I was deeply saddened by the departure of Sam Neill. For his fame, he was a remarkably humble, self-effacing man who was kind and really valued the community around him.
It was that sad event that reminded me of an early experience I had which I remember fondly... A few months after first arriving in Aotearoa from the US in 1994, I spent the Christmas holidays with a colleague Paul's family down near Arrowtown. One day Paul said - 'Tim Finn's playing at [a local Queenstown pub] tonight - want to go?' At that point, didn't know the Finn bros from a bar of soap, but I'm a keen muso so said 'sure!'. Watching Tim holding forth with his guitar that evening, I noticed someone sit down next to me at the picnic table in the pub, mid-song. At some point, I sneaked a look to see who it was, and, yeah, I recognised it was Sam Neill. That's NZ for ya. Don't think we spoke, but it definitely coloured - favourably - my early impression of this place that I now, gratefully, call home.