Adam Rickitt
Home » Magazine » Good, issue 6 » Adam RickittAfter his big break in Coronation Street, the multi-talented Adam Rickitt released an album and trod the boards before being chosen as a prospective MP for the British Conservative party. Then came a chance to play Shortland Street’s Kieran Mitchell. Two years on, he and loyal Blue Heeler Rufus are still here—and they plan to stick around
I just love it here. I spent my life living in fifth gear back in the UK—here everything shifts down. In the UK, life is something you have in between work, whereas here work is something you have in between life. That’s the difference.
It was important to me to get a dog because I came here and I knew nobody. I had no family here, no friends here, and I needed something to love.
Mad Max had a Blue Heeler. Ever since I saw Mad Max I’ve wanted one.
I was involved with the RSPCA back in the UK, so I approached the SPCA here to see what I could help out with. We’re doing a campaign aimed at kids, to say that just because your parents beat the shit out of their dog, doesn’t mean you should.
I don’t understand how anyone could be nasty to animals. Sadly, some people just aren’t aware how to properly raise them. Give me a kid and I wouldn’t know what to do with it, but give me a dog and I’m fine.
I’ve been living here two years. There were bigger houses and houses that didn’t need as much work, but there were no houses that had this view. It just took my breath away.
We literally gutted the house, re-wired, re-plumbed, re-painted re-insulated … it took about a year. It was all done using natural, recycled materials where we could. I like its hideaway retreat feel. I didn’t want some odd-looking modernist house in the bush.
Piha beach is five minutes away, and there’s the Waitakeres themselves. It’s a beautiful place and it’s made me much more aware of my environment. You have to be more self-sufficient up here. You learn to be at one with nature in some respects.
I grew up in Cheshire in a very small farming community. At one point we had three dogs, three cats, two guinea pigs, two rabbits, a cockatiel and three horses.
I had such a lucky upbringing. My view on life is that if you’re given those benefits, you’re kind of honour-bound to try and make sure that everybody else does as well.
I was asked by Boris Johnson [now London mayor] to write an article for Spectator magazine about why the entertainment industry is traditionally seen as so left wing. I was at the editorial meeting, and he said ‘Have you ever thought about being a politician?’
I’m quite a mixed politician in some respects. I believe in trying to give everybody the same opportunity. But at the same time I don’t think you should mollycoddle them. I don’t think it’s the role of government to coax people through life.
That’s got to be the attitude when it comes to the environment. You can provide the information, all the services like recycling, but it has to be a conscious choice by the individual to say, ‘Yes, I want to do my part’.
Everyone goes, ‘What can one person do?’ You have to remember that the major polluters are answerable to the customer.
The way we’re going to make things sustainable isn’t by asking people to make sacrifices. Give up cars? It’s not going to happen. You need to look to hydrogen fuel cells and electric cars. Technology’s the only way we’re going to create sustainability.
I want to get a wind turbine, but they’re so expensive. That’s where we need industry to take a lead, to bring down costs. People aren’t stupid, they would rather not pay for electricity, they’d rather have wind turbines and solar panels, but you need the business community to help bring the costs down.
Subsidies are fine, but you can’t subsidise every household in the country. We need to fund research and development so that businesses can bring down the cost, and individuals can afford it.
You can think of a lot when you run ten kilometres a day!
Fri February 12, 2010 @ 11:21 AM
