Nigel Benson compiles a larrikin's list of the dastardly, the deluded, the better-than-the-rest-of-us - and the just plain misunderstood.
Hone Heke
Definitely a renegade, our first political activist, Hone Heke, was chief of the Nga Puhi tribe in the 1840s.
To show his unhappiness with the plight of Maori, Heke chopped down a flagpole in Kororareka which carried the British ensign.
The British weren't very happy about this and sabres rattled.
Undeterred, Heke proceeded to level the flagpole three more times during the next six months.
Outraged, the Crown ordered in a battalion of British soldiers to defend it.
Heke cut the flagpole down for the fourth time.
So began the Flagstaff War.
He later retired to Kaikohe where he died of tuberculosis in 1850.
Hamiora Pere
The only New Zealander to be executed for treason, Hamiora Pere was among Te Kooti's vanquished warriors taken captive at the siege of Ngatapa, in 1869, during the New Zealand land wars.
Most of the 270 prisoners were executed, but Pere was among the few prisoners to be kept alive.
He was put on trial in Wellington for high treason against the British Crown, convicted and sentenced to the mandatory punishment for treason - hanged, beheaded and then quartered.
The authorities later had a change of heart and generously forsook the beheading and quartering part.
Pere was hanged in Wellington in 1869.
As capital punishment has been abolished in New Zealand, he will forever retain the dubious distinction of being the only person to be executed on charges of treason.
Richard John Seddon
Richard "King Dick" Seddon's 13 years in the big chair was the longest term served by a New Zealand prime minister.
The old rogue's tenure must have felt even longer to women, Maori and Chinese.
From the moment Seddon was elected to Parliament in 1879, he railed against women's suffrage, Chinese immigration and Maoridom.
His autocratic style led critics to mockingly anoint him "King Dick".
As minister of immigration, he compared Chinese to monkeys and believed Maori should be crushed with Gatling guns and locomotives.
He fiercely opposed women getting the vote until he realised it was inevitable, whereupon he did a trademark about-turn and said he was just kidding and had believed in women's suffrage all along.
"King Dick" died on a ship passage from Australia in 1906.
Amazingly, many historians regards him as one of New Zealand's greatest political leaders and today he has a nice statue outside Parliament.
Minnie Dean
Williamina "Minnie" Dean is the only woman to be hanged in New Zealand.
The Winton baby-farmer walked to the gallows in Invercargill on August 12, 1895, after being convicted of killing two children.
Police had executed a search warrant at her Winton property and uncovered the bodies of two babies and a 3-year-old boy.
Dean remained controversial even in death.
Her grave at Winton Cemetery was unmarked until last year and superstitious locals long believed that no grass would grow around the grave site.
Then they learned that the council had been weed-spraying the area for years.
In January 2009, a headstone mysteriously appeared overnight on Dean's grave.
"Minnie Dean is part of Winton's history. Where she now lies is now no mystery".
Keith Murdoch
More misunderstood rascal than renegade, the former Zingari-Richmond and Otago prop went all Lord Lucan after getting sent home in disgrace from the All Blacks 1972 tour of Great Britain and Ireland.
Just hours after Murdoch had scored the only try in the 19-16 win over Wales at Cardiff Arms Park, he was allegedly punching a security guard in a Cardiff hotel.
In the aftermath of the United Kingdom-media storm - and weak New Zealand team management - that followed, Murdoch quit rugby and his Dunedin home and headed to the Australian outback, where he has lived ever since.
He hit the headlines again in 2001, when he was cleared of involvement in the death of an Aboriginal man at a remote mine in the Northern Territory.
He was last reported to be living in the Queensland town of Tully.
A play, Finding Murdoch, premiered at the Downstage Theatre, in Wellington, in June 2007.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
Neither rogue, rascal nor renegade, nonetheless our greatest diva has not conquered all Kiwi hearts.
After clawing her way up from a working class background in Gissie to being treated like royalty around the world, the artist formerly known as Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron remains something of an enigma.
Perceived by some as aloof, Dame Kiri does a fine line in "cool".
But, she is also renowned for her kindness and generosity towards young New Zealand singers.
She has had her fair share of heartbreak: Desmond Park infamously ended their 30-year marriage by fax in 1997.
Perhaps the way some regard this truly world-class artist has more to do with the tallness of poppies, and our attitude towards them, than the singer herself.
Sir Robert Muldoon
Few, if any, New Zealand politicians have polarised the country like Rob "Piggy" Muldoon.
To his enemies, Muldoon was a dictatorial prime minister whose arrogance nearly destroyed both New Zealand's economy and society.
To his supporters, he was the beloved, wise-cracking leader of "Rob's Mob".
His backing of the 1981 Springbok Tour by the apartheid-era South Africa broke the 1977 Gleneagles Agreement and almost led to civil war in New Zealand, between pro- and anti-tour demonstrators.
Muldoon was eventually bundled out of power in 1984 by David Lange's Labour Party.
He continued as member for Tamaki for a few more years, railing against reforms such as the legalisation of homosexuality.
Despite his misgivings, the Homosexual Law Reform Act was passed in 1986.
Muldoon's swansong was to appear as the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show.
He died in 1992.
Barry Crump
Something of a cheerful rogue, and a larger-than-life character in every way, the bushman-turned-author was the living embodiment of the hard-drinking, black singlet-wearing Kiwi bloke.
Crump wrote a series of semi-autobiographical novels in the 1960s and 1970s based on his adventures as a deer culler and all-round outdoors man.
His novels sold more than a million copies domestically, equating to one book sold for every four New Zealanders.
However, he was dogged by domestic controversy; marrying five times and fathering nine sons.
By the time he died, in 1996, Crump was best known for appearing in a series of television commercials for Toyota 4WDs.
Sir Bob Jones
A loveable rascal and mischievous contrarian, what's not to dislike about Sir Robert "Bob" Jones? The property tycoon, author and former-politician has never taken a backward step in his life and is famously scornful of anyone who does.
Jones formed the short-lived neo-liberal New Zealand Party in 1983, with the intention of sabotaging Robert Muldoon's National Government in the 1984 snap election.
With the election over, Muldoon deposed and mission accomplished, Jones disbanded the party.
In 1985, Jones was fishing in a remote Taupo valley when a helicopter carrying TVNZ reporters landed nearby, seeking an interview.
Jones promptly punched journalist Rod Vaughan on the nose, which the reporter's TVNZ colleagues gleefully captured on tape.
Winston Peters
In a similar vein, the one-time darling of the pink-rinse-and-pearl set, the ever-charming Winston Peters, founded New Zealand First after he was kicked out of Jim Bolger's National Government.
Detractors felt it should have been named Winston Peters First.
Peters' party held the balance of power after the 1996 election.
He swore he would never consider forming a coalition with his nemesis Bolger, and Labour leader Helen Clark appeared certain to become New Zealand's first female prime minister.
But in an about-turn of breath-taking proportions, Peters agreed to form a coalition government with National if they would let him be Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer.
Even more staggeringly, National agreed.
Peters was later held to account over a $100,000 party donation and was not re-elected in the 2008 general election.
In his concession speech, ever a twinkle in his eye, Peters promised "This is not the end".
Sir Roger Douglas
The father of "Rogernomics" in 1984, Finance Minister Roger Douglas pursued economic policies which included the privatisation of State assets, the removal of tariffs and subsidies and applying monetarism to control inflation.
Labour supporters saw the reforms as a betrayal of the traditional left-wing policies of the party.
The more conservative wing of the National Party was equally appalled, but after defeating Labour, briefly picked up the mantle with Finance Minister Ruth Richardson's "Ruthanasia".
Labour had by then beat a hasty retreat from "Rogernomics" and its founder became something of a political renegade - going on to form Act New Zealand in 1993.
Ruth Richardson
Admired by some for carrying on the neo-liberal torch lit by Sir Roger Douglas, the mother of "Ruthanasia", Ruth Richardson, became one of the most unpopular politicians in New Zealand at a time when there was plenty of competition for the title.
The National Government Minister of Finance from 1990 to 1993, Richardson pursued the radical free-market economic reforms of the father of Rogernomics, Roger Douglas.
Her first act as finance minister was to announce significant cuts to social welfare benefits and renege on National's 1990 election promise to remove the tax surcharge on superannuation.
She, perhaps unwisely, boasted it was "The Mother of all Budgets".
She was also unpopular with Prime Minister Jim Bolger.
In the Beehive corridors, many colleagues reportedly considered her "abrasive and condescending", but Ms Richardson sailed on regardless.
Tim Shadbolt
Perhaps a combinations of all three - rogue, rascal and renegade - the loud but loveable Tim Shadbolt has surprisingly fashioned a career as a politician.
Shadbolt was prominent in the radical Progressive Youth Movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
He was arrested 33 times during political protests, before settling down and founding a commune and concrete co-operative at Huia.
Shadbolt considers himself interesting enough to write two autobiographies and, with his Mad Hatter giggle and flashing teeth, modestly describes himself as "one of New Zealand's most-loved celebrities".
He is the mayor of Invercargill, near Bluff.
Sir Richard Hadlee
There was something about our first cricketing knight, Sir Richard Hadlee, that got up some people's noses.
The deadly bowling ace of international cricket in the 1970s and 1980s was never fully embraced outside his native Canterbury, despite his clinical performances and heroic match-winning spells.
Maybe it was his pursuit of records at all cost.
Perhaps it was his handle-bar moustache.
Maybe we all just envied his ability.
A bowling all-rounder, he was the first bowler to take 400 wickets and took a then-world record 431 wickets in his 86-test career.
But he could be a bit waspish.
Sir Dick was said to have had such a sulk with captain Jeremy Coney during a 1987 West Indies test in Christchurch that he would only talk to him through mid-on fieldsman John Wright.
Martin Crowe
One of our most beloved sporting heroes - until he fronted a series of excruciating television advertisements for baldness clinic Advanced Hair.
A larrikin right-hander who swatted the world's best bowling attacks through the 1980s and 1990s, Crowe epitomised the laconic Kiwi lad.
He captained New Zealand with courage and panache, introducing innovations such as spin-bowling openers and pinch-hitting batsmen.
So, we didn't care if he was losing his hair. But we did care that he was so embarrassingly vain about it.
Also loses points for being a cousin of "actor" Russell Crowe.
Russell Crowe
Believed from childhood that he was destined to be a superstar.
His first incarnation as singer Russ Le Roq did not go so well, although he did release the single I Just Want To Be Like Marlon Brando which can still occasionally be found in south Auckland garage sales.
Crowe managed Auckland nightclub The Venue in the mid-1980s, before he started landing bit roles in Australian television series.
In 2001, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in Gladiator and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for A Beautiful Mind.
Another famous Kiwi claimed by Australia - only this one doesn't seem to bother us too much, just quietly.
Later bought the South Sydney Rabbitohs, giving rugby league fans a new most-hated club.
"Bishop" Brian Tamaki
The founder of the Density - sorry, Destiny - Church, "Bishop" Brian Tamaki became Godzone's very own American television evangelist.
The former-high school drop-out founded the fundamentalist "prosperity theology" Destiny Church in 1998.
In 2005, he was ordained as "bishop" of the organisation, which Tamaki and his wife celebrated by reportedly taking a $40,000 luxury cruise on the Queen Mary 2.
Tamaki believes the problems with New Zealand society are "a Government gone evil, a radical homosexual agenda and the retreat of religion".
In 2006 and 2007, Reader's Digest polls for trustworthiness of 75 prominent New Zealanders did him no favours.
In 2004, he predicted the Density - sorry, Destiny - Church would be "ruling the nation" before its 10th anniversary.
Its 10th anniversary was in 2008.
Garth McVicar
The oxymoronicly named Sensible Sentencing Trust vigilante group believes nobody should get a second chance. Ever.
Lock 'em all up and throw away the key.
But the tireless and undoubtedly sincere SST chairman McVicar and his organisation took a hit when its fire and brimstone representative David Garrett was elected to Parliament as an Act New Zealand list MP.
Garrett authored Act's "Three Strikes" legislation, while hypocritically hiding his own convictions for stealing a dead child's identity to obtain a false passport and for assault.
McVicar and the SST made it a quinella when they backed the appointment of former Work and Income chief executive Christine Rankin as Families Commissioner.
The trust promotes a consistent hard line against all criminals and refuses even to distance itself from the reintroduction of capital punishment.
"It is better that politicians draft the law coolly and that judges administer that law consistently, than that they join a noose-waving lynch mob led by Garth McVicar," the New Zealand Herald noted last year.
Millie Elder
New Zealand's answer to Paris Hilton - at least that's how elements of the New Zealand media attempted to portray the office temp and part-time model who otherwise is remarkable only for being the stepdaughter of media personality Paul Holmes.
Since 2007, Elder (22) has been charged with possessing methamphetamine (P), ecstasy and drug utensils, allowing her premises to be used for drug-taking, receiving stolen property, obstructing police, driving while suspended and breaching a liquor ban.
"I had a $1000-a-day [P] habit, but I've never actually paid for it," she admitted.
Elder later boasted of being high on P when she was filming TV3 programme Deal or No Deal.
At the time she blamed the offending on the pressures of being the daughter of a high-profile celebrity.
"There's a lot of pressure to achieve highly because you have all those opportunities," she bemoaned.
Once estranged from her famous father, she is believed now to be reconciled with him.
Paul Holmes
Warner Bros executives reputedly concluded New Zealand was Middle Earth after seeing Holmes on national television.
He hosted TVNZ current affairs show Holmes, before publishing the obligatory autobiography in 1999.
In 2000, he released the most excruciating album in New Zealand music history, the modestly titled Paul Holmes.
Like Paul Henry (see further on), Holmes has forged a career out of speaking without thinking.
His greatest moments have included calling United Nations Secretary-general Kofi Annan a "cheeky darkie", Israeli Prime Minister "butcher Sharon" and Tariana Turia a "confused bag of lard".
Robbie Deans
One-time Robbie the Red turned Dingo Deans.
It was hard not to like Robbie Deans, even when his hated Canterbury troops were grinding our boys into blue and yellow mud.
Everything he touched seemed to turn to gold.
Until he coached gold, that is.
Has managed to win just one test match against the All Blacks in the past 11 attempts.
Carry on Agent Deans.
Your mission is progressing well.
Richie McCaw
Without question the finest Number 7 ever to pull on the black jersey.
But, in the red and black of our noisy northern neighbours, the biggest cheat ever to cross a white line.
Few sportspeople polarise quite like Richard Hugh "Richie" McCaw.
We all love him except in certain parts of Otago where he remains a renegade.
The All Black captain was born in Oamaru and educated at Otago Boys High School, making him as blue and gold as the sun in a Dunedin summer sky.
But, McCaw instead chose the satanic Crusaders of Canterbury and silverware over soul.
The openside flanker burst on to the scene when he was voted 2002 Newcomer of the Year by the International Rugby Players Association and later became the first player to win the IRB Player of the Year Award twice - in 2006 and 2009.
He has just broken Sean Fitzpatrick's All Black appearance record and is paid $750,000 a year.
Paul Henry
Motormouth shock jock missing brain-brakes, Paul Henry wielded a sharp tongue until he fell on it in October.
The co-host of TVNZ's morning television programme Breakfast managed to offend just about everyone.
The former National Party candidate for Wairarapa started digging his grave in March last year, when he lampooned a female guest's facial hair.
In August, he referred to homosexuality as unnatural and in November he described singer Susan Boyle as "retarded".
Last month was his nadir, when he questioned whether Auckland-born Governor-General of New Zealand Sir Anand Satyanand was "even a New Zealander" and ridiculed Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit.
Henry won the People's Choice and Best Presenter awards at the 2010 Qantas New Zealand Film and Television Awards, but then blew it again with his expletive-laden acceptance speech.
By October 10, his car was no longer welcome in the TVNZ carpark.
Nicky Watson
Pneumatically-enhanced model and D-list celebrity who has become well-known for dating well-known men.
Watson was married to Warriors owner Eric Watson until they divorced in 2003, by which time she was involved with one of her husband's employees, league player Matthew Ridge, who had been married to her best friend, Sally Ridge (see below).
That relationship ended when she started dating Blindspott drummer Shelton Woolwright, then she was swept off her feet by Dancing with the Stars judge Brendan Cole.
Then Watson told a women's magazine she was steering clear of men in a bid to become independent.
But, before the ink was dry she was dating millionaire Logan Miller.
That relationship lasted six weeks before she was seen on the arm of All Black Ali Williams.
She is also believed to have an on-and-off fiancee she's been seeing for eight years.
Marc Ellis
Professional sportsman and larrikin who carved out a career clinging to the Otago scarfie mentality circa 1988.
Ellis flattered to deceive as a rugby union and rugby league international.
He scored a record six tries in the 145-17 win over that rugby powerhouse Japan at the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
Which pretty much summed up his career, really.
In 2005, he was convicted and fined $300 for buying ecstasy from a drug dealer.
In 2007, he thought it would be clever to detonate 600kg of explosives on Waitemata Harbour nature reserve Rangitoto Island, to make it look like the volcanic island was erupting.
The New Zealand Department of Conservation described the stunt as "demoralising".
Nowadays, hangs out with other D-list celebrities (see Nicky Watson) on embarrassing "reality television" programmes and peddles Charlie's juice.
