Once upon a time, the kingdom known poetically as the Land of the Long White Cloud was ruled by a kindly princess. She was empathetic and smart. She cared for all of us, for the team of five million. She wanted to save us from the hellfire and watery torrents of climate change. From the dragon’s breath of a virus called Covid.
She had the requisite princessy flowing locks and air of optimism. She was lauded, mostly, throughout her land, but mostly in other lands. She appeared in prestigious publications and on American talk shows.
In 2020, Sam Neill, probably our other most famous New Zealander, told magazine that wherever he went, “People say, ‘You think
