{"id":10171,"date":"2024-06-09T09:46:56","date_gmt":"2024-06-08T21:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=10171"},"modified":"2024-06-09T09:46:56","modified_gmt":"2024-06-08T21:46:56","slug":"pms-fiji-visit-diary-christopher-luxons-rugby-revenge-fails-wife-amanda-shows-diplomatic-chops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=10171","title":{"rendered":"PM\u2019s Fiji visit diary: Christopher Luxon\u2019s rugby revenge fails, wife Amanda shows diplomatic chops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Behind the scenes of his\u00a0first trip to the Pacific<\/a>, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was on a secret mission.<\/p>\n

A mission to avenge his beloved Crusaders who failed to make the Super Rugby playoffs for the first time in almost a decade – at the hands of the Fijian Drua.<\/p>\n

The outcome, which followed a dismal season for the Canterbury side, was brought up regularly during\u00a0Luxon\u2019s visit to Fiji<\/a>\u00a0last week.\u00a0Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka<\/a>\u00a0took great pleasure in mentioning it, even gifting Luxon a Drua shirt.<\/p>\n

Luxon to his credit appeared magnanimous in defeat, saying the result had helped avoid a \u201cdiplomatic incident\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Luxon was pinning his hopes on his Defence Force enacting some revenge, with one of the final engagements on his visit being a game of rugby sevens against a team from the\u00a0Fiji military<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Crusaders-tragic was made to wait for the opportunity, however, with a packed itinerary from his arrival on Wednesday evening from Niue to the game at midday on Friday.<\/p>\n

Any doubt about how Luxon would be received in Fiji quickly dissipated when the New Zealand delegation drove from the airport and was greeted with an enormous billboard with Luxon\u2019s face on it, celebrating his visit.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be the first of three replica billboards along the route from the airport to his accommodation. Clearly Luxon\u2019s warm welcome in Niue earlier in the week was set to be continued.<\/p>\n

A traditional welcome for Luxon by Rabuka brought the Kiwi PM face-to-face with a customary serving of kava. That item on the itinerary had piqued journalists\u2019 interest, given kava\u2019s known relaxing effect and Luxon being tee-total.<\/p>\n

Eagle-eyed members of the audience may have seen the Prime Minister\u2019s expression betray a slight grimace at the point of consumption. Luxon later rebuffed any suggestion he hadn\u2019t enjoyed his drink.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s assortment of meetings with Fijian leaders came after a fairly corporate function at Tower Insurance\u2019s branch in Suva where he learned of the company\u2019s presence in Fiji.<\/p>\n

The hundreds of Tower staff may not have appreciated the visit as much as their bosses. Even though Luxon didn\u2019t arrive until after 8am, most staff had arrived by 6.30am and had to keep their desktop screens on the default homepage image – essentially meaning they had to twiddle their thumbs until the PM turned up.<\/p>\n

There was a quick engagement with Fiji President Ratu Williame Katonivere before his meeting and press conference with Rabuka later in the morning. That included the gifting of the Drua shirt which Luxon immediately recognised as a not-so-subtle joke about the Crusaders.<\/p>\n

Luxon\u2019s gift to Rabuka was quite a success. Some were surprised to learn the Fijian PM, a former soldier and Commonwealth Games athlete, was also an amateur harmonicist. Luxon claimed he\u2019d gifted a rare Hohner harmonica. Rabuka took it out of its case and played a few notes, much to Luxon\u2019s delight.<\/p>\n

The pair\u2019s press conference progressed as expected with Luxon announcing a $2 billion trade target by 2030 and the removal of a transit visa implemented after Fiji\u2019s 2006 coup that applied to Fijian nationals, which Luxon deemed a \u201cmajor irritant\u201d.<\/p>\n

After a brief meeting with Pacific Islands Forum leader Baron Waqa, Luxon headed to Fiji\u2019s police dog centre for a much-anticipated interaction with adorable police dogs in training.<\/p>\n

Prime Ministers\u2019 staff and security always get a bit twitchy when events like this take place. It\u2019s an unpredictable environment where risk mitigation is limited, particularly when he\u2019s centimetres away from animals still learning how to moderate their instinct to maul people.<\/p>\n

Their blood pressure would have surely spiked when 18-month-old Scully leapt up at Luxon, dirtying the PM\u2019s suit with his paws. Luxon luckily escaped with all 10 fingers still intact.<\/p>\n

A stop-off at the University of South Pacific to speak with students receiving New Zealand funding happened on the way to the airport before a 40-minute flight to Nadi, the final location of Luxon\u2019s Pacific visit.<\/p>\n

On Friday morning, Luxon delivered the keynote address at a joint conference for New Zealand and Fiji business representatives. This is when the rugby banter really started to ramp up with just hours until kickoff. Luxon gave the crowd of more than 100 a briefing on the situation and referenced his hope the \u201cDefence Blacks\u201d could make up for the Crusaders\u2019 demise.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Herald<\/i>\u00a0learned New Zealand\u2019s efforts to get the win even extended to discussions with Fiji\u2019s team about resting some of the home side\u2019s more accomplished players in the hope it would even the playing field.<\/p>\n

Luxon also revealed he\u2019d offered his services to the Defence Force team but was \u201cvery politely denied\u201d. New Zealand politicians have form in this area, given former Foreign Minister Murray McCully took the field during a previous visit.<\/p>\n

Even if the team had said yes, Luxon suggested his wife Amanda may have put the kibosh on that given Luxon\u2019s self-confessed habit of pulling hamstrings when he was more active over summer.<\/p>\n

\n

Luxon was probably thankful he wasn\u2019t lacing up his boots upon arrival at the ground. A searing heat greeted the players as they ran out on to King Charles Park which had even spectators sweating.<\/p>\n

Despite the odds against them, the Defence Blacks took a commanding lead in the early stage of the game, leading the Fijians 12-nil.<\/p>\n

A group of local school children were surprisingly supportive of the Defence Blacks. The\u00a0Herald<\/i>\u00a0later found out Amanda Luxon had taken a somewhat diplomatic role to advocate for New Zealand which was clearly quite effective.<\/p>\n

Luxon, sitting next to Rabuka, wasted no time in alerting his Fijian counterpart to New Zealand\u2019s success. Rabuka didn\u2019t appear too worried.<\/p>\n

The Fijian PM was vindicated shortly after when a Defence Black was temporarily sent off for a failed attempt at an intercept. Fiji used the one-man advantage to great effect, levelling up the game at halftime.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister\u2019s delegation then pulled their wildcard – having Luxon\u2019s right-hand-man Jake O\u2019Flaherty, also a regular Hurricanes game announcer, make a guest appearance with mic in hand to commentate the game for spectators.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Luxon, O\u2019Flaherty\u2019s dulcet tones weren\u2019t enough to combat the Fijians\u2019 trademark flair and passing prowess, which proved too much for the Defence Blacks.<\/p>\n

A consolation try at the death for the visitors kept the scoreline respectable, the Fijians winning 24-17 and leaving Luxon\u2019s mission an unsuccessful one.<\/p>\n

Source: NZ Herald<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Behind the scenes of his\u00a0first trip to the Pacific, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was on a secret mission. A mission to avenge his beloved Crusaders who failed to make the Super Rugby playoffs for the first time in almost a decade – at the hands of the Fijian Drua. The outcome, which followed a dismal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10174,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171\/revisions\/10174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}