It must be impossible to be mates with Alan Gibbs. I've just read his biography, Serious Fun, written by Paul Goldsmith. His sheer intellect gets in the way of friendship. His continual thrust for perfection and his restless drive are obstacles that the ordinary man or woman just finds intrusive.His voyage from being Fabian Socialist, a hippy and a public servant as a young man to merchant banking and investing millions into the far right of New Zealand politics is worth reading about.
His voyage covered many side trips as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, art collector, adventurer and inventor of the world's first viable amphibious car. But he never understood how politics worked. He couldn't accept that, in a democracy, you must win the centre to be successful. Having done that you can veer to the right or left, but not too much if you want to survive. He wouldn't understand that logic, and it frustrated him.
He headbutted the protective fortress economy of the early 1970s when he tried unsuccessfully to build and promote New Zealand's first home-produced car, the Anziel Nova.
He took on people such as Prime Minister Keith Holyoake, a family friend and his National party Cabinet colleagues, when he tried to get a licence to go into production. Too many vested interests made sure that didn't happen.
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