INGRID HIPKISS 'I never dreamed this was possible'

The RNZ presenter reveals her rollercoaster journey to the top and why she's so lucky to have her job on Morning Report.

- JUDY BAILEY

Ingrid Hipkiss is living the dream.

“I pinch myself all the time,” she grins. “I wouldn’t have had the audacity to think I might do this job. It’s ridiculously improbable – so far from anything I wanted to be that I didn’t consider it to be possible.”

And yet here she is, nailing it as the co-presenter of RNZ’s flagship news show Morning Report alongside Corin Dann. For many a broadcast journalist, it’s the pinnacle – a must-listen-to show that sets the news agenda for the day. And for the newsmakers, particularly politicians, a call from Morning Report is not one to refuse lightly.

Ingrid came from left field to take the role vacated by Susie Ferguson. She happily admits to being an outsider and never having set foot in a radio studio. But she has 20 years of experience at her back working in multiple roles in television, reporting, producing and presenting.

The 50-year-old confesses, “The idea of presenting Morning Report was intimidating, but I thought, ‘I’ve got this experience and I’ve been a journalist for 20 years.’ It felt like a brave thing to do!”

Ingrid was born and grew up in the small Bay of Plenty town of Whakatāne. The oldest child of Andrea and Ted Hipkiss, her only sibling, a brother who is now in the police, is 18 months younger.

Andrea was a legal executive who had previously worked at local radio station 1XX, one of the last remaining private stations in the country. Despite that, her daughter never gave broadcasting a second thought.