The delighted Kiwi winner of Mr Bear Australasia says he needs a holiday after a full-on weekend in Melbourne, where he took out the hotly-contested title. Aucklander Lucien Ollivier picked up first place at The Laird Hotel on Saturday night. The competition was part of a busy week of Southern Hibearnation events. “It was packed,” Ollivier tells GayNZ.com Daily News of the crowd at The Laird. “And there were lots of supporters, lots of people from New Zealand, and that was fantastic. They were very loud, so that was very encouraging,” he laughs. The finalists “Everyone was so friendly, we had a lot of fun,” he says of the other competitors. “We had lots of group hugs to wish each other good luck. It makes a big difference, as it was very tough, anyone could have won that night. “I certainly tried my best to bring the title home, to make everyone proud here. They were so supportive. There was a farewell good luck party at Urge organised last week, and everyone was like ‘bring it home, bring it home’.” The new Mr Bear Australasia was born in Paris, and then moved to New Caledonia aged six. He has lived in New Zealand for 25 years and works for Air New Zealand. “I absolutely love it here. It’s home. Definitely,” he says. Ollivier with proud supporters Allan and Paul from Urge. He originally won Mr Urge New Zealand Bear at the K’ Rd men’s venue in February. He is now looking forward to celebrating being Mr Bear Australasia at a homecoming and congratulations party at the bar this Friday night. “I am so honoured they picked me for the competition here. I am so honoured, and so excited,” he says, while also thanking Urge and the New Zealand bear community for all the incredible support and encouragement. “They really gave me the strength to go through all that,” he says, agreeing getting up on stage and strutting your stuff is a challenging thing to do. “It sure is!” he laughs. “But it was very exciting. I actually thought I would be more nervous on the stage in Melbourne, but when the competition started I had a lot of fun.” Life is pretty amazing for Ollivier right now, he has also met “a wonderful man” Mark, an Australian who has been living in Canada. “He’s here with me right now for three weeks, and came to Melbourne to support me. He’s just about to go back to Canada, sell his house and come back to live with me here … it is very exciting.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 19th June 2013 - 12:30pm