What was happening in New Zealand/Aotearoa in 1962?

A brief glimpse into who we once were.

1962 was a funny old year for New Zealand. We were deeply engaged in the process of transforming from a dominion to a real, grown-up country. Don’t worry. It took a long time but it’s interesting to see the progress.

Running a mile was a big deal then and Peter Snell set a new world record of 3 minutes 54.5 seconds. Quite quick in any money. He did this at Whanganui in January and then followed up with a world record 800m in Christchurch a week later. Yip, a week later.

In other news, Brian Barrett-Boyes, a Kiwi heart surgeon became the second surgeon in the world to replace a heart valve. He only just missed out on being first. This happened a week earlier.

Polio busted out into the community in 1961 and by 1962, the Health Department launched a vaccine programme. 80% of adults and 97% of school kids got the jab. Imagine getting such a response in 2024?

George Wilder was a very naughty boy who had become a folk hero by busting out of prison three times in May alone. Naughty, naughty boy.

Very contentious now, we got our very first roll-on/roll-off ferry this year called the Aramoana which came on line in August. Aramoana didn’t become famous again till decades later with a nut case shooter becoming our second most crazed mass-killer.

We got out first Ombudsman to investigate complaints about the government and it was a not very flash bloke called Sir Guy Powles.

In yet more pompous news, we got a new Governor-General with a big, silly hat covered in feathers called Sir Bernard Ferguson. Just to reinforce how “egalitarian” we are, he followed his father and grandfather in the role. Bugger me. Really guys?

Let’s wind this back a bit because unbelievably, he was fluent in Te Reo. You never know, right?

Barrie Davenport swam Cook Strait in 11 hours. Get this. The last person to have done this was Whakarua-tapu whom was swimming for his life to get away from Te Rauparaha – quite a good idea at the time.

Maurice Williams, a solid gold kiwi won the Nobel Prize alongside some mates for Physiology or Medicine for stuff they did on DNA.

This year saw the establishment of the Maori Council through the passing of the Maori Welfare Act 1962. It was criticised by many because it was dominated by conservative Maori leaders, but set the stage for the renaissance of Maori culture in the decades to come.

In a stunning hat-tip to modernism, the national speed limit was raised to 55mph (88km/h) as we roared moderately into the future.

Outward Bound started in 1962 by the very hip dude Lord Cobham and till now, NZ has benefitted from the great outdoors.

Sir Dove Myer-Robinson was Mayor of Auckland and had some nutcase ideas about light rail which at the time would have cost about $8.50 and now will cost us about $18trillion. Canny old chap.

In world shaping news, Miss Maureen Kingi became Miss New Zealand 1962.

So that’s who we were in 1962. Who knew?