\u201cThen he looked at the audience, and he looked at me, as I was walking backwards with the curtain, and said, \u2018I\u2019m fine now\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
It turns out, along with his deep love for the natural world, Attenborough has a wonderful sense of humour, too.<\/p>\n
Simon Baggs and Sir David Attenborough. Baggs took the famous conservationist on multiple speaking tours. Photo \/ Simon Baggs<\/p>\n
Baggs and Attenborough have been close friends since the late 2000s, with the promoter taking the naturalist on multiple speaking engagements since then.<\/p>\n
While his 2017 appearance was his first speaking tour here, Attenborough\u2019s love for New Zealand is long-standing. <\/p>\n
The Planet Earth host has visited multiple times and continues to feature the work of New Zealand photographers and videographers in his documentaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he also has this appreciation about the uniqueness of New Zealand and the fact that, a bit like Australia, it is so far from the other parts of the world. The natural environment is so unique and untouched. It\u2019s far less damaged. He just loves to get out and about and sit out in the countryside somewhere and just be [when he\u2019s here],\u201d Baggs says.<\/p>\n
The pair even sent paparazzi on a wild goose chase across Auckland by sending out an empty limousine after the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went on a drive through Remuera and all over the place, then went into the loading dock at the hotel and snuck him indoors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baggs says that Attenborough continuing to work as he celebrates turning 100 is a reflection of an idea he once shared with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has an interesting philosophy I stole, which is, as we get older, you should rid yourselves of all the things you don\u2019t want to do. Identify what they are and work out how you can not do them. Then only spend your time doing things that you love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir David Attenborough speaking in Auckland in 2017. Photo \/ Simon Baggs<\/p>\n
Full frontal nerdity<\/p>\n
In the 90s, Ruud Kleinpaste was best known to New Zealanders as The Bug Man. He says even when growing up in the Netherlands, he idolised Attenborough and the work he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Attenborough\u2019s always been in my life because I was a nature nerd,\u201d Kleinpaste says.<\/p>\n
Their first encounter was in the mid-90s, and one thing that immediately stood out to Kleinpaste was Attenborough\u2019s work ethic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was working at Maggie\u2019s Garden Show with Maggie Barry and on Newstalk ZB in the old days, and I suddenly got this signal saying \u2018Attenborough\u2019s coming over, do you want him on your talkback radio show on Sunday morning?\u2019\u201d he recounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe landed on NZ1, which was the plane route from the UK to Auckland … He arrived at 6am, and at 9am that day, he was in my studio doing talkback radio.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bug Man aka Ruud Kleinpastehas fond memories of laughs and stories with Sir David Attenborough.<\/p>\n
Kleinpaste likes to joke with people that he does \u201cfull frontal nerdity\u201d for a job. When Attenborough heard this, he burst out laughing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen David heard that, he pissed himself. He thought it was quite funny. The moment the light on the camera goes off, he can tell you the most wonderful, brilliant joke,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The pair proceeded to chat on air about things that \u201cnobody talked about\u201d in those days when it came to environmental education. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about natives and endemics, creatures that only live in Aotearoa and nowhere else in the world. We talked about predator free. There was this enormous amount of knowledge that came out of his brain, and that, I believe, helped me get to where I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve and Riley Hathaway interview Mangawhai Beach School students at Ocean with David Attenborough.<\/p>\n
A multi-generational reach<\/p>\n
Steve Hathaway and his daughter Riley have spent years inspiring Kiwi kids to fall in love with the ocean, through their school education programme Young Ocean Explorers.<\/p>\n
Hathaway is an underwater cameraman who provides footage for local and international documentaries, including Attenborough\u2019s. He says it was the conservationist\u2019s work that inspired him to follow his dream of filming underwater.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was over in LA for a year with my family, and when I came back to New Zealand, I had this dream of doing my own underwater show,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were staying at a friend\u2019s house, and he had the [Attenborough series] Blue Planet on video in the house. I watched it, and it was just so inspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was drawn to an \u201cabsolutely magnificent\u201d scene, showcasing the life of creatures like marlin and bait ball formations. He thought those underwater cameramen were the luckiest on the planet.<\/p>\n
\u201cFast forward a few years, and I\u2019m sitting on the back of my boat with the director of Open Ocean \u2013 The Blue Planet I , and they\u2019re filming behind the scenes on me for Open Ocean \u2013 The Blue Planet II . I just had this surreal moment of realisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he hasn\u2019t yet met Attenborough, he was invited to the team screening of Open Ocean – The Blue Planet II in Bristol, where he heard him speak. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of it, [Attenborough] walked out on stage as a surprise and just congratulated the teams. He goes, \u2018I\u2019m not the star of the show, I\u2019m just a voice. The underwater camera people are the stars of the show\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hathaway also attended special screenings of the series here at home and ended up taking a life-size cardboard cutout of Attenborough along with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how he spans the generations. I\u2019ve said for years that when he eventually passes, and hopefully he has quite a few years left, I think there\u2019s going to be more mourning than when the Queen died. He goes across culture, nations, and different ages, and he\u2019s just universally loved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir David Attenborough playing with baby Gorillas while filming the BBC animal documentary “Gorillas Revisited”. Photo \/ BBC<\/p>\n
Trusting us with the truth<\/p>\n
Seeing k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d up close, visiting K\u0101piti Island as birdlife returned, and opening the Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project in Nelson Lakes National Park are standout moments from Attenborough\u2019s time in the country according to Conservation Minister Tama Potaka.<\/p>\n
He describes the broadcaster as \u201ctruly remarkable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has always shown us something simple but powerful, that people protect what they care about, and they care when they truly experience the natural world.\u201d <\/p>\n
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson believes that, for generations of wh\u0101nau in New Zealand, Attenborough is the voice that has brought nature to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has spent a lifetime helping us fall in love with the natural world and trusting us with the truth about what\u2019s happening to it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe storytelling alone would have been a legacy. What makes it extraordinary is that he kept listening. He let the science change what he said. He named the loss alongside the wonder, and never let either one go. Kaitiakitanga [guardianship, stewardship, and protection of the environment], the responsibility to care for our taiao [environment] for those who come after us, is at the heart of what he\u2019s modelled for the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald\u2019s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThen he looked at the audience, and he looked at me, as I was walking backwards with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[3548,213876,6028,1389,6284,273,117,111,139,69,20442,147,8485,61,20838,32951,80],"class_list":["post-417231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-3548","tag-attenborough","tag-champion","tag-conservation","tag-david","tag-environment","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pays","tag-science","tag-sir","tag-to","tag-tribute","tag-turns","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}