UNCHAINED MELODIE: The mischievous role model

The Black Ferns legend and Celebrity Treasure Island star opens up about growing up around gangs, the status of women in sport and how she met her perfect match.

-  JUDY BAILEY

Fresh-faced at 49, Melodie Robinson slides into shot with her hair in a tumble of curls and the family's German shepherd Basil Brush darting around.

"Woo, I thought it was a phone call, not Zoom," she laughs, although she needn't have worried. The Black Ferns legend is effortlessly gorgeous without the help of make-up - quite possibly like her late mother Patricia Long, who Mel gleefully tells me was known as "Trish the Dish".

Mel is bursting with energy during our interview and clearly not one to let the grass grow under her feet. She sports an impressive CV- as well as having been a fiercely competitive flanker for our national women's rugby team, she's scored a Bachelor of Physical Education, majoring in Sociology of Sport, and later went on to complete her MBA.

She is also a journalist and worked the Parliamentary Press Gallery for Mana News, before becoming rugby's first female commentator - perhaps the thing she's most proud of. Right now, as well as serving on numerous boards, she is the General Manager of Sports and Events at TVNZ.

A self-confessed workaholic, Mel finds it hard to say no, although she's trying to rein herself in with the help of her mates. "My friends tell me off," she confesses.

However, they didn't succeed in stopping her from throwing her hat in the ring for the new season of Celebrity Treasure Island. In the press kit, Mel's quoted as saying, "I hate camping, so that's going to suck." Yeah, good luck with that!

She's joining, among others, Dame Susan Devoy, comedian Mike King, former Shortland Street star Lynette Forday and All Blacks legend Ron Cribb. "But why?" I ask.