Message’s snapshot of life in 1991
It was the year the All Blacks tumbled out of the Rugby World Cup tournament and many of us took a stronger stance on protecting the environment.
There was also a band named Jesus Jones, the fall of the Soviet Union and The Simpsons’ first screening on New Zealand TV.
Yes, there was plenty to write about in 1991. In Nelson, 20-yearold psychology student Kate Annakin was on holiday from Canterbury University – where her annual fees were $1300 – when she left a handwritten letter, documenting the events of the world and her own life, underneath the carpet in the lounge of her family’s Iwa Rd home.
‘‘I thought it would be a fun thing to do, knowing I would love to find something like that.
‘‘I remember helping my brother with his house in Wellington and finding a newspaper that was over 100 years old.
‘‘A small roundup of the news might be interesting for someone in 20-30 years and just a bit about our family – who we were, what we did – a snapshot of life really.’’
Annakin’s scribbled insights, dated September 16, were discovered by Chris Healey and Jo Neate while replacing the carpet five years ago. However, it was only two weeks ago that the couple tracked the author down to Australia’s Gold Coast. ‘‘I had totally forgotten what I had written until they sent it to me – for a 20-year-old I do not remember being that fascinated with world events,’’ Annakin said.
Neate said the letter had been an ‘‘interesting’’ discovery which sparked a few memories of her own. At the time she was living in
Bali, long before meeting Healey, who was in the early stages of a deep-sea fishing career working for Wellington-based Cook Strait Seafoods. ‘‘I think she was a very perceptive person with what she has written about – she had amazing vision, and it sounds like she has done quite a lot of it too,’’ Healey said.
The Nelson letter is not the only one Annakin left behind. Homes in Levin, Nelson and
Christchurch also bear her writings from the 1980s to the early 2000s. ‘‘My parents moved a lot and did a lot of renovating – so I have written behind wallpaper and stuffed things under carpet.
Annakin said she was thrilled to revisit her thoughts – not just for the nostalgia factor but to also see the contribution of her mother, Lorna, who died in 2018 and used to run the nearby Milton St Takeaways with Kate’s older brother, Simon. ‘‘It was lovely to see her handwriting again.’’ Other events mentioned in the letter included England’s record summer temperatures, the first Gulf War and the introduction of $1 and $2 coins.
In New Zealand, National’s Jim Bolger-led government ruled the Beehive, with Ruth Richardson’s ‘‘mother of all budgets’’ shaking up the welfare system and introducing user pays requirements to hospitals and schools. In an unashamedly Labour household, Annakin was quick to let future readers know what her family thought.
‘‘Things have been a bit grim over the last year or so ... the present National Party have made some rather awful decisions and the country is very disappointed with their efforts to govern. We think they will be voted out in the next election (We hope so!)’’
It was another eight years before Helen Clark took office as the country’s first elected female prime minister.
Three decades on, Annakin said she was surprised to read some parallels in relation to environmental concerns.
‘‘I did not realise we were already worried about climate change that far back although from memory it was not so much global warming – more about what might happen if we let the ozone layer deplete.’’