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| Published date | 14 May 2023 |
| Publication title | Herald on Sunday |
“I’ve got to sing to keep myself awake to get to Auckland,” says one of our greatest living New Zealanders. “I do! It’s four hours. I’ve got everything — I’ve got Carpenters, I’ve got Barry White, I’ve even got Amy Winehouse… Back to Black!
“You’ve got to keep yourself going. It’s a nasty road. It’s the lorry drivers, lots of the logging trucks shouldn’t be on the road — or only on certain days.
“I’ve had a logging truck behind me going honk, honk, honk! I just stayed in my place. Then we got to the bottom of the hill, and I thought I’m going to be able to take off now — which I did.”
It will take more than a road-raging truckie to deter Dame Kiri, 79, now happily, blissfully back living in New Zealand after more than 50 years in the UK and a lifetime building her internationally acclaimed career — one of the most famous opera sopranos in history — in which she performed on the world’s biggest stages, mixed with royalty, trained and protected that voice constantly, and built a circle of dear friends, many of them household names.
She says over lunch at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel in Russell: “I’m still a little girl from New Zealand, I’ve never forgotten that.”
Her life, in some respects, has come full circle. From her beloved home nestled nearby, she and her very private husband — “my English rose” — have an outdoor playground at their doorstep. A huge property with their four dogs and the Bay of Islands right there for fishing and adventure.
Seven decades ago, that little girl and her father Thomas (Tom) Te Kanawa — she was adopted by him and his wife Nell when she was an infant — would go hunting and fishing at Lake Taupō.
That love of the outdoors endures, as does a sense of adventure and fun. Just about every media profile on Dame Kiri mentions a coolness and wariness with the press, but I suspect that is partly due to the circumstances of a particular time; still working, protecting her privacy, her voice and her career. These days — and certainly today — she is relaxed and cheerful.
And very happy, “with no reservations”.
Right now, she says, her boat is being fixed. “I don’t know why things go wrong, but they go wrong.” The weather hasn’t been great anyway but when she and her husband do venture out, it’s for marlin and gemfish.
“My husband smokes it, which is very nice.”
As we sit down for lunch, the Duke hotel management has set aside a special table on the deck for us, with a bottle of complimentary Pol Roger on ice, and, shortly, a plate of Parua Bay oysters.
“I do love oysters,” says Dame Kiri, but, she quickly adds, she needs to be careful not to “pig out”.
She has chosen the venue today, a favourite spot for her and a special place, I tell her, for me. It’s six years since my wedding here, with the reception at the very same spot.
We know little about Dame Kiri’s own husband, other than he’s British. He’s not at lunch today and is intensely private. “He’s a good, good person. You know, through all these many years that we’ve been together, there’s never been a photo of me with him anywhere, anywhere. We’ve seen the back of him but never the front, which is very sweet.”
She adores him. “He’s a darling person — he’s my English Rose.”
The couple are tight, working around the...
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