{"id":85839,"date":"2025-10-18T06:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T06:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/85839\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T06:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T06:22:07","slug":"new-taupo-mayor-john-funnell-says-hearing-loss-means-hell-skip-noisy-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/85839\/","title":{"rendered":"New Taup\u014d Mayor John Funnell says hearing loss means he\u2019ll skip noisy events"},"content":{"rendered":"

That medical emergency left him struggling to hear when in a crowd or when there was background noise, such as at cocktail parties, art gallery openings or marae events.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne on one, there\u2019s no problem. It\u2019s not a problem until someone else walks into the room and starts talking to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what happens \u2013 you lose the ability to define which conversation you\u2019re trying to listen to. You lose that ability to differentiate.\u201d<\/p>\n

His partner Chrissy had also been a huge help over the years, often standing right beside him at busy events.<\/p>\n

Funnell, who wears a hearing aid in each ear, acknowledged that his condition is no different from many other New Zealanders who have hearing loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is different is, as mayor, I should be attending events and be present in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

To make up for that, Funnell\u2019s message was aimed at being an \u201capology in advance if I do not attend your group\u2019s event\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to be there, but if I am there, it is as frustrating for the people trying to talk to me as it is for me when I cannot understand what they are saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

He would be available to talk at places or in small groups where he can hear, he said.<\/p>\n

Those wanting to speak with him could reach out to council staff to arrange a meeting, he said.<\/p>\n

One of NZ\u2019s most well-known rescue helicopter pilots<\/p>\n

Funnell was also awarded the New Zealand Bravery Medal<\/a> in 1999 for a 1992 rescue flight to airlift a shark attack victim from sub-Antarctic Campbell Island, 700km south of the South Island.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Funnell in a Lama helicopter on Mount Ruapehu. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Other missions have included disaster relief in Indonesia\u2019s Banda Aceh after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, and he also formerly had the role of Philips Search & Rescue Trust chief executive.<\/p>\n

Funnell was a comfortable winner in last weekend\u2019s local mayoral race, earning 5386 votes. His closest rival received 4062 votes.<\/p>\n

A week into the top job, he told the Herald he had been pleasantly surprised at the number of people who voted for him.<\/p>\n

He said he believed people voted for him \u201cwarts and all\u201d because of his honesty and they wanted that kind of honesty at the top.<\/p>\n

\u201c[They\u2019ve said to me]: \u2018We know you, John. You\u2019re straight up and honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facebook users who wrote underneath Funnell\u2019s post thanked him for sharing his story and experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a hearing person and a teacher of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, my students would appreciate meeting a hard-of-hearing role model,\u201d one wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing from a family with members who are deaf I was pleased to have you explain your challenges,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n

Others suggested visiting the marae was not the same as cocktail parties or art gallery openings.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of our kaum\u0101tua also are affected by hearing loss, but yet, still are able to navigate the marae,\u201d one user said, pointing out that organisers can make special arrangements to accommodate Funnell.<\/p>\n

One user asked if his post meant he was \u201cgonna miss the important issues\u201d.<\/p>\n

Funnell replied, saying he was focused on issues like capping rate rises and his hearing loss wouldn\u2019t \u201chinder\u201d him from tackling them.<\/p>\n

Some posters said Funnell should have let the public know before the election, but other Facebook users responded by showing pictures of his election pamphlets talking about his hearing loss.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That medical emergency left him struggling to hear when in a crowd or when there was background noise,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19103,1259,6097,15559,3685,65258,35698,11676,65261,5126,120,2225,10934,17768,6096,117,111,65260,43,139,32256,69,2687,312,13743,65259,1852,664,22187,24687,80],"class_list":["post-85839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-attend","tag-community","tag-down","tag-elected","tag-events","tag-funnell","tag-hearing","tag-hell","tag-invitations","tag-john","tag-likely","tag-loss","tag-mayor","tag-means","tag-message","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newlyelected","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-noisy","tag-nz","tag-saying","tag-says","tag-sent","tag-skip","tag-taup","tag-turn","tag-unusual","tag-voters","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85839","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=85839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}