An international fugitive was hog-tied, people were pulled from burning buildings and out of raging waters, and a masked Crusader leapt in to save the day. Rebecca Quilliam, of NZPA, gives a medal to this year's heroes.
With handsight, perhaps he was preparing himself for the role of superhero before he waded in to break up a brawl in Christchurch a few weeks later.
‘‘Ali Williams rushed up and saved the day,'' a witness said.
Once his work here was done, Williams posed for a picture with the girlfriend of the witness.
A heart-warming story unfolded in February in a little town near Atlanta in the United States, when six brave citizens captured Nai Yin Xue, wanted for the murder of his wife, whose body was found four months earlier in the boot of her car outside the couple's Auckland home.
Authorities had been hunting for Xue after he was seen on CCTV abandoning his daughter Quan Xun Xue in a Melbourne railway station, before boarding a flight for Los Angeles.
He had been on the run in the US for months when some Chinese-Americans spotted his picture in a Chinese newspaper and lured him to their apartment.
They jumped on him, hog-tied him and contacted authorities, who had been tracking his path across the US.
Also joining the ranks of civilian crime-fighters was a Hamilton taxi driver who gave police a hand in arresting two men.
One May morning a car was being chased by police on foot in the central city. When it looked like they had no chance of catching up, a taxi driver offered the weary officers a lift.
Police said the fugitive driver of the station wagon and his passenger nearly ‘‘died of fright'' when the officers leapt from the taxi and arrested them.
For Wellington City Council Walkwise staff, who usually get nothing but public flak for issuing parking tickets, 2008 was more positive, with four of them praised for helping collar arson and robbery suspects.
In April, Sheng Jiang and Vladimir Zdravkovich found and followed a man who had lit several fires in the city. They contacted police, who moved in and arrested him.
Five days later, Walkwise officers Rayleen Hirini and Matalei Mohuanga cornered a girl wanted by police for her role in allegedly robbing another girl.
She was held until police arrived and arrested her.
While it takes a special person to put themselves in harm's way to save a stranger, New Zealand had plenty of those show their mettle this year.
In April, those at a school gala rushed to an exploding Hamilton coolstore to rescue injured firefighters. Sadly, fireman Derek Lovell died from his injuries, but seven others survived, thanks to those who pulled them to safety.
A less spectacular Hamilton fire this month also produced heroics, when two people rescued a woman from a burning car.
The car crashed into a tree, rolled on to its side, trapping the 48-year-old driver, and burst into flames. Two residents found a concrete block to smash the rear window and climbed into the car to drag her to safety.
‘‘Their actions were courageous while having little regard to their own safety,'' Senior Sergeant Kevin Anderson said.
And while teenagers often get a bad rap, in 2008 they were among the heroes with three Bay of Plenty teens pulling a man from his burning house in May.
The two boys and a girl had been at a nearby party when they saw the Mt Maunganui house on fire about 2am.
Without any thought for their own safety they entered the house and dragged out the 64-year-old man.
Even primary school pupils produced the heroics.
Lower Hutt mum Kendall Eade has her 7-year-old son, Cullen, to thank for saving her life when her heart stopped beating.
The little boy was watching television when his mother collapsed. He phoned 111 and calmly told the operator what the situation was.
In May, New Zealand First MP Ron Mark helped stop an accident victim bleeding to death.
Herman van Krieken was riding his motorcycle through the Terrace tunnel in Wellington when he was hit by a trailer.
He opened his eyes to find Mr Mark telling him to lie still while he was firmly gripping his thigh, which was losing a lot of blood.
He lost four pints of blood on the road and Mr van Krieken said he was ‘‘absolutely staggered that he [Mr Mark] was sitting there on his knees on the road with his tie on and having his finger up my main artery''.
The vehicle which had swerved to avoid a head-on collision rolled over the edge of a Dunedin causeway and landed upside down in the harbour.
Mr Phillips braked as quickly as he could in the slippery conditions and went to the aid of the driver, whose car was upside down in the water.
He was able to wrench the door open and pull the driver out of the car to safety.
In July, Jeanne Robinson was driving through the small Waikato town of Waitoa when she spotted a pack of frenzied pig hunting dogs mauling a young boy.
Mrs Robinson proved just as tough as her husband, former All Black lock Keith Robinson, when she pulled the 13-year-old to safety.
The boy was bitten more than 100 times and needed more than 300 stitches.
‘‘I'd like to thank Mrs Robinson and the other two women who came to help me when the dogs attacked me,'' the boy said when he recovered.
New Zealanders also stopped people going to a watery grave. A Kapiti Coast photographer doesn't know who saved his life in July, but he would love to thank the brave woman.
Neil Thomas was taking photos of high seas during a storm when a surge dragged him into the raging waters.
A woman handed her baby to a bystander and jumped into the sea to rescue him.
‘‘She bodily lifted me up on to the sea wall - she's a hero,'' he said.
Our heroes did not restrict their good deeds just to this country.
A New Zealander badly injured himself when he saved a drowning child in Indonesia.
Richard Casagrande saved the 8-year-old girl from drowning in the Buket Lawang river in Aceh in February.
Mr Casagrande was having a picnic on a day off from his work when he saw the girl struggling in the water.
He jumped in, landing awkwardly on a rock several metres below the surface and shattering both heels. In great pain, he managed to reach the girl before she was pulled under by the current.
At this time of year thoughts should turn towards families who lost loved ones who gave their lives for others.
Paku Rigby was hailed as a hero after saving his granddaughter's life, but losing his own to the sea in January. Mr Rigby went to 20-year-old Tiara Haenga's aid when she got into trouble swimming at Matapouri Beach in Northland.
But Mr Rigby's actions ultimately cost him his own life when he ran out of energy and was dragged back out to sea.
His wife asked about 1000 mourners who attended his funeral to write to her to say what her husband's actions had done to change people's lives.
So let's lift a glass to this year's heroes. Thanks for making sure more of us get to see in 2009.
