Oracles and miracles - nine other great New Zealanders

Cliff Jones was chosen as New Zealander of the year from a shortlist of 10.

Phil O'Sullivan and Greg O'Sullivan - Crusading Stop the Rot Brothers

Yes, Prime Minister, we're still banging on about leaky buildings. But brothers Phil and Greg O'Sullivan have been banging on for much longer.

Back in 1994 Greg O'Sullivan, a director of building surveying firm Prendos (Phil works there, too) warned in the Herald of "a potential time bomb" involving leaks and rot in new stucco houses. In 1998 Phil O'Sullivan wrote to the Building Industry Authority describing problems he was finding with leaks and rot in new buildings, and suggesting a co-ordinated response. A response was not forthcoming.

The brothers have been described variously as crusaders, whistle-blowers and cranks. This makes them very cranky indeed. And even more determined. In fact, the whole leaky building row has made quite a few people bad-tempered.

The opposition, predictably, called for the head of Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins. The PM said she had not taken much notice of Herald stories - we are well known, apparently, for "banging on" about issues of no substance.

What has been the result of the brothers' crusade? The Government has set up a mediation and arbitration service for owners of leaky homes who cannot afford to go to court. It is considering compulsory registration and compulsory insurance for builders and other trades people to protect home owners. Compulsory treated timber and wall cavities are on the way (Auckland councils have introduced them already). But possibly the real result has been to send soaring the prices of those old villas built out of solid heart kauri. The PM lives in one.

Richard Taylor - The Man from Weta Who Won Two Oscars

This is what we like about Richard Taylor: he took his mum to the Oscars. And so he should have done. As a kid on the farm in Patumahoe, Taylor would practise those special effects which would lead him to work with the man who made the comedy splatter flick Braindead. The young Taylor liked to get to work on his sister with sticky tape and paint, then send her running to their long-suffering mother with fake injuries. Taylor and a director called Peter Jackson are a match made in cinema heaven.

Apart from shouting his mum a trip to the Oscars and taking her to all the parties, we also like the fact that Taylor, special effects whiz, came away with two of the golden statuettes for his work on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings.

The Datsuns - Rock Band Making the Big Time

When Cambridge band the Datsuns made it to No 1 on the New Zealand charts in October, drummer Matt Datsun said: "Wow, that's (rude rock'n'roll word) brilliant. Home rocks!"

A rather nice response when you consider that they had to leave home to get us to notice them. Then they got rather Big in Britain. Singer Dolf De Datsun was named the third-coolest man in rock by British music rag NME. The band signed with Richard Branson's V2 label for a rumoured £200,000 advance. At a gig in April several hundred fans rioted when denied entry to the venue. The Guardian ran a feature. This is the stuff rock legends are made of.

But one of the rumours was not true. Phil Datsun said, "Last time we were home people told us they heard we were being offered blank cheques. We were like, 'Where the hell did you hear that?"'

We at home were like, "How the hell did that happen?" "Don't ask me," said Phil Datsun. That's what we like in our rock stars, a taciturn turn of phrase and a little startled modesty.

Shane Jones - Mr Fix-it of the Fisheries

You might call this a modern-day miracle of the fishes. The no-nonsense Waitangi Fisheries Commission chairman Shane Jones had the business world agog when he negotiated a halt to the long-running Maori fisheries battle.

He engineered an agreement about the best way to allocate $700 million in government-given fisheries assets. Jones offered two dissenting tribes, Tuwharetoa and Te Arawa, $20 million to develop their freshwater fisheries for their agreement to the plan which would create the country's largest commercial fishing company. In return, the commission will agree to an independent review of structures, accountability and performance after 12 years.

The select committee hearings are yet to come, and nobody is expecting them to be anything other than fractious, but Jones is determined to see the process through.

Mai Chen - Face of the New New Zealanders

Mai Chen, the diminutive and sassy public policy lawyer, does not actually like being the face of Asian migration. Small chance the job of heading the Pan Asian Congress, formed this year to "allow Asian New Zealanders a voice", would go to anyone else.

While Winston wound up sectors of the country (and his popularity) with his Enough Asians Already speeches, and while the Minister of Immigration's husband shouted at National MP Pansy Wong, and may or may not have stomped on a foot at a recent immigration debate, Mai Chen kept her dignity.

She said sensible, rational things about the place of Asians in New Zealand. She said colourful things like, "Everybody presumes that because we are immigrants ourselves we want the doors open. Why the hell would we? All it does is create a whole heap of hostility towards the rest of us who are already here."

She kept her sense of humour, too. When Chen Palmer and Partners threw their Christmas bash, "anybody who was anybody" was invited. Winston didn't turn up.

Tab Baldwin - Super Coach

Here's Tab Baldwin back in September after the Tall Blacks surged back into the lead late in their world championship quarterfinal against Puerto Rico: "I wish I spoke other languages because the English language just seems inadequate to me. Words like rapture, thrilled, unbelievable and awesome - you should be able to grab them all and mash them together to come up with a new word."

Seven days later, on September 14, the Tall Blacks took on Yugoslavia in the semi-final. They lost, but the team - and New Zealand - was still walking on air and the Tall Blacks, by finishing in the top six at Indianapolis, are all but automatically qualified for the 2004 Olympics.

Under Baldwin's brilliant tutelage the Tall Blacks made basketball history. There ought to be a new word for this sort of performance. Try two: Tab Baldwin. Now we just have to hang on to the Florida-born Professor Higgins of the basketball world.

Stacey Jones - Warrior

The little general was in commanding form all year, leading the Warriors from the front in the march to their first National Rugby League grand final. Jones was lauded not just for his magical ability to find gaps in opposing defences - his mesmerising run in the final was one of the season's best tries - but for his off-field qualities.

Even hardbitten Australian league journalists, the type who think the Warriors are wusses, thought he was an okay bloke.

On Thursday Jones won the Golden Boot award for 2002, awarded by league journalists as the world's best player - presumably even a few Aussie journos gave him the nod.

More than 2000 supporters gave him the biggest cheer when the Warriors arrived back at Ericsson Stadium after the 30-6 loss to the Sydney City Roosters.

"This is unbelievable," Jones said of the welcome. "Two years ago (when he took a pay cut to stay with the financially troubled club) I could never have imagined this. It brings a tear to my eye.

"We'll win the comp this year."

Here's hoping.

Jones also led the Kiwis on an exhausting end of season tour when they drew the series with Great Britain and beat Wales and France.

Ralph Norris - High Flying Banker

Oh all right, he's not the most charismatic CEO in the land, nor the most affable.

But you can't knock him for nerve. Safe in the pantheon of NZ business leaders with a hard-earned reputation as CEO of ASB Bank he willingly took on Air NZ, one of the lamer ducks trying to keep flying in the turbulent modern aviation industry.

He is not yet above the clouds into the clear blue but his navigation has the enterprise heading in a straight line. The company is making money and the share price has climbed. Morale is rising.

All this would have given him a claim to recognition, but his bold and forthright backing for an alliance with a ferocious rival nails him as a leader. The deal may not yet have won him friends among customers but it is a strong man's call.

Vicky Hyde - World Famous on the World Wide Web

You may not have heard of Hide, but in cyberspace she's famous. Hide is managing editor of the Christchurch-based website SciTechDaily, the "sister site" to Canterbury philosopher Denis Dutton's Arts & Letters Daily. The site is independently run by Hyde and her deputy, Amie La Rouche.

SciTechDaily came within a nano-whisker of winning the this year's international Webby Award in a popular vote for the word's best science website.

Hyde lost to the Nasa site but it was close: SciTechDaily came within 5 per cent of matching Nasa's votes. At the Webby dinner in Los Angeles, where glitterati and geeks mingle and compete, Hyde said the Nasa people were "very good about it. They were threatening to send me a picture of Christchurch with crosshairs on it."

Says Hyde: "We gave them a damn good run for their money and were able to show that New Zealand technology and creativity and ingenuity can foot it with the best of them."

Annus horribilis

The events of the year have put the spotlight on some people who might be glad to see the back of 2002. Here's our selection of 10 of those who will be hoping for a smoother ride next year.

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Derek Fox

John Davy came from Canada and was last heard of in Asia. Joanna Paul went to France. The Maori Television Service head is at home and still off air.

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Ross Armstrong

Promoted Public-Private Partnerships with Paul Keating and Helen Clark. His partnerships were too public for some, too private for others.

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Michelle Boag

The year's most high-profile victim of Leaky House Syndrome.

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RFU Council

Rucked the World Cup, mucked the Devine call-up, ducked the Silver Fern row ... what'll they do next?

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Bill Porteous

See, if you slap enough bog around the soggy bits, it does the stop the rot.

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Any Air NZ engineer

Critics claimed there was a spanner in the works. That was about the only thing that wasn't.

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Russell Crowe

A Gladiator is always a Warrior but a Souths fan is always ... a bunny.

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Matthew Ridge

Once was Warrior. Twice was arrested.

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Kelly Chal

Indian-born Englishwoman, who hadn't quite got her act together as a New Zealander and became the first MP to resign before she'd been House-trained

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Hylton Le Grice

Found the Southern Cross friendly society decidedly unfriendly to his chairmanship after his diagnosis of the health insurer's claims bungle as "just a hiccup" proved an understatement.