When the Tour Came to Auckland
About this ebook
‘At 2.40pm Patu charged. A human tank. The first time during
the tour that a protest squad charged police lines with the intention of
breaking through . . .’
The Springbok rugby tour of New
Zealand in 1981 provoked the biggest mass protests in New Zealand
history. For two months tens of thousands of New Zealanders took to the
streets every week to register their opposition to the tour.
In When the Tour Came to Auckland, Geoff Chapple, author of 1981: The Tour,
describes the dramatic events in Auckland as a light aircraft
flour-bombed Eden Park and protesters battled police in the streets of
Mt Eden in the tour’s violent conclusion.
Includes a new introduction prepared especially for this BWB Text by Geoff Chapple.
About the author
Geoff Chapple is a journalist, author and musician. He was arrested twice during the Springbok tour, and convicted of disorderly behaviour. He became known subsequently as the founder of the Te Araroa trail.
