Nikki Kaye’s gently revealing personal interview for island podcast

Nikki Kaye was carrying a book by the Dalai Lama when she ran into Island Stories radio host Tim Higham on Great Barrier in January while getting a coffee.
She asked Higham, as she seemed to do for so many people, if there was anything she could do for him. He thought, yes, how about joining him on an episode of his podcast to talk about what she was up to back on the island and what was ahead of her. And so she did.
Kaye, who during that discussion spoke about her breast cancer, health and peace from being on the island, died at the weekend.
Here, with Higham’s permission, we present that interview, a chat with the former MP and deputy leader of the National Party as she talked of the ongoing health challenges from cancer after successful operations in 2016.
Kaye spoke of her love for the island and nature, of her new ventures, of having lived “10 lives” since politics and her outlook on life. She also discussed the highly dramatic political circumstances in 2020 when the then National leader Todd Muller had to step down after just 53 days and just months out from the general election.
She told Higham: “I’m really good. Just still trying to be here … but it’s really, really good – peaceful – to be on-island.
“I’ve always said, I think I love every layer of the Barrier – the community layer, a lot of people like they are family, people go out of their way to help you. And then the nature … to me the birds and the animals, I feel very, very connected to them.
“I travel quite a bit to different places but the Barrier is my home, and I don’t know how many months of the year, but we’ll see.
“Maybe since for most of my life I’ve been in a rush, maybe [the barrier] is a bit of a teacher.”
Higham asked if she was back on the island for good. “Do you see yourself settling down? How much time can you give us?”
Kaye: “I don’t know, because of my health stuff, I don’t like to make promises to anyone, long-term. That’s one thing that the health gives you. I really don’t live thinking long, long time periods.
“I like to think this is my base … but I still want to be contributing to New Zealand and I just, yeah, we’ll see where I get to.”
On the health challenge: “It’s horrific, but at the same time a lot of stuff melts away and so a lot of things I can see other people valuing, I do not aim for that. And so this sense of … if you go on the cusp of your own mortality or live on the cusp of your own mortality, then I think it just boils down to who are the people you are closest to, do you have a purpose, can you be a good human, and keep doing acts of kindness, whether that’s dropping off some snapper to someone, or I don’t know.
“It’s simpler, it’s sort-of made life much more simple.”
On the podcast episode Kaye chooses three songs special to her life, including Sitting on the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding, Whakaaria Mai by Hollie Smith and Teeks, and Eva Cassidy’s Fields of Gold.
“This song, after I’d had a lot of surgery and stuff, I’d had a mastectomy and all of that … this was my song to heal and relax to,” she said of Fields of Gold.
“My mates call me such a cheese-meister when it comes to music. I like very old music, so I’m an old soul.”
The Dock of the Bay track was one that reminded her of her grandmother, who died, aged 96; a song Kaye hoped would be playing when they meet again.
Asked about the Dalai Lama book, she said she was not religious but recognised others’ beliefs, and urged people to take time to reflect on their lives.
“I say this to my nieces … Be able to truly listen to your internal thoughts, and if they’re negative, work out ways to rewire them. A lot of people, they’re probably too scared to stop and listen to them … it’s a really important practice.
When she sat for the podcast interview in late January, Kaye had recently started an environmental trust, Blue Nature, working for water conservation among other things.
“As long as I’m around, there’ll be something that I’ll be doing to ensure we have the flora and fauna and birds that I want my nieces and nephews and everyone else to be able to enjoy.”