"I was born and bred in Auckland, New Zealand. My father immigrated to New Zealand when he was twenty-one, from Germany. He chose New Zealand because he wanted to get away from Europe, where he felt very closed in by boundaries and stuff and wanted to be surrounded by ocean. So he decided New Zealand for him.

"My mother came down (to New Zealand from Tonga) when she was eight years old and was brought up in the middle of the North Island. They both met in Auckland, married and raised us three children.

"And in fact it was actually my father who encouraged my mother to embrace herculture a lot more and we always went back to the islands as kids, for holidays. So I was brought up knowing both cultures. He was very European, like Christmases were spent in a German way, like lots of German food and this sort of things.

"The Tongan I know, I have just from living there and hearing it where as the German I know, I was taught at school."