Giga Nick an online star
It may have been too little, too late, but it made a lot of people laugh.
The ‘‘ Giga Nick, the Giga Mayor’’ video, made in support of Porirua’s Chorus Gigatown bid, was a hit on social media when it was released last week.
In the video, mayor Nick Leggett raps and generally takes the mickey out of his status.
He wears the mayoral chains in the Aquatic Centre pool, jumps around with his ‘‘posse’’ on a hill overlooking the harbour and gets down at the Saturday morning market in Cobham Court.
There is a cameo from councillor Ken Douglas, who displays a gangster grille of metal teeth.
Leggett said the video took about five hours to shoot and he had high praise for director Luke Pilkington- Ching and writer Barry Prescott.
‘‘The words were so good and it was a lot of fun to do,’’ Leggett said.
‘‘Obviously I didn’t really know what I was doing, but it seemed to flow and I was a willing instrument.
‘‘The hardest shot was [at the end of the video] when I was on the balcony, because the car park was so full of people.
‘‘In the end the video drew a lot of attention and was another positive chance to promote the city.’’
Leggett said he didn’t mind putting himself out there because in the Gigatown competition Porirua was lagging just out of the top five.
The top five Gigatowns will vie for ultra-fast internet at a reduced rate for three years.
If Porirua finished sixth, Leggett said he would ask Chorus to allow the city in as a wildcard.