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Southland Express
November 12 , 2009

UUSUALLY when I’m invited to a function it’s to perform as the guest speaker and it’s hard to fully relax and enjoy the occasion. However last week I had the luxury of sitting back and being entertained by others. It was great.
     The first speaker was Rob Fyfe, the Chief Executive Officer of Air New Zealand. He told us about how our national airline conducted a survey asking tourists what impressed them the most about their visit to New Zealand. Many airline officials expected it would be our magnificent scenery or some exciting adventure such as jet boating or bungy jumping. But no. Without question, Top of the pops was the Kiwi personality. Tourists love us more than people in any other country in the world.
     Next, Air New Zealand decided to try to analyse exactly what aspects of our personality were so attractive, and the big four were: (1) We treat everyone as though they’re a personal friend; (2) We are genuine. What you see is what you get; (3) We have a "can do" attitude so if there’s a problem we get stuck in and try to fix it, and (4) We share and care. We share our country with others and we try our best to look after them. He defined the Kiwi personality. Most interesting.
     The second inspiring speech I heard was from Hamish Carter at the TradeQual Graduation, a capping ceremony for Southlanders who take up a trade. He gave us a very personal insight into the psyche of international sport when he told us about winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games. Incredibly New Zealand also won a silver in the triathlon and it’s so unusual the Olympic Games Committee only had one New Zealand flag. When the flag for the silver medallist was raised, they used an Aussie flag, but turned it upside down!

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