After 12 years on TV3 with his programme Gone Fishin’, Graeme has become one of NZ’s most popular personalities. Graeme has a very diverse and interesting background. He majored in Physical Education at Teachers Training college and joined a pharmaceutical company where he moved from sales representative to National Sales Manager before setting up in partnership handling advertising accounts for several pharmaceutical companies and organising and guiding white water rafting trips, hunters, divers and fishermen.
He later established a company specialising in the development of outdoor management and team building courses and incentive outdoor and leisure programmes. He planned and led expeditions to Fiordland, Marlborough Sounds and Three Kings Island to hunt, dive and fish as well as research subjects of historical significance. After numerous TV appearances and writing various articles for outdoor publications in NZ & Australia, Graeme purchased an interest in a TV production company in 1993 and fronted the first series of Gone Fishin. Then followed his first book “New Zealand – A Wild Place to Play” and the formation of Frontier Television in 1994 as producer, director, and underwater cameraman for 26 Gone Fishin episodes and an “Inside NZ” doco “Fiordland – Coastline of Adventure”.
In 1997 Graeme was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis while researching for his second book and into his 5th Series of Gone Fishin' (now screening in many countries around the globe). Graeme’s passion for life, in the face of an illness that would daunt most people, continued and he produced his 6th series of Gone Fishin' before becoming TV3’s weatherman in Feb 1998. He had to learn to drive a wheelchair and he still lived a very demanding and full life.
Graeme continues to produce his Gone Fishin' (now series 18) and is a skilful wheelchair driver, angler, diver and hunter. His story is one of inspiration and motivation – of living every day as if was your last – of change, from healthy successful TV personality one day to being confined to a wheelchair the next. He has very strong views on life and you will be inspired by his personal philosophy.
As well as living his passion Graeme is also a very successful author and his programme also has received enthusiastic feedback from NZ and overseas. He has written 5 books on hunting and fishing in New Zealand. His 6th book (an autobiography) is due for publication in 2011.
Graeme was awarded Member of the NZ Order of Merit in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours for his services to television. He is the host of the Gone Fishin Saturday morning radio show. Graeme has also been appointed a Patron of Police Light through his involvement with Kids Gone Fishin, and he speaks to many business groups about change, teamwork (essential for fishing) and the power of the human spirit, inspiring audiences wherever he goes.
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