Taylor Swift engagement move: Christopher Luxon shows a bit of unexpected style – Editorial

Christopher Luxon showed a bit of unexpected style in getting New Zealand into the conversation about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's engagement. Photo / Getty Images

Editorial

THE FACTS

• Prime Minister Christopher Luxon invited Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to New Zealand after their engagement.
• Towns like Hawke’s Bay and Hastings are vying to host the celebrity couple’s potential wedding.
• Luxon’s move highlights New Zealand’s appeal and encourages leaders to be more innovative and bold.

Spring has arrived, and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will have one in his step this week after successfully hitching his wagon to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s love story.

The engagement of the biggest pop star in the Western world brings engagement – AKA eyeballs – on a scale that few politicians could dream of.

As shrewd advertisers know all too well, when the eyes of the world are on something fun, it brings opportunity.

Luxon, using a bit of unexpected style, decided to not only congratulate the American football star and Swift, but also extend an open invitation for the newly engaged couple to New Zealand.

Kelce reportedly had an enthusiastic quip ready for Luxon’s proposal – “Can I have a NZ passport?” [sic]

The two lovers have the entire world at their fingertips, but if they were to choose to come to New Zealand for any part of the nuptials, it would be a celebrity event beyond the scale of anything seen on these shores this century.

Already, towns with a sense of humour and opportunity are lining up to be a part of Swift and Kelce’s considerations.

Hawke’s Bay and Hastings, which hosted New Zealand’s last major celebrity wedding – former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern and her beau Clarke Gayford – have made their pitch to Swift.

That experience, and the US connections of two of the region’s top spots, Craggy Range and Rosewood Cape Kidnappers, surely put it in good stead.

But you get the feeling the American pop star would be equally comfortable flying her private jet and guests into somewhere exclusive in Northland or Central Otago or even Fiordland – some wedding photos at Milford Sound would be beyond the wildest dreams of Tourism New Zealand marketers.

There also wouldn’t be too much bad blood between the two Bays if Swift and Kelce were to choose something simple and Kiwi – perhaps the beach at Mount Manganui for a sand-in-the-toes ceremony?

Of course, this is all a bit of slightly juvenile speculation.

But it’s more fun than talking about a champagne-problem economy, which is lurching with every seasonal change closer to a cruel summer.

Luxon’s power play is the kind of thing that New Zealand’s leaders should try more of.

There’s no point being delicate and forever sitting on the bleachers as a result.

We have a reputation the world loves, as a pretty oasis in the storm, even if we’ve been living through a soft rain the past few years.

Our innovation and humour are how we can all get ourselves out of that.

So, well done to Luxon – if he keeps going like this, New Zealand might wake up and, to borrow from a Taylor Swift lyric, find that what it’s been looking for in a PM has been here the whole time.