Click photo to enlarge
The life of Brian . . . Otago University students Simon
Rankin and Brendon Harper made the news this year with
Brian, their pet kune kune pig. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
It was the swan song of the first decade of the 21st
Century, but 2009 was a pig of year. There were snouts in
troughs, pigs in sow crates, people telling porkies... Anything
porcine, and it was there - even before you mention swine flu.
DAVE WILLIAMS of NZPA trawls through some of the headlines of
the past year.
Fugitives, friendly dolphins, fingers in pies, fibbing
Frenchmen, tsunamis, white mofos, sinking ships and
shootouts, 2009 had a little bit of everything.
Some were smiling. A Masterton family scooped $36 million in
Lotto's biggest-ever prize. It was also the first year in
about three decades we didn't have either Helen Clark or
Winston Peters in Parliament.
More were crying. New Zealand's Pacific Island communities
were hit hard with the loss of 180 lives in the Samoan
earthquake and tsunami, which followed on the heels of the
Tongan ferry disaster when the ferry Princess Ashika sank,
claiming 74 lives.
West Auckland toddler Aisling Symes went missing, and there
were more tears when her body was found down a manhole after
a week of frantic searching.
The swine flu pandemic claimed 19 lives here and countless
people were struck down, quarantined in their homes.
Some people stayed home because they lost their jobs. We were
told there was a recession. At a government-initiated jobs
summit in February, apart from nine-day fortnights, which
flew like a pig, one of the ideas to emerge was a national
cycleway.
Those who didn't need a second invitation to get on their
bikes were a peleton of politicians who quickly legged it on
overseas trips.
Prime Minister John Key piled on the air miles, taking in
China and the US, where he had a surprise lunchtime chat with
United States President Barack Obama. He also appeared on
David Letterman's television show. It was hard to say which
had the more positive effect.
Mr Key also decided at short notice to attend the Climate
Change Summit in Copenhagen, after earlier dismissing it as a
photo shoot.
Another off-the-cuff trip was made by Maori Party MP Hone
Harawira. When he should have been in Brussels he and his
wife quietly skipped across for a sightseeing trip to Paris.
He didn't pardon his French when subsequently emailed an
expletive-filled and double standard-justification
explanation for the jaunt.
Other full-fare dodgers included the ACT Party MP Sir Roger
Douglas, who was quite happy - under his perks for being an
MP last century - for the rest of us to foot the bill so he
could take his wife to visit family in England.
The party's leader, former perk-buster Rodney Hide, also took
his girlfriend around the world.
They weren't the only New Zealanders heading overseas. Fisher
& Paykel Appliances got into bed with Chinese whiteware
maker Haier, Moro bars will now be made in Australia, Minties
in Thailand, Griffins biscuits in Fiji, and the 018 calls are
made to the Philippines.
No wonder many of us head overseas. We want to feel at home.
One man not sure of where he lived was the MP for Dipton
(somewhere in Southland), Bill English, who paid the money
back after it was revealed he was claiming $900 a week for
living in his own house in Wellington.
Another house-proud man, even though he only had the one, but
not keen for public servant inspection, was Napier gunman Jan
Molenaar.
Molenaar shot dead policeman Len Snee during a routine drug
operation. The former territorial soldier had a stash of
weapons and let the bullets fly during a three-day siege,
before he took his own life.
There was no court case for Molenaar, but there was enough
courtroom interest in 2009 with two high profile murder
cases.
Both murders were committed in Dunedin years apart but heard
in the High Court at Christchurch. After he had spent 13
years in prison, the retrial of David Bain for the 1994
murders of five members of his family both gripped and split
the country. Did Bain shoot his family or was it the father
Robin? A three-month trial found David not guilty, but did
not quell the debate.
Not long after, the trial of Clayton Weatherston saw the smug
former university tutor found guilty and sentenced to at
least 18 years' prison for murdering former girlfriend Sophie
Elliott. He stabbed her 216 times and claimed he was
provoked, pushing plausibility levels to the limits, and
helping lead to the scrapping of the partial defence of
provocation.
Meanwhile, he was no Shane Warne or Tiger Woods, but he could
still get in trouble with his cellphone. National Party MP
Richard Worth was accused of texting sexual messages to
Labour Party member Neelam Choudry.
Charges were never brought, but he left politics anyway.
More unwanted advances included those from Wanganui mayor
Michael Laws, who kept the focus firmly on his city in 2009.
It was proudly gang patch-free, but Mr Laws was going to hold
his breathe until he turned blue - Wanganui was also going to
be H-free, despite what the Geographic Board decided and
Otaki primary school pupils thought about renaming it
Whanganui.
Comedian Mike King, a former advertiser for the Pork Board,
turned his back on bacon when shown a pig farm where the
animals were kept, but the biggest porky of the year award
must go to rugby player Mathieu Bastareaud.
