Norm Macdonald grew up in the South Auckland suburb of Manurewa . Although a city kid , he love the great outdoors and was inspired by the books of writer Barry Crump . He would spend much of his time in the bush hunting rather than at school . His other passion was motorcycles . Norm , his brother Noel and their friends would hire Pukekohe race track for $ 20 each per day and thrash their bikes around the famous circuit . Norm on a fast , but well used Yamaha RD350 Yamaha , Noel on his Kawasaki H2 and friends on various other large Japanese machines . The McDonald boys had also started road racing . Tragically , Noel was killed in a road accident one day on his way to work . At the time Norm was working at Pacific steel . He had fallen off a waterfall while trying to catch a goat , so he had needed a job while he was recovering from injuries . His dad was a blacksmith at the steel business and had secured him a position as a re-heat furnace operator . While Norm was on bereavement leave , a young university engineering student by the name of Des Barry joined the company and took over Norm ’ s job . Des recalled , “ It was a hot job with glowing ingots passing onto rollers where steel cables and channels were formed . The guy I was filling in for returned and introduced himself . We became instant friends . One day we were