New Year highs and lows:
New Year’s Eve is regarded as a cause for celebration. But what if your December 31 party is memorable for all the wrong reasons? We asked some television presenters to tell us about their best and worst New Year’s Eve moments.
Celebrities share their best and worst New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Matty McLean, Breakfast, TVNZ 1:
What was your best New Year’s Eve celebration?
My best New Year celebrations have all been spent, believe it or not, at New Year’s Eve weddings. It started with the wedding of two friends who got married on December 31, 2015. I wasn’t sure how a New Year wedding would go, but then quickly realised that, given how often end-of-year celebrations can be a disappointment, that this is the perfect solution. It’s a party someone else organises, with free food, free booze, and one very happy occasion. It’s double the reason to celebrate. Since then, I’ve spent so much time talking about how amazing a New Year wedding is, that two other friends of mine have decided to get married on the 31st as well.
What was your worst New Year’s Eve celebration?
My worst, though, was early on in my career, when I drew the short straw and had to work in the newsroom over New Year. I mean, I love my job, but it’s not particularly exciting when you’re sitting at your desk as the clock strikes midnight.
Bernadine Oliver-Kerby, Sky Sport:
What was your best New Year’s Eve?
I have had many fabulous New Year celebrations. Some are a little
“clearer” than others but I believe that our best New Year is still to come as the grand plan is to do a New Year in New York. A white Christmas in the Big Apple and a New Year to match no other. Watch this space.
Your worst New Year?
Probably the New Year I’d like to forget is when I was in “new mum hell”. Our first daughter was born two weeks before Christmas and I was struggling day and night with a brand new baby suffering from severe reflux. Our close friends travelled from King Country to Auckland to spend New Year’s with us and instead of indulging in a crate of big brown bots and enjoying NY festivities ... I was pacing the room keeping an agitated baby upright and stressing that my first born was indeed an insomniac. Our friends jumped in their car and headed out to watch the fireworks instead. Barely a beer was touched and no sleep was had – for all the wrong reasons.
Courtney Tairi, Sky Sport: Your best New Year’s Eve?
My best New Year’s Eve celebration would have to be 2017. I was on holiday with all my family down the coast. We had a house right on the water. We brought in the New Year together as a family – kids, grandparents, aunties, uncles. A house across the water let off fireworks so we had our own little fireworks display, which was great.
And your worst New Year’s Eve?
My worst New Year’s celebration would have to be a few years ago when I headed to the city to watch the fireworks display. We ended up missing it because the road was blocked and we couldn’t get to a viewing point. We heard the whole display but were stuck in a big crowd so we literally saw nothing.
Monty Betham, Sky Sport: Best New Year?
It would have to be the only one I’ve spent overseas in my lifetime ... as it’s a point of difference. I spent it at Treasure Island, Fiji – pre-kids with Mrs B.
And your worst New Year’s Eve?
I can’t recall a bad one. It’s what you make of the night as you see in an exciting new year to smash goals.
Matt Watson, Hook Me Up, Prime: Your best New Year’s Eve?
A 1970s-themed party at the bach up north. We had a dozen tents on the lawn and mates had come from around New Zealand and overseas to join us. We started the day by getting some crayfish and scallops, cooked them on the barbecue, then dressed up like fools and partied all night while the kids ran free
range. Well, I’m pretty sure someone was watching them.
Worst New Year?
Ringing in the Millennium in 2000. I had a plan to party on my boat on the Auckland waterfront. I thought with the bars packed that my girlfriend, my mates and I could load up the boat with beers and cruise up and down in front of the action and take it all in. My mum and dad asked to join us, and that was cool, until it rained and we were all huddled under the small bit of shelter on the boat. Then the girls needed to go to the toilet, only there wasn’t one. Then when crowds got rowdy, my boat became a good target to throw beer bottles at. So we brought in the New Year damp and huddled together anchored off Devonport.
Neill Rea, The Brokenwood Mysteries, Prime: Your best New Year’s Eve?
My mother and I combined our 60th and 30th birthdays and celebrated them on New Year’s Eve. I had built a raft to which all those invited could attach notes containing a wish for the New Year or something to be left behind in the old year. Fireworks were also on the raft. We lit these as we were pushing the raft out. What I didn’t account for was the wave that tipped the raft sideways and sprayed all the guests with rockets and gunpowder. My friend, who I went through drama school with, was heard to say, “This is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen” as he dodged skyrockets and rolled around on the sand laughing.
Your worst New Year?
The Millennium, Takaka Hill. The Gathering music festival. There was a big wet that year and all I can really remember is a flat tyre, a car stuck in the mud, dripping wet clothes and a lot of mud. However, a friend did wear white trousers and, somehow, miraculously managed to keep them clean for two days.