Jack Tame and Mava Moayyed got married last year, but enjoyed their ceremony in January 2024. File photo / supplied
Broadcaster Jack Tame is known for his hard-hitting questioning of politicians on TVNZ’s Q+A every week.
But his fans may not realise what a keen traveller he is.
Speaking to Paula Bennett on her NZ Herald podcast, Ask Me Anything, Tame estimated he had been to about 60 countries, including visiting all seven continents, and there’s a certain type of holiday that gets his attention.
“I’m not someone who can sit on a beach for days on end and be really satisfied.
“I need to have a kind of grittier experience as well. I like to get a sense of a place, understand how a country works and the kind of vibes in different communities.
“I love walking in cities. I love going on holiday to a weird place and getting a haircut, as I know that I’ll end up talking to the hairdresser and having a really interesting interaction with that person.
“I like going to supermarkets and foreign places and seeing the food that they have available, how much it costs and that kind of thing. That’s my kind of travel as opposed to it’s sitting at a resort.”
His adventures have seen him accidentally stray into a military area in Pakistan after misreading a map.
“We got asked to come into an office for an hour and explain ourselves which is a bit stressful.”
Tame has also spent 10 days in Antarctica, where Sir David Attenborough showed up at Scott Base for dinner.
He admits he and his wife, TVNZ journalist Mava Moayyed, are yet to go on honeymoon, and are yet to agree on a destination.
“She actually said in her vows, that she would negotiate with me over the countries, depending on their MFAT risk,” he joked.
He does have one destination in mind that may not meet that threshold though.
“I’d love to go (to a town) in Peru called La Rinconada, which is the highest permanently populated town in the world. It’s higher than Everest Base Camp. It’s a hellhole from all accounts... but you kind of want to say you’ve been there.”
Tame and Moayyed got married earlier this year on Waiheke Island, though it marked the couple’s second ceremony in only a few months. Due to Moayyed’s Baha’i faith, the two initially got married last year in a simple ceremony, before moving in together.
Tame told Bennett that they were “impatient to start our lives together”, and didn’t want to wait eight months to get everyone together.
“I always say we had the marriage and then we had the wedding.”
Tame’s interview with Bennett was recorded after Warner Bros-Discovery announced it would be shutting Newshub by the end of June, but before TVNZ announced it would be making cuts to its shows, including Sunday where Moayyed works.
Tame told Bennett that he “felt sick” at the news that Newshub would be closing.
“When we think about, like, plurality of media, and you think about multiple media companies and news companies, we don’t have that many big newsrooms that are capable of covering multiple stories right around the country every day.”
He describes being a broadcaster as being like an athlete, where you can be at the top of your game one day and be gone the next.
“I love my job, I feel so privileged to have it... but I’m also under no illusions that there are no guarantees about my future in the industry or anything like that. So for the time being, I’m really happy to have kind of got the perfect job.”
Listen to the full episode for more from Tame about his work as a journalist, his wedding and suburban life, aging, and his travel highlights from the years.
Ask Me Anything is a Herald podcast, hosted by former Deputy Minister Paula Bennett. New episodes are available every Sunday.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
From where to get the best view to when the roads will close.