Hadyn's hard knocks MY KIDS ARE EVERYTHING TO ME

Not getting a fair go as a lad, the presenter makes sure he’s a good sort to all he meets

- Wendyl Nissen

Journalist Hadyn Jones is the sort of guy you’d enjoy meeting at a party or the pub. He has the gift of drawing a story out of anyone, can talk until the cows come home and has a classic dry sense of humour to go with it.

So it is no wonder he has become the “everyman of New Zealand television” with his popular Good Sorts slot on Sunday night’s One News, his Fair Go presenting role, which returns this week, and filling in for Jeremy Wells on Seven Sharp.

If there’s a story out there involving ordinary people doing interesting things, Hadyn, 46, will be there reporting on it. His yarns are usually about one person doing a favour for another. In one word, kindness. Does he think Covid has made New Zealanders better at kindness?

“It’s been a litmus test for us,” he says. “What we’ve seen is a real opportunity for people to get to know their neighbours. I’m big on neighbourhood, so in lockdown I got people to send me in their videos and I cut them together,” he says.

“There was an eight-year old girl in Christchurch who made a newsletter for her street, printed it out and dropped it offin letterboxes, a school principal in Winton who made a music video with his daughters, and people doing daily push-ups or dressups. We’ve got really good imaginations in New Zealand. We are not easily bored!”

But while he may be one of the busiest roving reporters in the country, his true passion belongs at home, in New Plymouth, with his family.