Q&A: Mark Law, helicopter pilot and former NZSAS soldier
15 September 2026
From a career in the SAS to his role in the Whakaari White Island eruption rescue, Mark Law shares his fascinating stories.
Rise to the challenge: flourishing after adversity
Shaun, a former Police officer pivoted to developing a line of beverages after a shooting.
When Shaun Winstanley was shot in the face by a gunman hiding in a central Auckland construction site, his first thoughts were of his wife and two young sons. Years of training and experience during his time working in the New Zealand Police had prepared him for the reality of volatile situations, but it was as much the force of his own personality that helped him stay calm.
“I don't stress or else, when I do, my training has taught me how to not show it,” Shaun explains. He remembers signalling for his colleagues to cover him as he moved to a far corner of the room to call out for medic assistance. He remained conscious and lucid as he left the building and recalled seeing an approaching television crew and trying to cover his face, in the hope his sons wouldn’t recognise their wounded father.
The bullet that ripped through Shaun’s jaw that morning in July 2023 also caused him to inhale gunpowder and pellets into his airways, so by the time he was admitted to hospital, the decision was made to medically induce a four-day coma.
Shaun Winstanley was injured in a shooting incident as a Police officer. Photo by Jessie Casson.
Although he was able to return home just ten days after the incident, Shaun’s recovery has been a long journey.
“I'd worked every day of my life since school – getting up in the morning, going to work, coming home – so it was a massive shock to the system to lose that routine.” Beyond the often intense pain that he was experiencing, Shaun struggled with his moods. “Besides the mental stuff, when people get angry or grumpy it's usually because they're hungry, tired or sore. I had all three of those.
“I was rushing to get back to work. I completed my reintegration programme, which included using firearms, and started training again with my armed offender squad colleagues, but I got to a point where I wasn't able to do my job because I was still losing bone and I was often bleeding.”
Meanwhile, the main requirements of his rehabilitation process were time and further surgeries. The emphasis at home was on maintaining his calorie intake. “I got to the point where I didn't want to eat because it was just too hard… It would take me an hour to eat a mashed spud.”
Limited to finely pureed food and struggling to find liquid options that weren’t too sweet, Shaun began making his own protein blends.
His wife jokes about a moment where he sat up in a tramadol-induced haze and stated his intention to start making his own protein coffee: “She rolled her eyes and said, ‘Yeah, you probably will,’ and that's where Firebird was born.”
The brand name and logo reference a phoenix rising from the ashes. “It was a bit of a passion project. I was living off the protein coffees that I was making for myself, and thought, this is a great idea – why isn't anyone else doing this? Also, I wanted to keep myself busy and not let my brain go stale.”
Firebird Protein Coffee was Shaun's brainchild during his recovery. Photo by Jessie Casson.
Although his involvement in developing the Firebird Protein Coffee business was limited by his recovery, Shaun had found a way to pivot. The change of direction also allowed him to be more hands-on at home, to support Nicola, who has recently graduated as an emergency medicine technician.
“I've had to reflect on identity, particularly in the last six months, and the idea that I may not be returning to the Police.
“I'm very conscious that your identity isn't a single job. It's not a single part of you. I'm a husband, a father, a coach, a friend, a police officer, a sportsperson, an entrepreneur, to name a few. I don't have to tie my identity to one of those themes. I think I've shown that you can pivot your identity; even if it wasn’t your choice, you can own it and be proud of it."
Shaun describes finding strength during his recovery by being grateful that he could still care for his family and be able to spend more time with them. “I think about the day after I got out of hospital. I made my boys’ lunches. I drove them to school and picked them up afterwards, and I've done that for three years since.
“That’s been a really positive outcome from what happened; taking control of what I could control.”
This story is from the Spring 2026 issue of AA Directions magazine.
