The "not heroes".
Several people listed in many places as Kiwi legends or heroes will be missing from these pages. Some due to sheer oversight - and we hope to rectify that by examining as many cases as possible so as to acknowledge their input to our country and society, most due to the early stages of this project as the number of people awaiting live pages is rather large.
Some are left out for other reasons and we're going to explain why they've been left out.
Feel free to disagree via e mail!
First of all, we've drawn the line at New Zealand birth. To be consistent, we have only considered people born here. That enables Nancy Wake to be included while Kate Sheppard and Michael Joseph Savage are excluded. So be it.
The following have been excluded as not making the grade:
Peter Blake.
At one stage, Peter Blake was asked to invite a school class to go on an expenses-paid trip to USA. Peter picked a class from his old school - King's Prep, in Remeura - a private school of the richest families in the country. No class of unfortunates for whom a trip to USA would be a dream come true. The bad news is that nothing I've ever seen or heard would encourage me to put Blake in the hero category. Please tell me otherwise if you have evidence to the contrary.
Kiri te Kanawa.
Nope. Maybe she's one of the world's great opera singers? So what? She's also shown herself to be a sour old bag. Many times during her career, the old Dame has felt the need to open her mouth. Unfortunately, she bears a lot of resemblance to Prince Philip in making ridiculous statements and ending up with both feet in her gob. Where is that relative who's been on the dole for 40 years, Kiri? Why are you putting down Hayley Westenra? The green-eyed monster lurking? Not NZ's favourite opera-type singer any longer?
Denny Hulme.
New Zealand's greatest racing car driver - being the sole Kiwi with a Formula One title under his belt. Aside from a "who cares" to car racing, Hulme could only ever rank third amongst Kiwi drivers - behind Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren (in fact, that already needs updating to fourth, with Dixon joining and maybe exceeding those other two) - but also his personal life and conduct don't become that of a legend so he fails to make the grade.
Copyright © 2008 Immortality Ltd