Shania Twain’s NZ problem

It seems that NZ is becoming one of the “it” locations for celebrities to have one of their many houses. Not too many are coming, but those that do report that fans keep their distance, are respectful and just let them get on with it. That must be nice when most people treat you like public property.

So we heard a while back that Shania Twain was buying up a big chunk of land down Wanaka way (ref). It occupied about one millisecond of our time and we moved on. We appreciate her music but country music isn’t mainstream down here.

Because she wants to build a house on her land, as you would, she has to get resource consent, jump through hoops etc and the powers to be are making her life particularly difficult. Veteran broadcaster Paul Holmes has been making a big thing out of her problems so when the Sunday papers had an artists impression of how it would look I was actually interested! Would it look like Gracelands? Would it be “so hollywood”?

Crikey, what a disappointment – it’s lovely, low lying and spread out, nothing for the knockers to knock. What is the problem with the council down there? Surely they have enough problems with the cheap properties and the apartments being thrown together to not worry about this tasteful development.

Could it be that the male dominated Queenstown District Council down there doesn’t like it that a “chit of a girl” makes money singing country music which they don’t even like. That she doesn’t even have a proper job? Well, I don’t much like the fact that for a hard 40 hours work each week some people take home very little and others take home obscene amounts – but that’s a whole other issue.

In this case they are supposed to be judging the development, not the owner and her revenue streams.

I reckon it’s time the council pulled their heads in and started being reasonable.

Come on down Shania and enjoy our lovely country!