There wasn't a great deal of Swedish to be heard at the Far North District Council offices in Kaitaia on Friday, but anyone who had cared to ask 'Hur gar det?' (How is it?) might well have received the response 'Tack, bra' (Thanks, fine, albeit by a modest margin).
The adoption of what for most was clearly a very foreign identity was inspired by the Olympics, council staff around the district being exhorted by head office to portray a specific nationality for the day. For those at Te Ahu it was Sweden, not home, perhaps, to Olympic legends who are familiar to New Zealanders, but that just added to the challenge.
"Who says council employees don't have fun?" assistant librarian John Haines asked, rhetorically, as he waved his tennis racquet majestically in the general direction of the library counter.
John was one who pulled out several stops to transform himself into tennis legend Bjorn Borg.
Kaitaia staff had initially been disappointed when they pulled Sweden from the hat, he said given the difficulty of finding a clear point of distinction for that country. The library, service centre, i-Site and other Te Ahu employees made the most of it though, choosing Swedish names for the day and in some cases adorning themselves with flags, the contents of Theresa Burkhardt's dress-up-for-a-night-at-the-pub box and the like.
John, like a good librarian, also did a little research, establishing that Viking roots were still to be found lurking behind some familiar names. For instance, he said, Hillevi, Kaitaia senior librarian Helen Yuretich's choice for the day, meant 'healthy battle maid.' Unfortunately Kaitaia's healthy battle maid was out to lunch when The Age called.
Planning officer Theresa Burkhardt's costume was not immediately recognisable to the untrained eye as Swedish, but it did give her an optical advantage over her colleagues. Blue hair and a yellow boa, the latter shedding at an alarming rate every time she swivelled her chair, identified her, she said, as a fan rather than a legendary athlete, but her fellow planner, Felicity King, settled for a name tag identifying her as Viva and a Swedish flag across her midriff.
Monitoring officer Brian Hodgson, aka Thor, did express some disappointment with Felicity's effort, however. He confided that he had expected to be blonde, displaying just a fraction more decolletage and to have donned a pair of very short shorts.
Mr Hodgson's position as the council's PC officer is understood to be under review.
There were some advantages to being Swedish though. John noted that smorgasbord was a Scandinavian term, so everyone tucked into a sumptuous morning feast, even if it was "just a little disappointing that no one chose to bake the Nordic standby Sexy Swedish Buns, which feature blueberries."
And he was ready for those who questioned his choice of spending the day as Bjorn Borg's doppelganger.
"Although he never competed in an Olympic event Bj?rn Borg is perhaps the best known of Swedish athletes," he said.
"In the course of his illustrious career the Ice Man was victor in five consecutive Wimbledons and a host of other major tournaments."
And, in recognition of ABBA's domination of the charts for a decade from 1972 a little of their music was played for the beginning of the FNDC Olympic Challenge at Te Ahu.