KEY POINTS:
Victoria Cross winner Corporal Willie Apiata has moved into the void created by the death of Sir Edmund Hillary, to take number one place in the latest list of New Zealand's most trusted people.
Sir Ed - who died in January, aged 88 - had topped the Reader's Digest most-trusted list for the previous three years.
Gold medal Olympian Peter Snell claimed second place, with All Black great Colin Meads moving off his Te Kuiti farm and into third spot.
Children's author Margaret Mahy was fourth.
But the twist is in the tail in this year's list, with former Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards beating convicted killer Scott Watson for last place.
Rickards - acquitted of rape charges last year - claimed 85th spot. Watson - currently serving a life sentence for the New Year's Eve 1997 killing of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope - was 84th.
The list will be unlikely to provide much comfort for our politicians in an election year, with Prime Minister Helen Clark the highest ranking at 66, one above alleged family killer David Bain.
The survey - now in its eighth year - was conducted by independent market research company The Leading Edge.
It surveyed a representative sample of 500 adult New Zealanders between March 6 and March 11.
Reader's Digest selects the candidates from a group of individuals it believes have captured the public interest, and of whom ordinary New Zealanders are likely to have formed an opinion.
Sports personalities prove, yet again, to be a popular choice, with netballers, rowers, athletes and cricketers dominating the top 10.
The public's overwhelming faith in sporty types is to be expected, sports psychologist Sara Chatwin told the Herald last night.
Sports stars embodied desirable qualities such as being energetic, fit and wholesome.
"They are not in contentious roles, they are not in confrontational roles. Their roles lend themselves to working towards the betterment of society."
There was nothing surprising in Clint Rickards' last place this year, as the overwhelmingly negative coverage of the Louise Nicholas affair ensured mud would stick, Ms Chatwin said.
"I don't necessarily agree with it, but I understand people putting him in that position.
"There are a lot of people who have lost faith in the police service because of those men [Rickards, and co-accused Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum] ... It doesn't matter whether they did it or not."