About the Author

Bob McNeil was born in Wellington in 1942, the only child of young parents. During his childhood his family was constantly on the move and he lived in various small NZ towns. After a false start at becoming a journalist for the Taranaki Daily News, he spent time working as a teacher and living in London, before returning to New Zealand, and eventually to journalism with a job in radio. In his 18 years as a radio reporter and host, Bob became well known, working in Hamilton and Auckland and courting controversy with his public opposition to the Springbok Tour. He is perhaps best remembered though for his work as an intrepid and always smiling reporter for TV3, starting at the channel just before it went to air in 1989, and he worked there until his retirement- a career than spanned more than two decades. He has won a number of awards for television journalism and traveled to enough countries to lose track of the number of passports he's filled up. Bob retired at the end of 2010 and since then has been working on these memoirs, his first book. He lives on the North Shore in Auckland with his wife Jeanette and they have 3 children and two grandchildren