Is there anyone else in NZ equally as hidden as Richard MacManus

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Even with Peter Jackson, the All Blacks, Karen Walker and Fat Freddy's we still think of Kiwis as being extraordinary if they make it on the world stage. I have a belief that beneath the (worthy) headline acts as stated before (and no doubt missing many of your own favorites) there are huge numbers of Kiwis impressing the world in spheres of humanity we never really think of.

One is Richard MacManus who writes the Read/WriteWeb blog that covers the "next generation of web and media" - the new a trendy stuff I'm trying to hook into with my "life online". He is one of the voices to listen to as he distills the pontifications from the larger players (think Yahoo!, Reuters, News Corporation, Google, Microsoft) and the clamorings of the smaller up-and-comers (think meebo, Writely, netvibes and many others) with over 11,000 subscribers to his feed.

I'm sure there are others in equally famous in their own sphere's but the rest of us don't know about - restaurateurs, adventurers, artists, writers, scientists, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, politicians, life coaches, trainers, retailers ... anyone.
So who are they? Tell us if you know of anyone that's doing there thang below the radar on a global scale.

Photo from Flickr: drewsta's Fat Freddys Drop

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