Style: December 02, 2019

22 STYLE | special feature
Sheena runs in front of the Queen’s procession while on assignment. Her later encounter
with Her Royal Majesty didn’t quite go as planned.
She has kissed Bono, got the giggles while curtsying to
the Queen, and been serenaded by singing superstars
Willie Nelson and Brownie McGhee.
It’s fair to say Queenstown freelance photographer
Sheena Haywood, 52, has enjoyed a very interesting life
looking through her camera lens.
When Happiness House, a Queenstown support
agency, puts together its annual Christmas boxes,
it needs someone with a great personality and a good
contact book.
That’s where Sheena comes in.
She’s busy trying to coax her puppy, Valli, to come back
into her Lower Shotover home, as she juggles the phone
while explaining how she unwillingly locked lips with U2’s
legendary frontman.
Sheena was 17 when she became the third woman
photographer to be hired at the NZ Herald. She has a
chuckle as she remembers.
“It was very male-orientated back then, but I taught
them a trick or two,” she says.
She quickly made a name for herself and had a front-row
seat for many historic moments, including when U2 played
at Western Springs Stadium in 1989.
She was snapping away in the photo pit when she lost
sight of Bono through her lens.
“I looked up and he was crawling across the stage,
lunged and kissed me. And I was oh yuck, Bono kissed me!”
“He was very sweaty, so it was a bit sloppy,” she says
with what sounds like a grimace.
That night, however, the kiss was beamed across the
screens of the nation, and Sheena had to deal with the
question “were you the girl...?”
Sheena didn’t fare much better when she met Queen
Elizabeth II during the 1990 Commonwealth Games.
Although there were no lips involved this time, she did
have to practise curtsying. But Sheena got the giggles when
the Queen approached her.
“I wanted to give her a hug. She reminded me of my
nan. I didn’t do a very good curtsy because I was all giggly,”
says Sheena.
With such a big personality, it is no surprise Sheena is
so good at her volunteer role tapping businesses on the
shoulder to ask them for donations for the Christmas box
appeal.
“I just go and remind them of their community spirit to
give back,” she says.