The War on Terror and a boy called Jimmy made 2001 a year to remember for broadcaster Mike McRoberts.
I was at TVNZ at the start of 2001 and had been reporting on Holmes for three years. Mark Jennings rang me with a proposal to go to TV3. I told Mark I'd have to tell my boss, Paul Cutler, he'd approached me, as that was part of my contract. Cutler's first words were: "We'll sue you if you try to resign." So I went back to Jennings and said: "Let's have a meeting." I met with Terence Taylor, then executive producer of 20/20, and Mike Brockie who was producing the 6 o'clock news, and I thought: "This is where I want to be."
I went back to TVNZ and thought the worst-case scenario would be paying back six months' salary. That wasn't the worst case. I had to go through the employment court to win the right to resign. I won, but I still had to pay back the salary and work for a month. For my first year at TV3 I earned less than I had the year before. I finished at TVNZ on a Thursday and presented the 6 o'clock news the next day. I hadn't been to TV3 before, so had to ring the receptionist to find out where to go.
Later in the year I was watching the coverage of 9/11 and little knew it would change my future.
The focus quickly went to Afghanistan. I ended up flying over with Phil Vine, a 20/20 producer, and Michael Lacoste, a cameraman everyone called Dutchie.