What is your advice to others trying to get into the distilling game?
The hardest part is just backing yourself. You’re putting your neck on the line. It’s more of a mental thing, I think, but if you stick at it, people start recognising you and the guy from the newspaper starts calling you up.
How has Whanganui changed from when you were young?
I like that it hasn’t grown too big and it’s kind of the same, but there seem to be a lot more people coming through with a bit more of an open mind in terms of te ao Māori, but also our rainbow community and our arts. Those were under a couple of layers of the community, but now it’s out there and people are talking about them.
What is a secret talent you have that nobody knows about?
I don’t have many talents, so this should be easy. I can drop-kick a rugby ball from around my back - there you go. It never goes very far and never goes over the goalposts, but the ball does get kicked somehow.
In a perfect world, how would you like to see Tahu in 10 years?
I would like to see it at a place where we are putting Whanganui on the map internationally. I don’t look too far ahead though, eh - I wake up in the morning and think, ‘What am I meant to be doing today?’ If we’ve got a little Tahu bar downtown and we’ve got a product overseas that’s helping to promote the district, that would be awesome.
You’ve got a long history with the Marist rugby club in Whanganui. Who is your favourite player?
That would have to be Jonah [Lomu]. What a dude. I had the pleasure of training against him here in Whanganui, which was awesome. He pushed me off like I was a fly. I had a bit of a reputation for cutting people in half; they used to call me ‘the samurai’. Everyone said “Samurai will get him”, but nah, no way. Jonah was an amazing guy, and it was humbling to be around him.
If you could bring on anyone from history on board as a partner in Tahu, who would they be?
My business partner Rob [Duthie] and I both lost our mums, and it would be amazing if they were around to see this. That would be really cool.
Who would play you in an Aaron Chadwick biopic?
I always wanted to meet Bob Marley, so can we bring him back to life to play me? Accent and all. If I have to choose a living person, I’ll go with Taika Waititi because he’s given us [Tahu] a bit of support and positive korero around what we’re doing. I think he’s handsome enough to play me, just.
If you were banished from Whanganui forever, where would you want to live?
I would probably go back to Shikoku Island in Japan where I was a teacher for four years. I lived in a little fishing village and taught in five different schools. There were a whole bunch of surf breaks within 10 minutes of my house. That coastline is breathtaking.
