did was they had white tape [where the victims were found] and just about everyone was in the foetal position. It was just horrific. I still now see it,\u201d recalls Fitzgerald, without animation or enthusiasm. This recollection comes with a pause, hands unmoved.<\/p>\n
He recalls going to the shed where police shot and killed Gray.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went back before the cops burned the place down, and the walls … you could see where they unleashed bullets. Blew him away.\u201d<\/p>\n
The aftermath of the Aramoana massacre, 1990. Gunman David Gray’s house is to the right of the Holden family’s destroyed home. Photo \/ Tim Mackrell<\/p>\n
CAVE CREEK <\/p>\n
Almost five years later, another mass casualty event would see Fitzgerald deployed to the West Coast, between Greymouth and Westport. Again, there were 14 dead, though this time it was accidental.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in the newsroom and I hear on the scanner, \u2018People off platform at Punakaiki\u2019. I said, \u2018Book Garden City [Helicopters], I\u2019m heading out there now.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
The race to breaking news has always been important \u2013 even more so when TV1 gained competition from TV3 in 1989. There was no time to drive roughly four hours to the scene; they needed to fly. <\/p>\n
\u201cI get there and there\u2019s a helicopter. I get my gear and they said, \u2018Fitz, it\u2019s not yours.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
TV3 had beaten him to it. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnyway, it was Mike Johnson [TV3 cameraman] and someone from The Press, taking off waving.\u201d <\/p>\n
After finding another helicopter, he arrived to find that the airspace over Cave Creek had been closed. They landed and followed a track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe waited and waited because the cops had said that the hearses had gone in. I might have waited a few hours, I suppose. It was kind of like sunset, just getting quite dim, and 11 hearses came out through the bush. Just the golden lights at the front of the hearse, one after the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is where camera operators have to traverse the thin line between gathering news and invading privacy. Fitzgerald says he got it wrong that day. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was one person in an ambulance, and I was filming. Probably a little too close, and I probably deserved getting hammered, I deserved it. I apologised, I overstepped the mark. I was on an adrenaline buzz, man, I just wasn\u2019t focusing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Fitzgerald (red shirt) about to film a live cross with 1News sports presenter Andrew Saville. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
PIKE RIVER <\/p>\n
The West Coast was again in the spotlight on November 19, 2010, when an underground explosion killed 29 miners north of Greymouth. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were doing a live [cross] with Lols [Fitzgerald\u2019s partner and former 1News reporter Lorelei Mason], and Tweezers [a local helicopter pilot] rang. \u2018There\u2019s been an explosion, better get over there – it\u2019s bad.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cSo we packed up and left that night. I don\u2019t think we got into Greymouth till midnight or something.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the aftermath of big stories like Pike River, the national or even global appetite for video is insatiable, but the local appetite for the incoming media circus is nonexistent. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hostile. It was just hostile. The locals hated us. In a close community like the coast, they\u2019d lost somebody or somebody they knew, and they didn\u2019t like or appreciate us being there. We understood that.\u201d<\/p>\n
CHRISTCHURCH <\/p>\n
On February 22, 2011, one of the biggest stories in New Zealand\u2019s history broke in Fitzgerald\u2019s own community as Christchurch was reduced to rubble and liquefaction. For the next year at least, he\u2019d be living in the aftermath as well as working in it. <\/p>\n
As operations manager, he had to think of others as well. He admits he\u2019s often better at doing that with his own staff than with his family, as evidenced during the early hours of September 4, 2010, with Christchurch\u2019s first big shake. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a big villa and two sets of chimneys. Both had come down, and one had gone over the drive. We had an automatic gate, and I remember trying to pull back the bloody bricks so the gate would open so that I could drive the truck over the bricks and go out and shoot. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did I kick into that mode when I should have been thinking of my family? I don\u2019t know that,\u201d he reflects. <\/p>\n
It was Christchurch again on March 15, 2019: 51 people shot dead at two mosques in a terror attack that shook the world. Fitzgerald was the first camera to the hospital as ambulance after ambulance arrived with victims. Then he filmed many of the live reports that gripped an audience of millions, watching in disbelief. <\/p>\n
\u201cI headed to Deans Ave because of multiple calls from Auckland saying, \u2018We need live pictures, we want to know what\u2019s going on.\u2019 Sometimes I think we overdo the live part because we should be gathering.\u201d<\/p>\n
GULF WAR <\/p>\n
The threat of terror had previously been half a world away for Fitzgerald, and he\u2019d flown towards it with our Defence Force. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe did the Gulf War [1991]. When Saddam had chemical weapons, right? So, we went out and did training at Trentham. So that if there was a chemical attack, they told us what we should be doing. And I think they gave us a cyanide tablet? I have to confirm this, but I\u2019m sure they did!\u201d <\/p>\n
Health and safety wasn\u2019t what it is today, and neither was technology.<\/p>\n
Mike Fitzgerald, Ewart Barnsley and Mike McLeod next to a loaded fighter plane in Riyadh, covering the 1991 Gulf War.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scary moment there for me was when we had to go to a satellite station to feed our pictures [in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia]. We had to walk at night and you had to go past these little sentry posts. And the kids with their guns, they were kids! They look to be f***ing 12, you know? <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then when I went to the television station, we were running close to the wire [to make deadline] and I was talking on the phone to [TVNZ] Auckland and they said, \u2018We can\u2019t see your pictures Fitz!\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
Finding a spaghetti junction of cables at the newly built Saudi TV station, Fitzgerald devised a plan \u2013 one that his hosts wouldn\u2019t have approved of even if they\u2019d spoken English. <\/p>\n
\u201cI said to the person back in NZ, \u2018Can you count to 10 and then tell me if you\u2019re getting the pictures?\u2019 And I ran over and I pulled all the f***ing cables out and plugged my two in there. Nearly started an incident. These guys were apoplectic. They were yelling and screaming at me, and I heard TVNZ Auckland say, \u2018Yep, we\u2019ve got your pictures, Fitz!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Another close shave saw Fitzgerald and current TVNZ Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver save a drowning man in Bora Bora. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was doing the compressions and Barb was doing the breathing. He\u2019d swallowed a lot and he wasn\u2019t ticking when we got him out. The hardest thing to keep the compressions going for me was he had suntan lotion on. Suntan lotion and water become slippery.<\/p>\n
They worked on the man for about 15 minutes. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt just was like a kickstart, and then you could feel it. And we kept going for a bit and, by that time, the rescue helicopter had come and taken him away.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2018THEY TREATED HIM LIKE ROYALTY\u2019 <\/p>\n
The biggest name in news of the past 50 years belonged to a man small in stature. Curled hair, curlier questions and, in Fitzgerald\u2019s words, \u201cswore like a trooper\u201d. <\/p>\n
Paul Holmes was a one of a kind, and Fitzgerald was a great admirer.<\/p>\n
Paul Holmes in 1988.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was fun. It was all about Holmes, but he was fun. Such a talent. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think I picked a lot up from him because of his nature, his way that he could relax people. And you know, [John] Campbell\u2019s a little, well, he\u2019s a lot like him.\u201d <\/p>\n
Holmes reigned when primetime news was king, and budgets seemed limitless. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey treated him like royalty at work. I mean, if he wanted to come down – he doesn\u2019t fly [commercial]. I used to head off to W\u0101naka or Queenstown with him and we\u2019d just jump on the private [plane], off we\u2019d go. Crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sevens gold: Mike Fitzgerald with Christian Cullen, Eric Rush and Jonah Lomu at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n
Fitzgerald has been to virtually every Commonwealth Games and Summer Olympics since 1986. He\u2019s hoping to sign off on that chapter with a return to Scotland for the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. <\/p>\n
But for now, he\u2019s only looking as far ahead as his next shoot. A dog show in Rangiora. <\/p>\n
After 50 years gathering news for TVNZ, he\u2019s just as excited as ever.<\/p>\n
Why not? He loves dogs.<\/p>\n
Mike Thorpe is a senior journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a surprise celebration in that \u201cFitz\u201d was unaware it was happening \u2013 but not surprising in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,49647,5660,4057,6326,49643,2046,20191,4487,34692,9060,31406,17246,8215,3685,16840,49644,1342,15037,49650,71,30699,5420,1861,1345,685,21820,1456,8444,111,43,139,69,1118,9061,90,2682,1523,49648,49645,6653,2202,6739,544,44970,417,1361,6759,6445,49646,49649,377,1530,2963],"class_list":["post-60375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-aramoana","tag-attacks","tag-behind","tag-biggest","tag-cameraman","tag-career","tag-cave","tag-christchurch","tag-creek","tag-decades","tag-direction","tag-document","tag-earthquakes","tag-events","tag-filmed","tag-fitzgerald","tag-five","tag-fleeing","tag-frenetic","tag-from","tag-gulf","tag-hes","tag-history","tag-home","tag-last","tag-lens","tag-mike","tag-mosque","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-often","tag-on","tag-others","tag-over","tag-pike","tag-raced","tag-reflects","tag-remarkable","tag-river","tag-some","tag-spoke","tag-television","tag-that","tag-thorpe","tag-tvnz","tag-unfolds","tag-unpredictable","tag-world","tag-years","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60375","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=60375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}