I've been thinking about this for some time. You can't help it, really, living here. But this tiny nation of only 4.26 million inhabitants (census figures recently released - and fewer than the 4.5m anticipated), boasts an astonishing number of world class figures in its history.
Sporting events, definitely . Sailing for recent starters. As you may be aware, Emirates Team New Zealand recently lost the America's Cup over in San Francisco - by the narrowest of margins, which was frankly pretty hard to take from this side of the ocean. [And I'd rather not hear choruses of 'you were 8-1 up!', because in the end the might of Larry Ellison's dollar was just too great. But don't forget that Oracle's winning boat was actually built here in NZ, and there were Kiwi sailors and engineers on Oracle's team. And though you might not have been that interested over in the UK, I can tell you that here a whole nation spoke of little else for 2 weeks...hence the disappointment. And had the rules of the game not set a maximum time of 40 minutes for a race, Team NZ would have won the whole thing, being only 2.5 minutes from the finish line when the race was pulled. Just saying....] They have, however, already won it twice (which is two times more than UK has).
Then, of course there's rugby, and the ongoing domination by the world champion All Blacks, who've beaten every competitor this year - Springboks, Wallabies, Pumas, and French. And yes, we are waiting to see what will happen once they get over to Europe and play England, Ireland and France (again) ... But the rugby has been amazing, especially the last match against the Wallabies.
Current World Champions in other sporting arenas are also plentiful - Lisa Carrington and Teneale Hatton (canoe), Valerie Adams (shotput), Murray, Drysdale and Bond (rowing), to name but a few.
But this is a maritime nation. And until yesterday neither Roy nor I knew that a New Zealander also invented KAPOK LIFEJACKETS. Yup. And guess what? That New Zealander was a WOMAN! Way back in the early 1900s, following the dreadful loss of life on board the Titanic, the British Board of Trade held a competition to see if people could find a better method of making lifejackets than with the more porous cork. And the person who came up with the answer was called Orpheus (Beaumont), after HMS Orpheus which so tragically foundered off Manukau Harbour in 1863, when 189 sailors lost their lives - and not one of them wearing a lifejacket.
Orpheus pioneered kapok lifejackets known as 'Salvus' (meaning 'safe'). And this is what the Salvus looked like:
The invention of the lifejacket was the subject of a 20-minute film called The Drowning Country we watched yesterday down at The Cloud, events centre. [New Zealand has the unhappy misfortune to be 3rd in the drowning stakes in the western world :( Not such a good record to hold.] The woman waving aloft an original prototype is Caroline Fitzgerald, the maker of the film, and the great-granddaughter of Orpheus herself. Orpheus Beaumont patented the Salvus lifejacket in the US and in 1919 received an order from the UK Board of Trade for 30,000 lifejackets!
From inventor of lifejackets to hero of the mountains. Three days ago we were also invited to see the Auckland premiere of Beyond the Edge, a clever and moving film about Sir Edmund Hillary's ascent of Everest in 1953. Unfortunately Roy was en route back from Canberra, via Sydney (because, of course, you can't fly there directly), and was so badly delayed at every stage he ended up missing the film. It also meant he missed out on the Gold Lounge experience at Event Cinemas, where the rest of us were treated to huge reclining armchairs, and waiter service with food and drink throughout the film! It was a great evening.
Orpheus Beaumont and Sir Ed Hillary to add to the list of greats.
Should Peter Jackson, maker of films about mythical hobbits, dragons and wizards, also get a mention? You tell me....
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