Between Two Beers Podcast: Duane Dalton Reflects on Tania Dalton’s Passing, Bringing Pita Pit to NZ, and more!

On this episode of Between Two Beers we talk to Dwayne Dalton.

Dwayne was a New Zealand surf lifesaving and sprint kayak rep who became the co-founder

of the Peter Pit franchise in New Zealand.

He was also married to Silver Fern star Tanya Dalton who tragically passed away from a

brain aneurysm in 2017.

In this episode we talk about the tricky early days with Peter Pit and how he grew it to

the booming business it is today, the transition from PE teacher to business owner, his fairytale

grassroots rugby story and the success of the Tanya Dalton Foundation.

We also talk about the devastating loss of Tanya and the tools he used to deal with that

trauma and raise three brilliant kids who are now all exceptionally talented athletes

and top humans.

Dwayne was recommended to us as part of our low key legend series and we are so thankful

we get to share his story.

Some parts of this conversation were incredibly vulnerable and difficult but his messages

and outlook on life in the wake of tragedy are equally as important.

There is no blueprint to follow when dealing with loss and trauma but the way Dwayne has

handled himself, his business and his family across the last six years is inspirational.

You get a lot from this yet, Dwayne is a legend.

This is not iHeart, we've got your podcast from or watch the video on YouTube.

This episode was brought to you from the Export Bear Garden Studio.

Enjoy!

Dwayne Dalton, welcome to Between Two Bears.

Thank you, it's a pleasure to be here and I appreciate the invite, cheers.

We're very excited to have you here in the Export Bear Garden Studio and we actually need

to start with a thank you.

This is a pit-a-pit about 30 metres away from our studio here and I reckon I smashed that

southern spiced prawn wrap around once a week, sometimes twice a week.

It's seriously good.

You guys are doing good work.

I'll echo that sentiment.

You probably don't realise this but you fed the Malval United National League football

campaign last season between about October and December Saturday mornings.

We would rip into the pit-a-pits after training.

It was a much welcome addition to that so thank you very much indirectly.

Oh good stuff, I appreciate it.

Actually my young fellow Charlie is doing a bit of work for us at the moment and so

he finishes his shift and he's experimenting with different sort of options so he's got

a surf and turf which puts the prawns in with the steak.

So there you go, if you want to try that one, that's a little Charlie special.

Do you still eat there?

Absolutely.

No, no, so again I've just been away with some mates on a surf trip so it was sort of

one of the first things I was craving when I got back.

Is that a pillar when you come home, like a pillar of something to eat from overseas

you go to the pit-a-pit?

Yeah, just sort of grounds you and you're back home.

I hear you.

I hear you.

Healthy comfort food.

Yes.

That's how it started, isn't it?

Yep.

It's a tagline.

We've got to get into all that.

So a few weeks ago we flicked out a message to our listeners asking for low-key legends

as we called it, sort of suggestions for epic stories that needed to be told.

We got inundated with messages, I reckon hundreds and out of all of them, Shay and

I reckon yours was the best.

So you make Hugh Roberts nominated you and it was an incredibly well written email and

painted a pretty detailed picture of your journey and when you strayed away we had to

get on Duane Over Legend as you kids call you.

And there's lots to cover but I think we should start with a story and everyone we

spoke to said you were the life of the party, the most upbeat, fun, positive guy going and

I think one yarn we stumbled upon captured that really well.

So I was hoping you could take us back and I'm not sure of the time exactly but I'm

thinking late 90s and it's an end of Auckland surf season, end of year prize giving perhaps

with a rogue microphone.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

I vaguely know what you're talking about and in fact I know exactly what you're talking

about.

I'm not sure who's listening out there and who I need to apologise.

Yeah we just sort of finished the year on a high and just got up to some antics as you

typically do and I sort of found myself under the stage baiting other individuals and singing

poorly and unfortunately the organisers couldn't find the off switch so I got more than my

fair share of airtime.

So did you physically take a microphone and crawl underneath the stage and under for those

wrestling aficionados hide under the ring apron and live on the mic?

Make animal noises.

Correct.

What was the go to animal sound if you don't mind me asking?

If you can recall.

It was dependent on who the individual was that I was trying to bait or goat so.

Amazing.

Imagine being the emcee at that and like just being like who the fuck where is that coming

from?

Is there an idea that's come to you if you've seen someone else do that, that's quite genius

I reckon.

Yeah no I'm not sure if I had inspiration on that one but it just sort of came to me

in the air probably with the assistance of some lubrication so yeah.

A couple of bebe's.

Love it.

Okay so the other one we want to talk about is we've heard that you did the Macarena at

the half time.

The what sorry?

Macarena.

I don't know if you have to roll the R on that.

I think you've got to give it that accent.

Macarena.

Got you or a Macarena aficionado.

It doesn't appear so in this conversation.

So Macarena at half time break of a Manly Seagull's NRL match in the middle of sold

out Brookvale Oval.

I'm hearing reports there's about 80,000 people and you're in the middle of giving

it.

You've given a big upgrade on Brookvale Oval.

I think you get 20,000 in maximum.

Some of the stories will be first.

If this is how the afternoon's going to go then yeah there'll be a certain great storytelling.

Is that factual?

Yes.

That's true.

I was over there with the New Zealand surf team and throughout our time during the week

we had a $10 challenge and you either took the punishment or you took up the challenge

and it was simply for $10 note that ultimately got passed on to the next person.

And so yeah the Macarena came on and I got dead.

We were being introduced to the crowd for the upcoming test and yeah I can't remember

who it was.

It might have been Corey Hutchings threw out $10 you got to go and do the Macarena

in the middle.

Amazing.

What was the crowd reception?

It went really well actually.

Did you have the dance in your locker?

Oh yeah very much so.

I don't see a lot of Macarena's these days.

No I mean it's one of those ones, it's polarizing right when it does come on.

If people know they know and they almost cringe to actually do it but they've got it.

They've got it.

If you're a certain vintage you've got it in your locker.

I mean you know mums were covering their children's eyes but it wasn't too bad.

So I spoke to your mate Scotty Pritchard and prepped for the set and shared with him some

of the areas we were keen to talk about and so there's Peter Pad and the business and

family and surf lifesaving and Tanya and the foundation and I was sort of rattling off

all these things and he said, did he tell you about rugby?

I said no, no I didn't know about rugby.

He said you were a New Zealand rep at surf lifesaving and kayak paddling but towards

the end when you were getting a bit tired of it you thought you'd give rugby a crack

for a year.

So you played for Silverdale, quickly became captain and ended up winning the North Harbour

Premiership.

Was it as glamorous as that sounds?

Sort of is.

Yeah there's a bit more of a backstory.

I was originally playing for Tecburner and just sort of got coaxed in because they were

short of some players and just to turn up and one game turned into five games, a friend

Matt Crawford sort of lured me in and then you played with some games with the guys there

and then another mate Rana, Horan who dare I say one day would be another perfect person

to come sit here, his story is like next level, amazing and his old man passed away and he

was a big stalwart for the Silverdale club and so he sort of said, well will you come

and lock with me for a game to honour my old man and so I said yeah let's do that and the

following year he's like right why don't you come back and just do a final season, it's

going to be my last season, let's have a bit of fun together, it was just a social sort

of thing for me that suddenly turned a little bit more serious and suddenly having to do

additional trainings and you know end up having a couple of young up and coming all

complex in the team and yeah had a pretty cool vibe and yeah sort of took them to their

first and so far only but hopefully there's more to come for the club.

Are you a big team guy, are you big in that sort of team dynamics and bringing a group

of people together?

Love it, love it, love sort of bouncing off other people's energy, helping create energy

and yeah it's always sort of been something that's sort of been sort of near and dear

to me.

Is there anything special that you ascended to the kind of that captaincy role within

that team then?

No I was pretty surprised to sort of end up in that space, I think Charlie McAllister

who was the coach at the time had heard some delusional rumours and maybe listened to a

few too many people and sort of put me forward but yeah look I knew a few of the guys in

the team and it was really just sort of bringing a group of us together who'd sort of come

from different backgrounds because it was quite a new team, hadn't been a fully established

sort of 23 group squad so yeah that was sort of part of the challenge.

Yeah nice.

Yeah winning the North Harbour Premiership like it's quite a big deal right and the

info we've had is that you're very excited and cave and again might be an embellishment

but a 1.5 hour...

I love that he's gone before he knows the story that's even coming.

And I've had it quoted a 1.5 hour victory speech in the aftermath.

Yeah they had to ring a head with the power grid just to see if they could keep the lights

on for a little bit longer.

Is that an on-field with the microphone and I'd like to thank this and I'd like to go

there and...

Yeah I took people back to childhood and you know Charlie and bringing out the best in

players and yeah no that's been heavily embellished but again I know the individual who has put

that forward and it's probably to cover up some of his own inadequacies in the rugby

game and you know if you ever get the chance to bring him on here maybe ask him why his

nickname is one ruck.

Well shots fired that.

Shots fired.

He also suggested that you've got the smallest calves in the game too.

I don't know whether that's...

I don't know whether that's factually you've got the jeans on so we can't be the judge

ourselves.

We just look at the stretch there.

But that...

It's obviously embellished it's not 90 minutes big but winning championships with friends

and other men and celebrating their success and I know you were sort of a New Zealand

champion in surf lifesaving and kai can you do all these things which seemed more individual

pursuits.

What is it about that team dynamic that's so special?

Yeah look surf was an individual thing but I guess probably some of my best results were

in a team environment.

So you know we ended up winning the world title in 98 which was the first time in sort

of I think 63, 65 years that New Zealand got up over Australia.

That's like the hardest thing to do like how to sport right that's like a national sport

in Australia that we're not aware of.

Yeah that's basically taking on the you know the icons of the sport and...

How much Nutri-Grain did you put away before winning that title?

Oh that's Iron Man food isn't it?

Yeah same same so a lot of the guys that were all in that Nutri-Grain series were competing

for Aussie and Kori obviously with New Zealand.

So yeah it was sort of just about belief in a current environment where we actually thought

we could do something and you know going from underdog status to taking away sort of just

makes it that little bit sweeter every time and so yeah with the surf team we hadn't done

it before we had a great group of people you know the Brent Foster's, the Trent Brays

and so yeah to get up over that was massive and then likewise with the Silverdale thing

you know I mean we'd never sort of been there before, been in the final ones before you

know with Glen Osborne and a few of the others in the club but sort of couldn't quite get

that final hurdle so yeah it's pretty special when it does happen and then yeah the coolest

thing with that one we'd sort of just finished and Tanya had actually only just got back

from being overseas where they won the Worlds and so yeah sort of the house was pretty jovial

for a few weeks after that and yeah it was good fun.

Well when you were in that era the surf lifesaving stuff was that kind of like amateur?

Was that were you considered a professional athlete or was there money in it?

No there was through the Nutri-Grain series but that was you had to be obviously across

all three disciplines whereas the Worlds was very much around getting the best group

of people to perform multiple disciplines so you had to do some stuff in the pool as

well as stuff on the beach so you're looking at people who had sort of versatility across

different arenas.

Was that your strength versatility or were you particularly strong in one of the disciplines?

No look I probably got the jump there was another paddler John Croydon at the time who

was probably our best ski paddler but where I got the jump was I could jump in the swim

relays I could was beach sprinting even with these little calves you know and yeah tube

rescue and what have you so yeah I guess that versatility was the thing that gave me the

edge and got me into the team.

And that's full dicktogs as well isn't it when you're on the beach and you're doing

the sprint?

Togs, Togs, Undies.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah and is that the one where you're sprinting for the baton on the beach

sprints?

No that's beach flags, Taylor my daughter's exceptional at that, no I'm sort of tall

too tall and lanky so by the time I've got up everybody's already got a flag.

So are you at this stage juggling the beach sports with a career as a PE teacher have

I got that right?

Yes yep that's right so that was quite good I was pretty fortunate sort of came through

Tejas College and on my last placement which I did at Uriwa College the head of PE there

sort of said look I'm looking to retire hopefully they're going to point within and that it'd

free up another spot in the physique department if you're interested you know we could put

your name forward and so yeah I was pretty fortunate that before I finished Tejas College

had my first job and then Mark McCarthy who worked in there was big in surf lifesaving

as well and Edith Miller was a big advocate she'd represent New Zealand and South Polo

herself so you know they were happy for me to sort of go and still chase my dreams and

they thought it was a good look for a PE teacher to also be practicing what they preach so

yeah I really enjoyed that it was a sort of good start to a working career.

Yeah it's going to be one of we're going to get to one of the great PE teacher transformation

stories of the modern era I think but I like starting from there but Tejas College can

you talk to us about Tanya a big part of this whole storyline really is the way that you've

dealt with such tragic loss but before we get to that can you help paint a picture of meeting her

and teachers I understand at Tejas College you guys were best friends before you actually fell

in love together is that accurate? Is that where you met? Yep so T was actually in a year ahead

of me and then she took a year off to go over and do her sort of OE and then that sort of

didn't pan out as it should and came back and everybody was like oh my god you're gonna get

on so well with this girl Tanya and you guys will just hit it off and it's like oh you know

I'll be the judge of that and yada yada yada and yeah I met her for the first day was swimming

that we had to do that was sort of came naturally for me so that was easy and she jumped in and

sort of took the mickey a little bit because it wasn't sort of her preferred sport and yeah

sort of slightly rocky at the start but then yeah became sort of best friends used to have a lot of

fun together there was a good group of us that sort of came through a group that would drive

across from the shore every day and then you know little games started evolving you know

we're at the lights if you're behind someone you might just give them a little nudge just to

let them know you're there and we had one sort of little trip home we're coming on the motorway

and traffic was quite bad and she had a little yellow submarine as we called and I just gave it

a little bit of a tap without realising that there was a heap of rust in the boot and at the time

she was tennis coaching and so the rust just split the bottom of the boat and next thing all these

tennis balls are just rolling out all across the motorway and we can't do anything but just

push ourselves and then she had to go and explain to her tennis pro above her how she'd

lost close to 100 balls on the motorway was that ongoing gag between you two like nudging each

other's cars yeah absolutely and there was another board Gillespie who was heavily involved with

that and Lisa Harper so there were a few sort of playing the game and then you know we did the odd

trip away with the rest of the class and some of them didn't find it quite as funny as we did so

what's the play you wait for them to get your traffic light and you just go gently up and just

give them a little just a little tickle so that you know not too much damage and yeah I've heard

describe that apart you guys were mischievous and together you were dangerous 18 Wilson actually

said that you guys were the first to instigate food fights and that you were the pair that would

lead the other couples astray pretty accurate I think there were a couple of occasions where

that may have happened I wouldn't say always lead but we were certainly straight in behind the action

if somebody else took the lead yeah for sure we'll be right back after this short break

so you're married for 20 years you've got three kids 15 13 and 10 when the most unthinkable thing

the most tragic possible thing happens and Tanya passes away collapsing while playing touch rugby

and in a game in Northcote and I was sort of thinking about how to approach this part of the

episode and I don't want to try to just sensationalize the death I am interested in and how you

dealt with it but a big part of what I think the listeners get from this podcast is hearing from

people at the absolute rock bottom worst part of their life and the tools they used to pull

themselves out and how they rebuild their life afterwards and the support of community and friends

around and because there are people going through similar tough times out there probably not to

that extent but if you're okay and as much as little detail are you able to talk to us about

when you first heard that there'd been a problem with Tanya sure yeah and look it's a hard one to

talk about but it's also a reality and not just for me but like you said for so many people I was

actually I'd been out on a work trip with big food or one of our suppliers we'd been out fishing

we'd had an absolute stellar day oil slick calm water caught heaps of fish and just got back

into Takapuna there was a chance I was going to make it to that touch game but for whatever reason

I didn't and we stayed on had a few beers you know to sort of toast the day and then

receive the fungal and you go from having a little beer buzz on to just trying to even

wrap your head around what the fuck was just said to you and how could this be true and

all the repeated message was just get to the hospital just get to the hospital we'll explain

more when you get there and so that was yeah just like stun mullet and you're kind of well

just flashes before your eyes and then yeah heading in to the hospital you know doctors

and nurses not really giving you any information because obviously they're working on Tanya at

the time people sitting in there hysterical and I guess I'm sort of a process guy first and foremost

and so I'm just trying to process what this is what sort of the percentages that she's

going to get through this how she's going to be when she gets through this where the kids are

you know what we have to do there and so there was a lot of pacing everyone's trying to put their

arm around me I don't want anyone to put their arm around me I'm just trying to work out what the

fuck to do and then that kind of went on for a few days huh that first day you know the doctors

did invite me in to to the intensive care and and that was an image that I'll never forget

and just I didn't think anybody any human could lose that amount of blood the floors were just

completely covered and there's the love of your life the mother of your children and it's what I

said it's home that it's like fuck this isn't a given that she's gonna get through this and

then you go home you got to think and process and it was brutal in the hours in the days

after that because she was in hospital for for about a week right five or six days yep and then

you're juggling a whole world that's been thrown upon you you've got three young kids and you need

to be the rock you've got Tanya it was a household name she was a superstar so you've got media wanting

to know what's going on this huge interest in the story you're trying to look after yourself and

you're trying to figure out you know is she gonna make it how were you during that period

ah it's cliche but the adrenaline kicks in and and not in a sort of normal sports sense or a

fight or flight sense but in a right I've got to get through this there were a lot of a lot of hours

and silence I'm trying to get my head around everything that was going on my parents were

phenomenal they kept an absolute sort of tight bubble around the kids and so you know could go

on and see them they would bring them into the hospital with me and then my network of friends

and Tanya's friends were just phenomenal you know and the fun and the laughter and the joking around

that you have with a lot of people but when the shit hits the fan you really find out sort of who

your true mates were and and thankfully we had a huge village of friends and so everyone sort of

rallied round and look at there wasn't a lot that many of them could do other than just let us know

that they were thinking of us that they were prepared to do whatever it took like I said up

and up until those sort of last hours we we all genuinely thought just the strength of character

the state of health you know how fit and that she was that she she would get through and then you

know when we're having these sort of one-on-ones with the doctors and they're trying to prepare

you for the worst and you know you sort of going yeah I can accept that for a normal person but

he's not normal she's got a hell a lot of fight on her and yeah it was it was pretty tough but

again a rock-solid family and a phenomenal group of friends it was a how would you describe was

that a brain aneurysm is that yeah what so what does that mean exactly what's happened there so

basically inside and just bleeds out through the artery and and they just can't stop it and she

lost so much blood and what have you to the brain that yeah her chance of sort of coming back even

if they did take her off life support and she could support herself the life wouldn't have been

necessarily one that she would have wanted and weirdly as a sort of husband and wife it was

something that we'd spoken about her mother went through dementia and we just sort of saw the

quality of life certainly in the last few months and we both had open on us chats that it wasn't

something that you know we would ever let each other go through and so that side of it well

well it sounds hideous and chaos that side of it was kind of a easy common easy decision to make

obviously I had to do it with her brothers in the room we sat with the doctors we got second

opinions third opinions but all the evidence was explicitly clear that it wasn't gonna be a life

that would be normal so yeah it was yeah I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy and yeah off the back

of that we sort of I sort of made some internal commitments and you have sort of pushed on what

causes something like that to happen partially sort of genetic that there's not a hundred percent

science about it I don't want to sort of put my foot in and say something that that isn't right

because I'm not an expert in that field but it just sounds like extremely unlucky yeah and especially

for a fit young woman who again you know she very rarely missed a day of doing exercise and she

thrived it gave her peace of mind to be able to go out and exercise every day.

Thank you for sharing that with us I think this is the part of the story and do I know the legend

had already been bubbling away and we'll get to some of that a bit later but this is the part where

everyone we spoke to talked about what an incredible job you just laid the blueprint for how to deal

with this incredible trauma so a part of that like you've spoken about is the community that

rallied around you and I spoke to Hugh and I spoke to Scotty and others and they said they were

there with you through the whole time so you had that support to lean on but you have three kids

you've got three kids that you need to be the leader for are you making decisions in your own

mind are you trying to present an image of strength for your kids? I don't know if it was an image

of strength but I wanted to present an image of I knew where we were going and that we were going

to be okay and that yeah I was there for them so yeah we sort of we all moved into the same room

had a lot of buddies around sort of constantly just checking in people dropping food off someone

just popping in for a beer or a cup of tea and then we would talk a lot and we watched videos

you know we were very fortunate in terms of there was a lot of footage of tea just with what she

done through Nepal but also her commentary you know and we sit and watch some of her Sky TV bloopers

you know from commentary and they would give us a chance to have a laugh and again think about all

the good things and remember the positives and so it was a big transition around reminding the kids

just how important mum was and how mum would want them to continue to live their life my sister also

at that time you know was phenomenal sort of really helped move in and help with sort of just a lot

of the basic stuff around the house and with the kids and so she was an absolute rock as well

it's incredible in those challenging moments the strength of character of the people around you

in life your retelling of that story is incredibly similar to the situation where my father passed

away to the point of even getting the phone call my brother gave me a phone call and said you need

to get to the hospital now the days from when he was admitted until when he finally passed are a

bit of a blur but you remember people or things or stuff I only really have one burning memory of

one thing that a friend of mine and I'll shut her out Priscilla Duncan we've had her on the podcast

before gave me a call and I remember that call to this day I remember that's probably the only thing

that I do remember about it but you remember the people that were around and were peripheral

and it galvanizes almost those friendships and those relationships doesn't it yeah I mean we're

special and you know like this sort of wake mentality is that you know a lot of people gathered

around home our neighbours you know we had a great relationship with all of our neighbours

so they knew exactly what was going on they would let people park on their grass berms or in their

driveways you know they would help drop food over they would go and run errands if required

so we you know we were very fortunate on that front we were very fortunate that when people came

around it was all just telling them stories and talking of the best memories that they they had

of tea of the strength you know when she was still in the hospital the strength of their mum you

know just to give help give the kids that belief and who she was as a person so yeah it was phenomenal

it's it's it's almost the like a Māori or Pacific way to to is to come together to come into the

home to share the grief to share the stories to share the memories because that then is what keeps

that legacy continuing and going I'm so thankful that your kids and yourself had the opportunity to

to share those memories and to have those people come in because it's incredibly important

as part of the healing process to not just let that person go and you've done it in such a

tangible way which we'll get on to in a moment as well but it was in the early stages of that that

the idea of the foundation was starting to be crystallized yeah um so again one sort of tea

had passed and we were going sort of through and planning what have you and another good friend

Steve Yukovic and Scotty and I were sort of sitting around and going well you know we can't just

let her legacy die you know we're going to find a way to on this we don't know how I'll get

um but we think we should do something we think you know at her funeral in Moria you should say

something and and so yeah we sort of built up a loose plan in our heads around you know how we

wanted to do it and we at least wanted to acknowledge at that time that we were planning to do something

so that those who did want to help in in a particular way could obviously it was a huge

funeral um you know we sort of packed out harvest stating we had people sitting outside in the stands

I think we had 80 85 000 people watching live and again that was a testament to tea and how she

lived her life and conducted herself uh and yeah we so we were helping that that that sort of legacy

and that memory of a person that you know just basically soaked every ounce of fun out of life

was going to be remembered and continued through and so yeah the the birth of the

the foundation sort of came together and it was easy to do over a few beers but the reality was

it was a hell of a lot of hard work and you know the danger was we didn't know what we didn't know

and so we made a lot of promises but then we then had to sort of step up and deliver against it

but that funeral

grips a nation I feel like I had a look at the youtube video it was like 80 000 views

of the funeral like she had such a strong she made such a strong impression on the world in New

Zealand and uh I watched some of the servers back and and sumo's had been a former guest at a great

job and I think it really speaks testament to the job that you and Tanya both did that all three kids

got up there and spoke with you at the end like that's it's such a hard thing to do but they

they nailed it and so much emotion as you can imagine but it was really cool it was really

cool you you also shook everyone's hand I don't think I got everyone but I tried well there's

2000 plus there's a lot but that's that's a testament to your character as well that in those

moments uh fronting up and showing what it meant to the family and leading you know leading your

family as an you know as an incredible gesture as well we'll be right back after this short break

I'm just going to read something we've spoke to your kids and they've each

contributed greatly to this episode I'm just going to read something Taylor sent us through

she said dad got dealt a bloody shitty card in life when we lost mum and dad stepped up

and absolutely took it in his stride no one deserved what happened to him dad has been the most

amazing dad and mother figure for us he made it possible for us to do everything what he wants to

do he supported us in every way not many people a few days after their wife's death think about

keeping your legacy alive like he did with setting up mum's foundation and now not only is he keeping

her alive but he's touching the lives of so many young women which is bloody incredible and inspirational

and I think now might be a good time to talk about the foundation and and why why it was so

important what it does and why it is so important to to remember Tanya's legacy and and help young

women yep uh I think when we just lived our lives together tea was tea you know and she was the

kid's mum she was my wife she was your bestie the funeral and suddenly the taking away of that

personality actually highlighted that he was someone who really did live life with a passion

and saw the best in everything and the best in everyone um very rarely had a bad word to say

against people would compete on the international stage and still do it with a little smile and

a spring at a step would make a mistake on a um you know international stage and then look across

at the bench and wink and sort of go you know and joke because while she took everything about her

life or her spitting career and her kids and family seriously she never sort of really took

herself too seriously uh and I think that's what made her such a people magnet um you know we could

go down and uh you know when she was playing for the southern steel you know and she'd only been

down there for a little while and you know the locals down there just completely embraced her

in fact written into the contract you know Lee Piper was running it down there and

one of the things that was sort of written into the contract was you know that I got a couple of

dozen bluff oysters to take home well we'd forgotten them one time and the the local people on the

plane gave her permission to quickly race back to the house grab the bluff oysters and then she

ran onto the plane and handed the bluff oysters over you know I mean it it's almost unheard of but

with her it sort of came um you know with the package and she got away with more than probably

any other human and probably packed more into you know her life than most other people do uh

into her short life than most people do into another life uh but yeah always did it with that sort of

smile and um you know rye um smirk on her face uh and so transitioning that into um into the

foundation just seemed like a very natural progression um I think with it you know when

when tanya sort of went out and was teaching um you know I ended up sort of moving from the

sort of uriwas to the sankents and um the christians and what have you for her she actually took a lot

more enjoyment out of working in the manga days uh and the calston girls and things like that and

helping a lot of these girls who perhaps didn't have um you know all the opportunities uh that

were presented and so you know when I thought about how that defined her when she could have had a

pick of any probably private school uh in the country or around the world that that's where

she actually got the most kickback you know and she would often be buying sort of breakfast for

some of these kids or packing up boxes of cereal because they might not have breakfast in the morning

so that sort of seemed a natural area for us to go and help and you know ironically it sort of

seems weird to say now but um sort of six years ago 16 years ago when we were thinking of this

you know women's sport wasn't nearly as professional as what it is now you know uh and so we sort of

came in at a time that was um yeah phenomenal in terms of the difference in the help that we could

make uh for some of these young women so yeah so what does the foundation do uh the foundation uh

the bones of the foundation came off uh the back of that we thought we would assist 12 young girls

in the first year uh we wanted to support them for three years again our view was that you couldn't

just simply check someone some money um hope that they're gonna improve and then shake their hand at

the end and thank them very much so we said no we need to have them for three years we need to

actually be able to make an impact we need to give them workshops so that they come out of this

that they're going to be better young women than they went in financially we're going to be able

to assist them so that their mum and dads um you know some of the pressures come off uh you know

and some of these girls have some phenomenal stories uh and um you know hurdles that they've

overcome to get to where they are in their sport and so we want to put that we want to put workshops

so they come out you know they learn to speak publicly they learn to look at their social

media profiles and you know what are they putting on there how's that going to impact them potentially

down the track if they get a massive sponsorship um you know uh again and then we also gave them a

mentor um and so a lot of um tanya sort of friends from not just nipple but from all different sports

table yeah i'm keen to mentor one of these young women and i'll help them through the headaches

and heartaches and hardships of you know being dropped from a team or um you know having a scrap

at home with mum and then having a front up on the sports field or um what have you and so we

we created the mentors uh we created the workshops uh and then we had the scholarship partners

and then the scholarship partners was to sort of come on board and help expose them to you

know a different life you know and so scottie through precinct property at the time um steve

was working at um asb he's now um at ceo of kiwi bank you know bringing these girls and

and showing them actually what is achievable you know in the irony with uh the scotties you know

i mean here's our orua college boy um he studied to um um be a teacher as well then he went and

worked out in the fire service calls himself a pilot um because he drove the hovercraft that

gives you a pilot's license you can ask him one day about the mongery bridge um and you know

steve came from glenfield college um taken his way through you know it's now c of kiwi bank

and so again these guys got um the fact that if you go out and you make the right choices and good

decisions you can actually impact where your life is heading irrespective of where you come from

or your background and so it became a quite a compelling uh opportunity uh to put to these girls

and so that was all good and then we thought well what do we do do we just advertise in the

paper and see who put their hands up and uh but we thought we'd start off with um six sports that

tanya was involved with and each sport would get two spaces um and again we were sort of naive

in our expectations and even around setting up a charity and so uh we sought advice from a guy

ant fort who'd been heavily involved with not for profits um it was a local guy who knew tanya

really well um played tennis against sir and um he was phenomenal and so he was coming in for a

few months and was just going to give us a little bit of a hand um ended up staying for five years

um and also put us on to karen morgan's who uh karen and tanya used to flat together

and karen became sort of the scholarship um manager uh in the end she was she was the scholarship mom

and you know basically you know she had all these girls as sort of 36 additional kids uh to her own

too and yeah created just this real um place of love a sisterhood that uh you know all the girls

could then learn and grow from uh ask each other questions and we've sort of morphed now from

you know just having six sports we're up at i think 13 sports now that we're across uh we've

worked some sports don't necessarily complement as much other sports have moved on a hell of a lot

from when we started you know rugby now has become so much more professional uh and everything that

they offer the girls and their their pathway is sort of starting to come in before we get our

hands on the girls so we're looking at other opportunities and then for a lot of these young

women now uh you know you've seen these pathways through american colleges uh you know more and

more professional sport you know cricket now with the equal pay opportunities uh it's a really

special time to be a young female sports person you speak to the opportunities that rugby has now

but one of the alumni stories really nice ones is renay homes um and that video that that's

that lives on the tani dalton foundation website where um comes from a single parent household

her father would drive her from gisborne to hastings uh three hours there three hours back

to support her sporting pursuits and it's when a recipient of the scholarship speaks to the help

that that has given them and then you see the trajectory of success as well that that she's

now a world champion is phenomenal work that that you're doing in the sports um sports sectors we

spoke to paris mason and the lead up to this as well um you know who spoke of the sisterhood

it's amazing that term the terminology maybe that you guys use within there just really resonates

through that group it's um it's really really powerful stuff and it echoes a little bit i think of

maybe your own journey after the loss of tanya and supporting your own kids in their own sporting

achievements that they've spoken all that they didn't miss a single training session some of

them were running three or four sports um and you would not let that go despite the loss of tanya

that you would support them through that so in a way it's almost like the foundation don't

only echoes tanya's values and legacies but your your own as well in terms of supporting um future

athletes endeavors yeah the the reason tanya and i absolutely loved and were passionate about sport

obviously we were both heavily involved with it uh our circle of friends uh came from sport

but the thing we love about sport is it transcends race religion wealth uh you know you go and put

on your team jersey um you know i don't know if you haven't had breakfast or you slept in the

garage with 12 other people uh or whether you were in the penthouse um you know you all come together

for a common goal uh and it unites people in a way that i don't think there's really a lot of other

things in society do so we are massive advocates of it uh you know people talk of a sort of divisive

country at the moment you know you go into sport all that gets parked whether it's for the 80 minutes

on the field or for the training sessions uh you know everybody comes together as one and we are

such a multicultural nation at the moment that i i love it i love the way seeing you know my kids go

through the sport and and the the mixture and the you know melting pot of sort of friends uh that

come through the doors um and and the thing that i love about that too is the you know the kids help

set the expectations when kids come into the house and you know they know that you know you've

got to go and say good day to Dwayneau and you know you just can't plod yourself down on the

couch and common courtesies and they've got to go and have a chat to Anna um too so yeah i think uh

that's that's what i love about sport is there's there's a lot of rules but it transcends so many

things. Shae's written down some uh some numbers for me that i want to read out about the amazing

work the foundation has done was it six years? Six years. 73 scholarships awarded at 1750 hours

of workshop content completed 736 mental hours a million dollars in scholarship funding committed

but also what i've heard is that it has created perhaps the best night in Auckland on the social

calendar the foundation night i just bumped into Brodie Kane uh in the corridor and she said she

emceed it last year and said it's a hell of a night yeah is that that's the party side of Tanya

been presented as well uh well yep Anna we wanted to be true to Tanya so we wanted it to be a funny

event but not a stuffy evening we wanted people to have an excuse to dress up but not to be um

too posh and pompous um you know the first year we had a inflatable horizontal budgie um we had

a couple people kicked off trying to do it naked um and one of them would again is

probably been on a similar podcast and well known to many New Zealanders um and then the second year

someone snapped in our killies so you know we weren't allowed to bring that on anymore but

the reason i highlight it was because it was putting fun into an environment where um you know

people got to dress up but they also got to remember who T was and how she lived her life

and the values within which she lived her life um and i think sort of yeah the cool thing about that

you know you're a deans who's now sitting on the board the baneese minis you know baneese

sort of put herself out there to help raise funds you know dressed up as a drag queen

for one of the evenings you know prepared to um you know lose their inhibitions a little bit but

to generate a real interest in the crowd to sort of promote um and then you find you know we're

about to hold our next one on the 31st of august this year you know we have a um ex young girl um you

know who uh she'd had some involvement with the tea through netball but also was a student um that i

was involved with you know she's just put up an auction item of um for two people down Antarctica

with John Key um as an auction prize you know safari group who are based just next door to

you guys across the road here you know a young guy who i used to coach in rugby um you know has

come on board and and seen this got his company they just attended the gala dinner absolutely

loved it they came on board and said look we want to run a golf day for you raised $45 000

off the back of a golf day it was the biggest golf day by you know north of 20k um and now you

know they've got staff helping with the mentoring side of things and it sort of becomes just this

this bigger family and and people buy into what the the greater purposes and that's where i think

it's really unique because again it comes back to the spirit of Tanya and like i said if those guys

hadn't attended the gala dinner got so emotive and hyped up about it you know and they're now

encouraging other people to come on board and and get involved and so it's pretty cool it's really

cool it's such a cool community you guys have built um so right that's part one of Dwayne the

legend well can i jump in just very quickly with something on on the foundation is how important

was that in the grieving process setting that up and continuing to have that that reminder of

Tanya and Tanya's legacy uh yeah it was it was hugely important on two fronts uh one for

again purpose for myself um sort of to keep going but also something to show the kids um

so the the kids had that sort of sitting there uh and so again they've spoken um at gala dinners

as well in fact charlie um spoke at our second gala dinner and completely knocked it out of the park

and spoke about resilience and um sort of what he'd been through uh and i reckon that probably

generated another 50k on the night because there probably wasn't a dry eye um in the place and

so it's a chance for them to to sort of see and they absolutely zero expectation um from my end

that they have to do it they have to want to uh do it but again it comes back to yeah i think

piece so it it definitely did help just on those kids of yours um we sent them each a message on

instagram to give us some sort of we let maddie off the hook we let maddie off the hook but uh

they both sent i think five or six of one minute voice notes like so clear and concise and sharp

and insightful like i was like wow this is the best feedback i think we've ever got uh so yeah great job

we'll be right back after this short break

that brings to a close part one of dwayne o the legend part two of dwayne o the legend

and i'm gonna jump back in time a little bit this on its own is worthy of a podcast

you bought peter pit to new zealand man you've jumped you've jumped the pronunciation's about

five times so far yeah he didn't mind he said you're going either way you've gone peter pit peter

but peter pit but it's 75 branches nationwide yep and it all started when you were a PE teacher

so you're a PE teacher if i've got the story right traveling over to canada or us or a friend of

yours yes tell tell the story yeah so cool story um was working at christin school um

and the guy i was working with there was a ski instructor and so he was up in mammoth

uh and had sort of text back and go i've got a great business opportunity i think we should

have a look at it i'm like right what is it uh peter pit we've got to go for it it's just the

best food it's healthy it's good for sports people um it's like subway but better and so i'm like

sweet i'm in um so yeah he went and pitched to the international guys um we managed they gave us

the rights um signed the rights i'd still never even tried one um you know so massive faith in

business partner um was it his pitch to you that's that's got you across the line as well

look it was we'd sort of been talking around in that area sort of something to look at and it sat

very much in a similar space to food that i loved uh or tea and i loved anyway um and that sort of on

the go um sort of take away we wanted a healthier option especially you know with young kids growing

up so that they weren't sort of going down a different path just the shade interlude you guys

remember zero subs yeah yeah they didn't last very long i think craig wiley was the uh face of zero

subs for the wall which is a very niche football reference sorry carry on do i know and just i'll

just jump in was it expensive to buy that license is that like a big thing yeah yeah it was um

absolutely when you're a school teacher um and we sort of you know parents loaned me some money

and chris's parents loaned him some um we had a third investor roscow silent um but then you know

tea sort of said to me okay well in the big scam your things what what's the worst thing that could

happen to us just before i say yes and i'm like well we could lose our house and she's like oh okay

yeah that's that's a bad one and then but then this is typical tea she goes but we could move in

down at the takapuna motor camp you think about raising kids right on the water takapuna beach

there we could go for swims in the morning and that was just her natural way of turning something

scary big threatening into oh my god how cool would it be if we lived on takapuna beach motor camp

by the way are you the eternal optimist at this stage because to to paint further paint a picture

this is gfc time uh you were just heading into well we uh with no business experience or business

acumen yep eternal optimist uh i know both my parents uh were self-employed so they were sort

of i'd seen that i'd seen the work ethic um of them in the late nights and uh my mum sort of very

much a perfectionist sort of by nature and um dad's sort of very methodical and and practical

so it wasn't um delusional around what was required but also too we didn't have um you know

we didn't have the the spear funds that you know we were hiring heaps of people so tanya sort of

worked in there with chris my business partner and then i would go in after work at the stage

i'd sort of moved into working at harbour rugby um and so you had a often finished work at harbour

rugby and then go in there and do the night shifts um and you it used to be a bar across the road

called rototo oh yes they did oh yes they did and so you know that would close at one o'clock and

wednesday open until two um and you know it's important to get a healthy meal after a skinful

oh we would have lines out the door it was just the we've some funny photos and memories

from those days around um you know what people would put on they'd have triple meat and two bags

of chips and what have you and and it sort of really um gathered a bit of a sort of cult following

and um you know we grew from there uh and then yeah slowly sort of moved in we we had a bit of a

hiccup um with our first franchisee end up in the high court um and again there was just a

sort of variation of expectations probably from both sides um so some steep learning curves early on

um but again you know like with anything you sort of push through that um and yeah chris and my

business relationship still going strong um 17 years on and you know we're looking at other

opportunities now as well which is cool when you buy a license like that to bring peter pit

to new zealand is there do they have guidance of of how the shop should look or what should be in it

or what can be on the menu or do you have freedom to to do what you want with it uh we we had freedom

in our agreement to what was termed new zealand eyes the concept uh because there are a few things

in there that they had a lot of these quirky characters all over the wall and and they very

much based the brand out of college towns um so they were picking up a lot of university students

we were trying to mainstream it um we hit a we hit it off with the founder uh and we actually

became like best friends with him and the sort of CEO in fact we were up at um you know the founders

50th up in the Bahamas and um you know it's more a friendship than a business relationship um and

yeah we had um we sort of had it for 99 years and in that time we had to um try and get to

50 stores if we possibly could i think we sort of smashed that out of the water in 10 um and yeah

we've got more peter pits per header population anywhere uh in the world so you're pretty proud

of that and you're responsible for growth aren't you so uh yeah in the early days we sort of delineated

um our roles uh a little bit but again as we're sort of getting older and needing new challenges

we sort of mobilise strengths into different parts of the business uh we've got a great team in there

we've got a again we've got a GM who started as our signage guy uh and then we brought him on as our

ops manager um again knew him through playing rugby and um through circles of friends and what

have you and yeah you know it's been awesome just to see him blossom and grow as a leader as well

so it's sort of become this sort of great little vehicle where um you know people have sort of come

through the doors and moved on to bigger and better things and how many countries in the world

is peter peter so yeah i probably should have done my homework on that to be honest but yeah maybe

12 i think so it's just changed ownership now um so yeah through to a big sort of multi-brand

uh company out of canada um and i went and met them up in chicago a few weeks ago and great guys

and uh you know they've got big aspirations for the brand your your mate the founder the original

the og but would he be a billionaire hi i don't know about quite a billionaire but yeah he's

we went and visited his lake house um he's doing all right for himself yeah yeah he uh you know the

guy that um runs and owns the belagio has got the lake house next to him so i don't mean to look

up in the neighborhood yeah he's probably all right i remember when it came out i feel like

you had some really smart partnerships to begin with there was a netball new zealand partnership

i think early doors but also world masters games i think you fed all the volunteers

yeah so um jenna wooden was um running all that up obviously a very smart lady um sort of well

known in the event circles and so she hit us up about whether or not we had the capacity or the

ability to sort of do it because it was obviously a a truckload of volunteers across numerous

sports in various locations uh so yeah that was a great partnership to get involved with uh one

just because it was a cool event to have in new zealand and to showcase um the country um but

to support her so getting involved there was amazing uh you know we've had uh lisa carrington

as a key sponsor and you know having known her through surf lifesaving days and uh no

yeah her husband uh bucky really well um through surf you know it's good to be able to find ways

to sort of help and support her as she comes through her support um so yeah no we have we've had some

phenomenal partnerships again you can see sort of the consistency with um you know trying to

align things back to sport and keeping people active uh we're also um you know by the very

nature of our food uh we've been involved with the government free school lunch program

and you know so we're we're sort of doing around 75 000 meals a week um and the cool thing about that

is again it's not just um you know kids not having the ability to focus in the afternoons or you

know having a nourishing um meal you know it's all the the things that they they can then put

something in the belly they can have some focus in the afternoon they're not detracted or they're

not going out scrapping at lunchtime hopefully it helps improve attendance um in schools uh

by the time this podcast sort of comes out uh a lot of the schools we've just um organized so we've

we've got a few more thousand balls um that we're going to be giving to those schools just as a thank

you for the partnership and again it's just to get kids active um and trying to move around and

fall in love with sport so yeah yeah it's a very constant theme and a lot of the stuff well yeah

I just want to look back to the foundation very quickly because you've got two other strings to

the bow it's not only the scholarships for the young female athletes but you've got a pass it

forward which you do in conjunction with rebel sport but also the resilience project which is a

pet favorite of mine but are you able to just very quickly speak speak about those two uh in

school initiatives yeah so the pass it forward one is that whole you know these girls are getting

some massive opportunities for us and um you know they've got to give something back right you know

and they've got to so a lot of them and they the girls love it and you know when they do their

graduation ceremony it's their favorite sort of part is going back to their old schools um and a

lot of them have come from sort of low-decile schools and been able to give back uh all their

sports balls some of the cricket sets basketballs touch balls uh to the schools they just absolutely

love and thrive on so we're north of sort of $600,000 worth of balls that we've given out to schools

which has a connection point of around 800,000 um you know kids touching a ball in some way shape or

form uh so yeah that's hugely powerful um and then like I said we're giving more out through

Peterpint in the next couple of weeks then the resilience project look that's been a um

uh yeah a real passion that wellness piece um is something that's just so vital in New Zealand

at the moment uh and we looked early on to that um you know Guy Brett Hollister sort of put us

put me onto it and sort of spoke around you know what a great opportunity it was he was going to

have a look himself but he was going down a slightly different path uh and we just saw the

real need um for it you know and when you see some of the stats that are coming out and and

I'm talking sort of predominantly intermediate type school kids here you know but one in four

kids are turning up school not ready to learn by that I mean they haven't had breakfast or they

haven't had a proper night's sleep you know they're getting served up all this stuff on social media

that they they're getting lost for what reality is like because a lot of that stuff's based off

algorithms um and so the the constant feeder stuff reinforces behavior that doesn't necessarily

reflect reality um or society so yeah it runs off a gem principle which is gratitude empathy

and mindfulness um and again we're even trying to uh bring some of those uh tactics into store

and into franchisees and look at it wellness programs for our franchisees uh and then we're

about to um do something coming up around mental health awareness and just again having sort of

gratitude walls uh within our stores so that you know people can just take a time where they're

waiting for their uh peter boulder egg to be made and they can sort of just reflect on something

that they're grateful for that how's your gem how's your gem practices going uh yeah really well

I again I think I'm I'm a better person now at telling people I love them um I've let them know

what they mean to me um and how they've helped me uh perhaps wasn't a strength previously um and even

my kids um would say that that you know a lot more cuddles and a lot more little subtle gestures to

them uh more often than now so yeah I think I'm becoming a lot stronger at it I'm a lot better

talker around a lot of things but then I have a phenomenal network that allows me to sort of

let my guard down and be a lot more trusting it's a it's an intimidating space to lean into right

when you're uh of a certain kind of philosophy about particularly how a man should be um to lean

into kind of those things is a is a great place to be at yeah we do uh in our foundation sort of

whips uh and Georgie normally leads this so Georgie uh who's run this space and now moving

and she's taking over Karen's role as sort of um the scholarship meant to you know I mean she's

captain England woman's rugby team she's played nipple for Wales um she's come from a very disadvantaged

background so for her moving into this space is just phenomenal but she'll hold us to account

that we have to go through some of these tasks every whip you know and some of them are really

uncomfortable to have to come out and talk to but you always leave feeling so much better

um than when you arrived and yeah she she's an absolute master in sort of getting us to

all do it she's a rock star I'm keen to pick back up on the the journey of um pitterpitter

I've come back to pitterpitter pitterpitter so you know you're a p no disrespect p teachers

they don't need a lot of money you've invested the money with Kristen wasn't he teaching

you've invested you've got funds from friends and family or whatever to get this license and

you've bought it back to New Zealand and you've got that first store and it's doing well and then

it's doing well enough to set up a second store and then the third and fourth is there a time and

in what timeline is that where you're thinking shit this is going really well like this could

turn into what it is now or did you know that straight away no no we definitely didn't in fact

we thought we had a flop um we we signed our lease um at sort of the height of the bubble and in

fact we paid a thing called key money to get our lease um which is almost unheard of so basically

you just put some money down that you're never going to see and it's of no value other than to

the landlord and he puts it in his pocket um and then we opened at the start of the technical

recession uh and we just thought we were doomed um we traded our way through uh and then we did we

sort of um you know a little match meet kindling moment um where it suddenly started getting

real traction uh and you know there was sort of the the whispered secret of oh my god you've

got to go and try this place um you know a lot of comparisons to the subways and that of the world

and so you know people were looking to get first mover advantage and move it into their local

towns and so another buddy of mine who um you know had grown up with us all had sort of slept on our

floor um sort of Thursdays through to Sundays because he lived up on the coast and we were on

the shore and it was closer to town um you know he was a sort of had been wiring a couple of stores

for us um we charged him with the task of becoming a project manager getting all his licenses and

skills and so he moved into the office with us um and I think in our best year we opened 20 something

stores and he was just flattac around the country um just knocking it out of the park

had a great group of sub trades um working for him um you know we're importing equipment from

out of the states and containers uh at a time and yeah it was right you've got to be here to do this

and open this and uh it was it was sort of yeah crazy times when I look back on it now

but it's also sort of helped pave the way to when you have a disaster like we did to be able to

have a team and and staff around to sort of carry the bat in a little bit and keep things going

you know while I was in a sort of pretty sort of brutal space yeah I'm interested in those

timelines when when Tanya passed was there a moment before like where was the business

at before she passed had you had a chance to celebrate together like how good things were

going absolutely um and we also had the rights to Australia and so I started to spend a lot more

time in Australia we'd got to 16 stores we're excited about the opportunity over there obviously

the magnitude um you know we'd initially secured the rights um for Australia and we just didn't

exercise them until we sort of got some good runs on the board here uh and then obviously with Tanya

passing then you know he just wasn't prepared to get on a plane um and so we ended up sort of selling

uh the Australian rights to one of our franchisees over there uh which you know was a sort of tough

pill to um swallow but it was the right one at the time and and look all things considered you know

where my head was at there it was really only in about the kids um so it wasn't a painful thing to do

yeah and how hands-on are you now in the day to day of pit a pit what what what do you do yeah still

very hands-on um you know calling it a historic uh Mount Eden today new owners taken over um you

know he's close to quadruple sales uh in his first week so I just wanted to get out there and shake

his hand and congratulate him on doing a massive job I've also been up at Westlake Boys today they're

just hosting a um 600 principles around the world for the International Boys School Conference

or Boys School Collective uh and so we're doing all the catering up there so we another sort of um

tentacle that we've sort of put out now is another concept called Club Grub

and the view through there is to utilize kitchens and sports clubs and bring brands to towns

down the track like a Morinsville or someone that might not necessarily justify a store

but we could go and utilize the the clubs bring our brands to it and give revenue straight back

to the clubs you know who we know are desperately seeking money yeah you can start one up at Melville

United yeah so you know it's where it's heading and we're just trying to be smart around some of

these things and then we've moved into the school canteen space um you know so we've taken over the

tuck shop at Westlake Boys uh you know uh we've increased their sales 38 percent and we've just

sort of layered a lens of you know Christmas business partners got um sort of school aged kids

and with mine you know things like you know is there food for them if they've finished

rowing training you know let's have breakfast waiting for them so that they can grab and then go

to class uh we're opening up after school so that they can get a teriyaki chicken uh on rice before

they go to rugby training or soccer training um and just trying to commercialize it so it's all

at base they can order online mum can order they have online pick up portals uh that we try and

segregate between the different year groups so that the year 13s aren't um you know stealing the

lunch of their little year nine-year-olds um which you know we probably all went through when we were

at school uh so yeah moving into that space and and you know putting money back into the schools

and you know doing a social enterprise around it so you know we say always we come on board we'll

also sponsor um you know particularly uniforms for some sports teams or um and as I said you know

giving sports balls back so that theme sort of keeps coming through I've heard it said about you

that you are a master networker and that you're just all that you know everyone you're so well

connected I wondered if you can reflect on your business success I mean you've absolutely smashed

it out of the park at this point and when you look back and you credit to why you've done so well

how much of it is risk how much of it is luck how much of it is hard work how much of it is your

optimistic attitude and being out there and networking and connecting um I'd say it's all

kind of in equal parts and depending on the environment and the the focus um it gets amplified

in that particular area um the the networking thing well that that comes easily I'm a people

person um I like good people uh I like energy givers rather than energy takers um truth be told

and you know when I was sort of involved as a you know convener of selectors with surf lifesaving

you know that was a common sort of mantra is that we're looking for people that are actually going

to bring a team up um and enhance everybody's performance rather than somebody trying to

drag others down to lift themselves up uh we we sort of take that same mentality into um you know

with franchisees and and with our staff uh so yeah no I think it it's sort of ebbs and flows it

it's not an equal percentage depending on what's going on I mean this year that we've had you know

with cyclones and uh what have you coming through you know we used to be able to proudly say that

we sourced um all of our ingredients from New Zealand well you know us and and many others

were having to import letters from Australia uh you know and you just got to be reactive and

think on your feet and so I liken it that we probably never had to work harder to stay in

the same place. That brings us to part three Dwayne O'The Legend and uh I'm going to read something

out that um Scotty Pritchard sent through and he says Dwayne's greatest achievement in his life

is his response to Tanya's passing and how he's given those kids the best opportunity to be

and all three are remarkable people incredibly good humans Taylor a a carbon copy of her mum

in terms of the way she engages with people she's been a solidifying force as the oldest doing

amazing things with the tall ferns what he's done really well is to not try and be mum he's always

been honest and said I am who I am and I'll give you everything I've got but I'm not your mum I

can't replace her and I won't but he's been the best father that he can be he's always been open

to feedback and sort advice the old Dwayne would be figured would have tried to figure things out

for himself so he's saying and and everyone I've spoken to despite all this other success you've

had is the job you've done raising these kids and I was hoping you could talk a little bit about them

because they're all it seems on the cusp of sporting success themselves well they're already at a

very high level um so when you think about the trajectory they're on and you think about how

you picked up the pieces after Tanya passed does that fill you with pride do you feel like you've

done a good job immensely yeah um proud of all the kids they're they're all bringing their own

little personality and um traits through uh and and funnily enough all three of them are quite

different uh in fact I just recently had a milestone birthday and uh you know they all got the chance

to speak uh none of them used any notes which again is something I try and encourage because

I want them to talk from the heart uh and but again gave these hilarious um speeches and you

know I mean Maddie came through uh and just knocked it out the park and he talked about you know

well you should have bloody gone to Maddie dammit he spoke about the pancake roll and you know the

first pancake is a little bit rough against a bit bent and the second one might be a bit

fat and but that third pancake is just the best yeah uh you know so he's got a fair sense of humor

uh he has a phenomenal read of sport um I probably shouldn't be saying this but you know he's he's my

go-to uh on TAB bets and you know 15 he is almost Rain Manish uh so yeah he's phenomenal um Taylor

you know Tanya and I used to always joke that she was sort of gifted to us to take care of us

from day dot she's always been a super serious onto it um kid uh and you know she's doing

phenomenally well you know I had the pleasure of watching her play for the Tall Ferns over in Ozzy

where they just made it through to Olympic qualifiers uh first time in a long while they

they played out of their skin great group of uh young woman and to see her sort of flourish in

that environment um you know made my heart burst with pride and you know there were a couple of

moments on the sideline where the tears or or memories sort of slipped down my cheeks knowing

how chuffed he would have been to have seen that uh and she's still she's still got so much left in

her um she's doing really well over at uh university uh and in fact in an economics exam she got 100

percent no and she got the coolest um email from her lecturer who'd sort of been saying he's been

running his whole life um for a student in this particular subject to gift him that so she's been

blessed with a great brain uh very people orientated but again I you know I need to praise um sort of

a lot of T's network who um you know when she passed away a lot of them stepped in and they

were reaching out you know uh Jenny and Jackie who jumped on a plane and went and visited her

over in St Mary's and got to hang out with her you know Anna Stanley who turned up to her sports

prize giving to be there to see who get her awarded you know uh Bernie for constantly checking in

you know a lot of these people go above and beyond just to check in on a Bernardine of Kirby um you

know so that's where I do feel truly blessed and it's all those additional people that subtly are

rubbing off amazing values that have made my cause a lot easier and at times made me look

probably better than what I am to be perfectly honest and then yeah Charlie's coming through and

he's sort of he's just come on and leaps and bounds uh in the last couple of years and it's just sort

of uh moving from a sort of teenage uh brain into a young man who's got ambition he's having a great

season with the Tuatara um but again you know I have to pay massive compliments back to guys

within the Tuatara environment you know Aaron for giving him a chance to start against a current

tall black but guys like Rob Lowe um you know the Cam Glidons uh you know those guys in there

have really hold held Charlie to account and even though he's younger and even though he's been

through some hardships they don't give him any um any grace any room to move and he's responded to

it uh you know and so it's not coming from me it's coming the same message that I probably want to say

is coming from external sources and it's a hell of a lot more um powerful when it comes from you

know those sorts of guys that he has absolute respect for one of the the consistent themes that

both um Taylor and Charlie said was that after a couple of years dad will often reach into his book

of wisdom and drop some knowledge on us I can see in front of me you're nearly at the end of your

second beer it's an opportunity now for you to bless us with a few of those life lessons so can

you reach into that book of wisdom and maybe share a couple of your favorites with us no no I don't

know if there's any that are um sort of popped to the top of the mind but you know I am um guilty of

sort of leaning on the kids uh at times and again it it comes from a good place um and I just want to

you know for them to be the best versions of themselves and to blaze their own trail and to

run their own identity um not just Tanya's children um you know but Taylor Dalton and Charlie Dalton

and yeah to light their names up and if it's not in sport I honestly I don't care but as long as

it's something that they're passionate about and something that gets them out of bed in the morning

and wants to chase uh being awesome mediocre is not really something that I want them to aspire

towards um you know I just think they could be better than them they've been blessed with

some great opportunities I want them to maximize it well thankfully for us they uh they dropped some

of those knowledge bombs for us to read out on their behalf so Steve do you want to do do you

want to do uh Charlie's little piece Charlie has said uh running pit a pit has turned him

into a smart guy I'm not sure he always was but now he's pretty wise after a couple of beers he'll

bring out a couple of life lessons and they're always pretty valuable one of the key ones I like

to use is to always thank the people around you the friends that you choose shape you that's what

he's driven into us choose the right people to hang around because they'll shape you into who

you are today I think he's done that really well which has helped him to get where he is today

so I mean I think that's a life lesson worth talking about and we've mentioned a bunch of names

super successful people that you've kind of grown up with they were the ones there for you

in your darkest hour when you needed them the most surrounding yourself with good people like how

important is that I'm a firm believer in that it's it's a non-negotiable it's absolutely critical

and you know speak about energy givers and energy takers I'm a real believer

in that and again I think I mentioned earlier you know none of these people were were gifted

amazing lives and it and it sort of fell in the lap all of them have gone and chased it and worked

for it and as a result of that you know when T was here you know the kids got to you know

hang around a lot of good people who again passed on probably similar wisdom but in a

different way in a different light and you know there was there was just something we wanted for

our kids and our family and it makes our life a hell of a lot better too you know and all of them

have a little sparkle in their eye and you know enjoy a bit of fun but in the right environment

and at the right time I've I'm not really sure how to ask this so we can edit this out of need

be but I've talked to a few people who have told me that you've got a new partner now

and she's filled I'm not sure if the right phrasing is to fill the gap that Tanya left

but they say she is the perfect fit for you uh after what happened to Tanya and I wondered if

it's okay to talk about because you're not going to know how to deal with that situation unless

you've been it yourself you're married to someone you're in love you've got kids and they tragically

go and then you take some time and then you fall and then you find a new partner and then you move

on with your life and I just wondered what that's like how how you how you move on how and what

space she feels in your life now I don't think you move on you move forward

and I think that's really important Anna is a phenomenal lady again met her at a dinner with

some friends is I say lightning struck me twice in terms of beautiful humans she has three amazing

young kids she is very accepting of the role and the personality that Tanya was and even through

her own company she's come on board as a scholarship partner she puts tables together of her friends to

come along you know and bid heavily on auction items in fact one of them bought a surfboard for

$10,000 she is outstanding with my kids with my family she motivated she chases life

Huey who sort of put this forward sort of said to me one day he said do you know he goes I've

worked you out you've cracked it you've cracked the code and I'm like oh what do you mean he goes

we always chase a relationship we're one plus one equals three and he said you know you're always

looking to make each other better you don't run people down and he said and now you know

to his credit he's he's met a person we're one plus one equals three and and matches met kindling and

it's it's awesome to see so yeah very lucky very blessed yeah thank you for sharing that

um Taylor's life lesson that she took away

was it dad's always wanted to prepare us for the world not protect us from the world

and your comments just then I guess speak to that as well stuff happens stuff happens to

people all over the place the varying degrees of how that affects you I guess is different but

it seems to me you've you've equipped your kids with just an amazing toolkit in terms of dealing

with life and what life can throw at you it um I don't know what my question is if there is one

it's more a kind of observation but was it the adversity that you went through that galvanized

that or did you always have that kind of view of the world prior to Tanya's passing yeah no I've

I've always sort of seen my role or T and I always saw our role and it was a collective decision

that we were here to protect prepare our kids for the world not to protect them

and sometimes you have to let them fall to make them great sometimes you have to let them

work it out in their own head and be there to answer questions if they slightly go off track

um you know adversity as much as none of us like it uh is a reality that we're all going to have

at some point in our life and so do it to work out the mechanisms that work best for you uh and

the best situations uh how you get through it and again I I liken that back to uh if they get the

right circle of friends around them when they do stumble hopefully they only just stub their toe

rather than break their leg the other observation they had is that you seem to strike a perfect

balance between hard work and an amazing social life at the same time and it's come through in

this you are the life of the party you you are a guy that seems to to squeeze every opportunity

out of life as well how important is that work life balance in terms of your own makeup critical

right you know we only get one shot at this you know this isn't a pre-rehearsal for something

greater and more amazing um and yeah sometimes you've got to roll your sleeves up and get on with

it and suck it up and do jobs that you absolutely despise or hate or you know go through um situations

we we did with is you can't see any upside whatsoever um but then you've you come out the

other side and you realise actually should I learn to have a lot um through that process

and I'm actually a significantly better person as a result of it um you know in terms of having

the fun and and the balance yeah if the fun stops you um been able to do the more mundane and

realistic stuff that sort of keeps us functioning then that becomes a problem um but yeah you know

it's fortunate enough um that I've just been away on a surfing trip with some buddies um to the

tallows uh you know and you get up there and you have a real chance to reflect on what you're

doing get motivated again uh I thought I'd be reading a lot more books um you know but

sometimes just sitting out on the deck um contemplating next moves and next steps

is hugely powerful as well and something I try and pass on to the kids is to take that time out

to stop and think about rather than just being on the treadmill where do you want it to get you

Yeah that's um that's the last question for me is are you the kind of guy that sets goals into the

future? Are there things you want to accomplish over the next 5, 10, 20 years? Absolutely um

a lot of them are internal ones I have internal ones for the kids that um some I pass on to them

some I don't um and I certainly have some business ones um and so yeah again I'm a lot more philosophical

um and where I want to be I have a lot more of a social um sort of sense to things that we're

trying to um bring through um you know both in business and through the kids and through the

foundation um so yeah no I do I feel sort of very blessed. Yeah thanks for coming in and um

Sharon I'll just check with Shay before you got any bits and pieces no okay I'll do the pre-wrap

and then throw to the big guy um look when you wrote in the email it grabbed my attention

so I send it straight to Shay and I said we need to get Duano on the show um it's stories where

there is such raw emotion and they are hard to tell which are the most impactful because it's real

it's raw and the blueprint you've made to carry these kids through build yourself up rebuild your

life is is just such a good example of of pushing through adversity and rebuilding um

and I know that everyone listening to this is going to get so much from this episode and thank

you for coming in for like at times was a difficult conversation but that's so inspiring at the same

time so yeah I really appreciate it coming in and sharing a few beers and uh letting us meet Duano

the legend but I'm not the outro. No no not Duano the legend so it's not broadcast that too much um

yeah I think it's absolute pleasure and like I said if uh you know something can come of it

you know if I can help another school or help another girl or if there's somebody up there that

thinks you know I'd like to support the foundation more because I love their cause um you know and

they reach out to us as a result of this then absolutely it's all been worthwhile and you

know it can help make a difference further down the track with some other young kids then yeah

it's more than worth it. I'll I'll try and wrap I'll try and wrap things up um

incredible story and thank you for your honesty and your and your bravery and for leaning into

being vulnerable I think it's important that men particularly are vulnerable and share the

uncomfortable truths of of um of their journeys. Aideen Wilson said that your commitment to

create a legacy of the Tony Dalton Foundation and her memory is phenomenal and it ensures that

and you ensure that the foundation um captures her spirit and balls out energy and I think it

does that and and to hear the various levels of um altruism and giving back that that you have

through the foundation through your business um through the other projects is incredible but

the best testament I can give to you is one that Taylor's given us and these are her exact words

and I'm going to read them back to you and then kind of summarize it. She says Duano is an absolute

rock star. He means the world to us and we will be lost without him. He makes the lives of the

people around him better. He could light up a room. He can teach people so much and the world

would be a better place with more Duanos in it. I'm very lucky to be able to call him my dad.

When we had Mark Allison he said that his whole purpose of being was to ensure that his children

are better versions of him and I think in terms of what you and Tanya

and Anna have been able to do in terms of your three kids if they're better versions of Duano

then the world is going to be an amazing place in a few years time. Thank you very much for

everything that you do and you continue to do and it's just been a real pleasure to be able to

share some of your stories and insights and life lessons as well. Cool thanks guys. Cheers Duan.

Yeah appreciate it. Hey guys if you've made it this far hopefully that means you've enjoyed this

episode and if you feel strongly enough about it to share on social media that would be much

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That stuff is really important for helping us grow. Catch you next week.

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