Taylor Swift’s New Zealand Adventures
Taylor Swift has a lot of fans, and one of them is Oprah Winfrey. Vanity Fair reveals that Oprah recently spoke to the press in Australia and mentioned how much she admires Swift.
“I’ve never seen any woman handle herself the way she does. She makes my eyes water, the way she handles herself. She manages the whole fame trip, what it means to be in the spotlight. So when you think about all the things going wrong the world she is the true great role model.”
That is some pretty impressive praise for Taylor Swift coming from one of the greatest female role models of the 20th and 21st centuries. But, when it comes to the conservationists in New Zealand, Taylor Swift isn’t their favorite person at the moment. Audubon reports that Swift recently filmed a music video on Bethells Beach in New Zealand, a beach that is populated by the endangered New Zealand dotterels.
Apparently there are fewer than 2,000 dotterels left and during nesting season they hide their eggs among the ocean debris left on the beach. When the babies hatch, they roam the beach for a year or more. Taylor Swift and her team were given permission to take two vehicles onto the beach, but they ended up taking a lot more, which could have caused problems with the nesting sites of the dotterels.
Philly reports that Sandra Coney, the Chair of the Waitakere Ranges Local Board, openly criticized Taylor Swift and her film crew for the incident on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/sandra.coney.10/posts/953365814729376
In response, a representative of Taylor Swift’s production company, Cherokee Films, issued an apology.
“As the local film production company, Cherokee Films, we accept responsibility and apologize for this situation. Taylor Swift and her management team were in no way at fault and did not do anything that violated permits or ordinances… At all times the film crew adhered to the dotterel protocol in guidelines provided about the dotterel nesting sites, and at no time were the film crew close to that habitat. No dotterel were harmed… In acknowledgement of the concern this has added to those in charge of protecting local dotterel population, Cherokee Films will make a donation to the breeding program as we support your concerns.”
https://www.facebook.com/sandra.coney.10/posts/954742067925084
This apology and the financial donation may help alleviate any concerns. Taylor Swift and her production company would do well to be more careful in the future.
Outside of the incident, Swift certainly has been getting her fill of New Zealand. According to the New Zealand Herald, Air New Zealand even asked her participate in what will become their next in-flight safety video. They also posted an image of her with images of stars from their previous videos and wished her well on her visit to their country.
“It was great to see Taylor Swift exploring some of what our beautiful country has to offer on social media earlier today and we thought we would take the opportunity to invite her to star in one of our safety videos. We can’t wait to hear what she has to say.”
Could it be possible for Taylor Swift to have anything less than positive to say about New Zealand? Probably not; except, In Style has reported that the New Zealand bugs have been bothering Taylor Swift and her family during their trip.
Swift posted a photo of herself and her brother. Austin, enjoying the spectacular New Zealand coastline, but she did also make a comment about the bugs.
“There’s lots of bugs here.”
Watch @TaylorSwift13 battle a few bugs during a family trip to New Zealand: https://t.co/LaWeQ2lk0Q pic.twitter.com/Ccth2udMzD
— InStyle (@InStyle) December 2, 2015
[Photo by Helga Esteb/Shutterstock]
