Do you remember a time when your country still felt innocent? Houses and cars could be left unlocked during the night.
Kids could be left unattended to play by themselves in the streets, the park, or wherever.
Freedom, peace, and no worries. For the 80s in New Zealand, this decade marked a change to all of that.
This decade was characterized by deep social divisions, economic upheaval, and shocking acts of violence.
Often described as a period when the country lost its innocence. Violent protests, violent crimes, unemployment, bombs, assassination attempts, and natural disasters.
This is New Zealand’s darkest moments of the 1980s. Big hair, shoulder pads, Roenomics, Rachel Hunter, split ends, and foot rod flats.
Life for Kiwis in the 1980s wasn’t all neon spandex and radio with pictures. It was actually a decade that defined a pivotal shift in New Zealand’s cultural identity.
From the dividing lines drawn over the Spring Bach tour to foreign spies employing violent methods to keep their nuclear interests under deterred.
From pop shots at the Queen to rising escalations in gang violence and way more.
Today we are going to be looking at the top 20 darkest moments of New Zealand during the 1980s.
Good day, Koda, and welcome, or welcome back to Shadow Matter, the show where I take a look at a darker side of our world with a focus on stories and cases from Australia and New Zealand.
Today’s episode is the second entry into my new series here called Dark Decade, where I will be diving deep into the shadows of 1980s Alteora.
We started off this episode with the Mount Arabus disaster. If you haven’t seen that video, a link will be provided in the description below, or you could click the popup right here on screen.
Also, if you prefer to listen to horrific crimes while you’re pretending to work, check out my podcast.
It’s got older episodes and exclusively made for a podcast format episodes on here. Just search for Shadow Matter on Spotify.
As I said before, the 1980s in New Zealand had some of the best culturally defining moments.
The first Rugby World Cup, a Bob Marley tour, a Royal tour, an underarm incident, a snap election from a drunk prime minister, another prime minister who can apparently smell uranium.
I’m going to give it to you if you hold your breath just for a moment.
I could smell the uranium on it as you lean towards >> Andy was even.
>> It also had some of the darkest moments in the archipelago nation’s history. A decade marked by intense social division, economic upheaval and shocking acts of violence that permanently altered the country’s national identity.
Buckle in because there is a lot to talk about. So, put the kids to bed.
Tell nanny you’ll call her back tomorrow. Dim the lights and set your notifications to silent.
It’s about to get dark in here. Number 20, the constitutional crisis, 1984. Imagine you’re the leader of a country.
Imagine that over the last decade, your currency has been steadily decreasing in value. Imagine that the Reserve Bank advises you to address the situation before it decreases any further.
Instead, you get drunk, call a snap election, and your opponents win by a landslide.
This was the reality in 1984 when a highstakes standoff between outgoing Prime Minister Sir Robert Mulun and Prime Minister elect David Longi that brought New Zealand to the edge of economic collapse.
On June the 14th, 1984, an embattled and visibly intoxicated Sir Robert Maldun called a snap election on national TV after losing his slim Parliament majority.
This act was even hilariously given the name the Schnaps election >> being the appropriate date.
>> That doesn’t give me much time to run up to an election. Prime Minister >> doesn’t give my opponents much time to run up to an election, does it?
>> He set the date for a month later and to no one’s surprise, he lost.
Thus entering New Zealand in the fourth ever Labourled government. Now, the markets expected a victory for the Labour Party, which was widely believed to favor devaluing the New Zealand dollar to address its overvaluation.
This sparked an immediate run on the dollar as speculators moved billions out of the country.
>> People didn’t know that we borrowed one, the Treasury and the Reserve Bank borrowed $1.7 billion in 4 weeks in order to prop up the currency in the country.
That was an outrage that uh that knowledge was all suppressed. >> By election day, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand had nearly exhausted its foreign exchange reserves, leaving the nation unable to meet its international obligations.
Labour won the election on July the 14th, but Moldun remained prime minister until the new government could be sworn in nearly 2 weeks later.
Prior to 1985, the New Zealand dollar was controlled centrally by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand at an exchange rate fixed to the United States dollar.
In early 1984, the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank, Rodrik Dean, became concerned that the New Zealand dollar had become significantly overvalued and was vulnerable to currency speculation on the financial markets in the event of a significant political event.
Labour won the election on July the 14th, but old Piggy Moldun, as he was affectionately known, was refusing to leave and even accept advice from the Reserve Bank.
On advice from Treasury and the Reserve Bank, Longi requested an immediate 20% devaluation. Moldun stubbornly refused, claiming he was still in charge and that Longi was trying to wreck the economy.
So this left New Zealand in a bit of a pickle. The result created a constitutional vacuum.
The person with the mandate to lead, Longi, had no legal power, while the person with legal power, Malt Dun, had no mandate.
So, the country is about to go bankrupt. The old guy won’t leave, and the new guy has no power to change the situation.
This is what historians refer to as the constitutional crisis. But how did it get fixed?
Well, senior national party ministers eventually threatened to remove Mulun from his post if he did not comply with the caretaker convention.
Mulun finally relented on July the 18th and the dollar was devalued by 20%. Now devaluing the New Zealand dollar in 1984 did not fix the economy on its own.
Rather, it was an emergency first step that allowed the country to avoid immediate bankruptcy.
While it provided some relief, it also triggered a decade of radical reforms with deeply mixed results.
One of them being a constitutional reform. The crisis led directly to the Constitutional Act of 1986, which clarified the transfer of power and finally removed the British Parliament’s ability to legislate for New Zealand.
And the second leads us to our next item on the list. Number 19, Roenomics and unemployment.
The shock of almost going bankrupt gave the new Labor government led by Finance Minister Roger Douglas the political leverage to implement extreme free market reforms.
While it did have its benefits, it also created massive job losses for the country.
The Labor government rapidly removed interest rate controls, abolished all agricultural subsidies, and floated the New Zealand dollar in March 1985.
Just a side note here, before 1984, farmers received nearly $1 billion annually in supplementary minimum prices or SMPPS and other grants.
These were abolished almost overnight, forcing farmers to survive solely on the global market prices.
This revolution turned one of the world’s most protected economies into one of the most open, ending decades of stagnation.
But the flip side of this is that it led to mass job losses in manufacturing and farming.
This deregulation of the markets was dubbed Roenomics by the media after its creator, Minister of Finance Roger Dean, and this led to some national growing pains.
From 1985 to 1992, New Zealand’s economy grew by only 4.7%. While the average OECD nation grew by 28%, the country suffered through its longest post-war recession between 1987 and 1993 with the GDP per capita falling or stagnating every year.
Joblessness rose from 3.6% in 1986 to a peak of 11% in 1992, hitting manufacturing workers in Mai communities particularly hard.
Land values plummeted by 32% between 1982 and 1988 and many farmers lost all their equity.
High interest rates and a rising dollar further squeezed incomes leading to about 800 forced farm sales and a tragic spike in um selfdeletions.
The national sheep flock once 70 million dropped by over 40% as meat and wool became less profitable.
And that’s just the farming sector. Between 1986 and 1991, the manufacturing sector lost over 84,000 jobs, a devastating blow to to bluecollar communities.
A massive percentage of those workers were moldi, and this led to massive job losses and unemployment, which rose to 25% for MAI populations by 1992.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. By 1992, inflation dropped from double digits to a worldleading example of price stability.
And New Zealand had to quickly adapt and diversify their primary markets, which led to the growing vidiculture and dairy industries.
To say that everything has come right since then for New Zealand would be irresponsible of me to say, but that’s for a different video for another time.
Number 18, the road toll crisis, 1987. >> The scars will be obvious for 19 months, but that’s not so bad.
What hurts is that this is the last thing she will ever see. She will be blind for life.
Do up your seatelt firmly. >> Remember a time when wearing your seat belt was just a gentle recommendation and not enforced by law?
Having a few bevies and going just down the road wasn’t frowned upon. In fact, everyone else did it.
The 1980s in New Zealand saw some of the highest yearly road death tolls in its history.
1987 was a particularly bad year. 795 deaths were recorded in 1987, making it one of the deadliest years in New Zealand’s history.
To put this in perspective, if the 1987 death rate was applied to today’s population, there would be roughly 1,200 deaths per year instead of the current 200 to 350.
Why or what contributed to this high number? Well, New Zealand had some pretty relaxed attitudes towards driving safety.
The 70s probably began this trend of high road fatalities. With 1973 the all-time record of 843.
Seat belt wearing wasn’t enforced and high rates of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs were common.
Stricter compulsory breath testing was not introduced until 1993. Another contributing factor was that cars in 1980s lacked modern safety features like airbags, ABS brakes, and crumple zones.
The government began adopting a radical change to road safety in the late8s. New laws, new roads, booze buses.
It also saw the beginning of the terrifying, but sometimes even downright hilarious, road safety ads of the ‘9s and right up until now.
Anyone seen my ghost chips? >> And if he dies, ghosts will haunt me forever.
>> Grab a chip. Want a chip? >> You know I can’t grab your ghost chips.
>> Go away. >> Spain, space. >> Number 17, Queen Street Riot, December 1984. Did someone say a free concert?
Well, count me in. But only if the Herbs and DD Smash are playing. Throw in some vandalism, looting, and a few arrests.
Hey, don’t threaten me with a good time. Queen Street, Oakland, Altea Square, on the 17th of December, 1984, a free concert was organized by the name of Thank God It’s Over commenced.
Promoted as a summer celebration at the end of the academic year, this free event was to feature performances by top local bands like the Herbs, DD Smash, and the Mockers.
After the set by the Herbs and shortly after DD Smash took the stage, the power went off.
While waiting for it to be restored, some of the 10,000 strong audience started throwing bottles at police.
There were a few arrests and more police arrived, outfitted in riot gear. Looting and widespread vandalism occurred, leading to the arrest of 63 people and the injury of several police officers.
Lead singer Dave Dobin was arrested for allegedly inciting the riot. According to some, he allegedly told a very excitable crowd, “I wish those riot squad guys would stop Wang and put their little battons away.”
He was eventually acquitted in court, but the damage had already been done. The riot had spilled out of the venue and into Queen Street, where over $1 million of damage had been made.
To sum it all up, one headline read, “After the event, tears and terror at the concert that made history.”
And I bet a few people there afterwards were thinking the same thing. Well, thank God it’s over.
Number 16, the Otara Machete murder, 1988. The headlines on May the 1st read, “Terrified crowd watched brutal gang knife attack.”
A surge of violent crimes began to creep up in the South Oakland suburb of Otara.
One of them was the infamous Otara flea market murder in 1988. In a brutal revenge attack, 22-year-old David Fukco was hacked to death with a machete in front of hundreds of shoppers at a Saturday market in South Oakland.
On an autumn morning, Samo and Lupelli Pauuga attacked a group of Tonggins at the flea market with a machete.
He was consumed with the need to get revenge after being injured in a fight with a Tongan.
Pauuga fatally slashed Fukco, an uncle of future All Black Jona Lamu, in the neck.
He also nearly cut another young Tongen man’s arm right off. Media at the time raised suspicion of rising racial tensions between Samans and Tonggins in South Oakland.
But the real issue may be more rooted in Otara’s social climate than anything else.
Otara, once the green fields were replaced by concrete and affordable housing after the Second World War, became demonized in the media.
This brutal murder cemented the idea for many New Zealanders that this is a bad place, a reputation it is still struggling to wash off today.
Number 15, the murder of Theresa Cormarmac, 1987. This next crime changed many aspects of New Zealand society, particularly regarding the lacks attitude towards letting children walk to and from school by themselves.
The ladies saw a lot of horrific crimes against children in New Zealand. One of the more harrowing cases was the murder of 6-year-old Terresa Maida Cormarmac.
The young girl from Napia was abducted and murdered and the crime wasn’t solved for 15 years.
On the 19th of June 1987, Theresa vanished on her way to Richmond Primary School in Marinoi Napia the day after her sixth birthday.
Her body was found eight days later by a dog walker partially buried under a tree at Fidaki Beach.
A postmodm confirmed she had been violated and suffocated. The case deeply affected the New Zealand public.
It shattered the country’s sense of safety. Media reports at the time captured a transition in New Zealand society where children previously walked to school alone but were suddenly kept under constant supervision.
The media’s focus on the investigation led to significant persecution of potential suspects. Over 950 men were nominated as possible suspects, many of whom felt the weight of community and media suspicion.
One of those potential suspects was Wayne Montapero. He was widely named and vilified as the number one suspect in news reports.
This mediafueled reputation contributed to his 1988 kidnapping conviction, later quashed in 2021, and led to him being nearly beaten to death by a member of the public.
A DNA breakthrough came 15 years later in 2002 when forensic testing produced a positive match to one of the original 950 suspects, Jules Micas.
Initially, Micas had been interviewed and produced an alibi, which was accepted by police at the time.
Micas was charged with abduction, assault, and murder of poor Theresa Cormarmac and found guilty of all charges.
He was sent to life in prison where he died of a brain tumor in 2019.
As I said before, this case led to some changes in Kiwi society. The murder of Terresa Cormarmac led to widespread changes including stricter school attendance monitoring and the end of children routinely walking to school unaccompanied.
The disappearance of Kursa Jensen, 1983. Something must be going on in Napia during this decade because here we are again.
The disappearance of 14-year-old Kurser Jensen. Just like the murder of Theresa Cormarmac, this case significantly changed New Zealand’s cultural approach to child safety.
Kurser was last seen riding her beloved horse called Commodore near an old World War II gun imp placement at the mouth of the Tuturi River.
Witnesses reported seeing her with a bloodied face, which she attributed to a fall from her horse.
She mentioned that someone had gone to fetch her parents and she expected them to arrive shortly.
When Kurser failed to return home by 5:30 p.m., her family began searching and alerted the police.
Commodore was found wandering near the gun imp placement, but Kurser was nowhere to be found.
A massive search ensued involving police, volunteers, and even psychics, but no trace of Kurser was discovered.
A key witness reporting seeing a white utility vehicle with brown sides near the gun imp placement.
Another witness described a man approximately 1.8 meters tall and aged between 45 to 50 years old holding a girl matching Kurser’s description at arms length.
Despite these leads, the investigation faced numerous challenges including a lack of physical evidence. The disappearance of Kurser Jensen was a massive national story that gripped the country for weeks, months, and even years.
Like the Terresa Cormarmac case, it is cited as a defining moment that shook middle New Zealand from its complacency, signaling the end of an era where children were routinely left to play or ride out of sight.
Kurs’ photo taken when she started high school became public property, blazing across televisions and newspapers nationwide.
The case stayed on the front of pages of newspapers for at least a month following her disappearance.
The Napia Daily Telegraph even offered a then significant $5,000 reward for information. The primary suspect in the case was John Russell, a local orchard worker with prior convictions.
Now, he initially came forward identifying himself as the man seen with Kurser at the gun imp placement.
Then he confessed to her murder in 1985, but later retracted his confession. Police found no evidence linking him to the crime and no charges were filed.
In 1992, Russell died by his own hand, leaving behind the unanswered questions. The disappearance of Cursed Jensen file remains open and active.
Detectives still receive two or three leads from the public annually. Number 13, the sinking of the Myle Luratov, 1986.
The sinking of the MS Miky Luratov on the 16th of February 1986 is one of New Zealand’s most significant maritime disasters.
A Soviet cruise liner, it struck rocks near Cape Jackson in the Mulra Sounds and sank in Port Gore.
While being piloted by Pikton’s harbor master Don Jameson, the ship attempted to navigate a narrow, shallow passage between Cape Jackson and its lighthouse.
A route never intended for a ship of its size. At 5:37 p.m., the vehicle struck submerged rocks, tearing several gashes in its port side.
It drifted toward Port Gore while listing heavily to the starboard side before eventually sinking at 10:45 p.m.
Miraculously, all but one of the 738 people on board, mostly elderly Australian passengers and Soviet crew, were rescued in a massive operation involving local fishing boats and the inter island ferry.
Today, the Macy Luratov rests on its starboard side at a depth of roughly 30 to 38 m in Port Gore, but you can see its lifeboat just happily hanging out in the car park of a Pikton supermarket.
Number 12, the Southland floods, 1984. For this next entry, we’re heading way down south to the region of Southland.
Of course, the Southland floods of January 1984, often remembered as Black Friday, were a catastrophic weather event that caused some of the most extensive damage in the region’s history.
>> Most rivers are still rising, and there’s concern at the effect tonight’s high tide will have on the water levels.
>> Invagle has lived with this flooding all day now. A solid 24 hours of heavy rain.
134 mm or more than 5 in did the damage. >> A record of 134 mm of rain fell in 24 hours at Invocagle airport.
Over 18 hours, Invaggle recorded 84.8 mm, nearly twice the average for an entire month.
A state of emergency was declared in Invagle at 4:00 a.m. On Friday the 27th of January, later expanding to include all of Southland.
The emergency declaration remained in place for some areas until the 9th of February. The region was completely cut off by road and rail with air services also suspended after water up to 3 m deep flooded the Invictagle airport terminal.
Approximately 5,000 people were forced to leave their homes. In Oto, 190 out of 275 houses were inundated.
In the aftermath of the destruction, 1,200 homes were deemed uninhabitable and cost approximately 55 million, over 200 million in today’s values.
Number 11, the rise of the gangs, 1980s. Let’s talk about gangs for a moment.
If you’ve ever lived in New Zealand or visited here, chances are you’ve seen a patch somewhere or seen them on the news at the very least.
Before the 1980s, gang violence was petty turf related. It started to escalate during the 70s, but it never really spilled over into the general public.
The times were changing in the 80s. Marijuana used to be the bread and butter of these loosely connected youth gangs, and then they moved on to harder stuff.
With that came more money, more stakes, and a climate that was suitable for more violence.
Extreme violence. Gang violence in New Zealand became significantly more prevalent and severe in the 1980s.
This decade is considered a major turning point when New Zealand gangs transitioned from loosely organized groups of rebellious youth into entrenched criminal organizations involved in serious violence and the burgeoning drug trade.
The mid to late 80s were marked by massive job losses in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors.
Many young men, particularly Moldi, lost their livelihoods and turned to gangs for social and financial support.
Just another side effect of rajenomics. During this decade, gangs began importing and selling marijuana.
LSD and eventually methamphetamine, leading to violent disputes over lucrative drug territories. Prime Minister Robert Mulddon initially funded gang-run work trusts to steer them away from crime.
However, some gangs used these millions of dollars to upgrade clubouses and attract recruits, leading to the scheme’s cancellation in 1987.
High-profile patch wars between rivals like Black Power and the Mongrel Mob became common. A notable 1981 brawl in Christ Church’s Cathedral Square roughly involved 1,000 people.
Gang culture of the 80s was characterized by violent initiation ceremonies and blocking or gang, you know, assaults, which was endemic until a societal shift in the 1990s.
One notable and highly disturbing example of this happened in 1988 when a 19year-old woman was kidnapped and taken to a mongrel mob convention in Oakland.
There. She was assaulted by at least 15 men, beaten ur on covenant petrol, and photographed over a 9-hour period before she escaped.
Violence increasingly spilled into the public sphere. The 1987 murder of Colleen Burrows by Mongrel mob members after she refused to have sex remains one of the decad’s most haunting examples of gang brutality.
Colleen Burrows was just 16 years old. She was just walking out to get some takeaways in Napia again.
What the hell, Napia? And then she was snatched off the street. She was taken to a gang pad where she was assaulted.
After she refused to have further sex with the gang members, she was subjected to a brutal hour-long assault.
She was punched, kicked with steelcap boots, and eventually repeatedly run over with a car.
Her body was found the following morning on 19th of June 1987 on the banks of the two Tyuri River at Brookfields.
The injuries were so severe that the police initially struggled to identify her. Crimes like these resulted in public outcry regarding harsher sentences and tougher laws regarding gangs in New Zealand.
Police estimates of gang membership rose from roughly 2,300 in 1980 to over 5,300 by 89.
By the late 80s, gangs had become a permanent and dominant feature of the New Zealand prison system with over 20% of inmates holding gang affiliations.
Number 10, the Mr. Ais syndicate trials, early8s. Technically, a lot of this stuff happened in the 70s, but the murder of Marty Johnston in 1979 led to trials in the early8s when the criminal empire crumbled.
There’s a lot to cover here, so I’ll try and break it down for you quickly.
In the 70s, this clandestine marijuana smuggling operation started up as the brainchild of Marty Johnstone from Takapuna, Oakland.
He used to import Thai Buddhist sticks from Southeast Asia on boats that were run through his mutual Southeast Asian contacts.
Anyway, in the mid70s, he teams up with old mate Terry Clark, and then the operation goes gang busters.
The operation is later dubbed the Mr. Asia syndicate by the media. Fast forward a few years, and Terry starts knocking people off out of paranoia and things like that.
In 1979, he lures Marty Johnstone to an address in the middle of England and has him killed.
His body was dumped into an abandoned quarry that had been flooded with water. Months later, by pure chance, his body is found in said quarry by some divers.
A police investigation ensues and the British police managed to tie it all back to the drug syndicate and the head of the operation, Terry Clark.
A crucial witness was Johnson’s girlfriend, Julie Hugh, who identified the body and provided testimony that helped unravel the syndicate.
The most significant trial took place in 1981 at Lancaster Castle, England, following the discover of Marty Johnston’s mutilated body in the quarry.
Clark was also found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum recommendation of 20 years.
He also received 14 years extra for drug importation. Clark died of a heart attack in Pankers prison in ‘ 83.
But the other trials in New Zealand and Australia created a massive media frenzy. In 1984, Sorby, the head of the Australian branch, was sentenced to 23 years in Victoria’s Pentidge prison for trafficking $10 million worth of heroin.
Peter Fulture was sentenced to 14 years in Portermo prison in the 1980s on drug charges.
Patrick Norton Bennett, an associate of Clark, and his wife were sentenced to life in 1988 for drugrelated murder in the Coramandal.
And even Terry Clark’s lawyer, Karen Sut, got into some hot water. Following the trials, a joint royal commission, the Stewart Commission, as it was named, was established between 81 and 83 to investigate the syndicate’s reach.
It officially linked Clark to at least five murders and exposed deep corruption within Australian narcotics and police units that had previously predicted the syndicate.
TV series Underbelly dramatized this whole saga in two different series. I’ve even got an older episode on this, so go and check it out if you haven’t seen it.
Number nine, The Queen’s Assassination attempt, 1981. They tried to hush this one up. It’s a doozy.
From BBC many years later, it reads, “A teenager tried to kill Queen Elizabeth II during a visit to New Zealand in 1981.
Declassified official documents confirm. On the 14th of October 1981, 17-year-old Christopher John Lewis, who looks suspiciously like David Bane’s long-lost evil twin, took aim and fired at Queen Elizabeth II during her royal visit to New Zealand.
The parade took place in Deneden on, of course, it did. On 14th of October 1981, Lewis concealed a BSA 22 caliber boltaction rifle wrapped up in an old pair of jeans and traveled by bicycle to the Adams building where he took position in a toilet cubicle.
He fired through the window at the queen as she was exiting a car. Police and members of the public heard it, but initially thought it was just a sign that had fallen over.
Lewis was arrested shortly afterwards and police discovered a rifle and used gun cartridge in a building overlooking the parade.
Lewis did originally intend to assassinate the queen, the document says, but he did not have a suitable vantage point from which to fire, nor a sufficiently high-powered rifle for the range.
The authorities at the time feared that if the queen or the public ever found out, it would be the end of royal visits to New Zealand, so they kept it on the down low.
Mr. Lewis was never charged with the attempted murder or treason. They charged him with, get this, illegally possessing a firearm in public, among some other petty charges.
Lewis was sentenced to 3 years in prison, and part of the stint was in a psychiatric hospital.
Lewis was eventually released and when the royal family visited in 1995, the government sent him to Great Barrier Island to keep him away from them.
They they sent him on holiday. After serving his initial jail term, he went on to commit armed robberies and was charged with murder.
He took his own life in prison in 1997. This story wasn’t even public until 2018 when Fairfax Media busted it wide open.
It’s a crazy story for sure. Right, next up on the list is >> number eight.
Uh, >> number eight. >> Number eight, the Edgekim earthquake, 1987. New Zealand has had some pretty big shakeups over the years during the 80s.
This was some heavy stuff at Matarta. The coastal road has also been closed by a series of slips.
A man was injured when his car was buried in a landslide here. Parts of the roof collapsed, sending thousands of liters of milk spilling into the yards.
Cracked 3 m deep in places has opened in the plains between Tekco and Edgekim.
>> At Kawo, the Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill suffered extensive damage. Two workers received broken legs and have been airlifted out to hospital.
>> On Monday, March the 2nd, 1987, at 1:42 p.m., a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck the Bay of Plenty region in New Zealand’s North Island.
Centered approximately 15 km northwest of Edge, the quake was felt across most of the North Island.
Roughly 50% of the houses in Edgeham were damaged. The town’s milk factory suffered extensive damage, including the collapse of large stainless steel silos.
Railway lines were buckled and bent, and an 80ton ton locomotive was toppled by the force of the shaking.
The earthquake created a spectacular 7 km long rift known as the Edgecom fault with the ground dropping by up to 2 m in some places.
Luckily, there were no fatalities and this was most likely due to a significant 5.2 2 magnitude 4 shock 7 minutes before the main quake that prompted residents, well a lot of residents to evacuate their buildings.
The 1987 Edgeham earthquake resulted in a total economic loss of approximately $430 New Zealand million dollars.
At the time, it was one of the most expensive earthquake disasters in New Zealand’s history.
And this was during a time of Roenomics era, too. Don’t forget. Number seven, the Hooker Falls case, 1989.
Our first entry from 1989. Good year. Why? Because I was born. What do a cricket umpire, a dominatrix, and a waterfall all have in common?
Well, it sounds like the start of a really bad joke, but it was actually one of the biggest and most notorious murder trials of the 1980s in New Zealand.
In January 1989, Peter Plumbley Walker attended a bondage and discipline or SNM session at an Oakland townhouse with teenager Renee Chignel and her partner Neville Walker.
During the session, Chignel had secured Plumbley Walker in a neck collar and restraints. Upon returning to the room, she found him unresponsive and not breathing.
Instead of contacting police, Chignel and Neville Walker drove his body 4 hours south to Toppo and dumped it into the Wicato River over the Hooker Falls.
His body was found in February 1989 with wrists and ankles bound. The pair were tried three times for murder.
They were convicted at the first trial in 1989, but successfully appealed. A second trial resulted in a hung jury.
At the third trial, they were acquitted after the jury accepted their defense that Plumbley Walker had died accidentally during a punishment session and that he was already dead before being thrown over the falls.
So, what happened? Well, Renee Chignel served 2 years in prison for burning Plumbley Walker’s car.
This case sparked a massive media frenzy. It introduced Kiwis to the underground BDSM community.
It even brought terms like bondage and dominatrix into the public vernacular. The story was retold in the 2018 TV and Zed docu drama Mistress Mercy, the Renee Chignel story, and inspired a book by lawyer Christopher Harter titled Mercy, Mistress Mercy.
Another crazy story. Let me know if you would like to have a full episode on this or maybe even a podcast episode on Spotify.
Number six, the Swedish Backpacker Murders, 1989. Another entry for 89. And another massive criminal case.
The Swedish backpacker murder case is one of those classic Kiwi who dunits. It’s right up there with the likes of the crew murders and the sounds murders.
In April 1989, two Swedish tourists, Urban Hglland and Heidi Packinan, disappeared while out tramping in the North Island’s Cormandal region.
The engaged Swedish couple arrived in New Zealand in December 1988 for a tramping holiday.
They were last seen in Tames on the 7th or 8th of April 1989 when they failed to return to Sweden in May.
A massive land-based search, the largest in New Zealand history, was launched. It involved police, military personnel, and hundreds of local volunteers.
Pakinan’s wallet and jacket were found near Crosby’s clearing, but their bodies were not initially located.
The same day the couple were reported missing, David Wayne Tamahi, who was a fugitive living rough in the Cormandal bush, was arrested in Oakland for a prior sexual assault charge.
A group of tourists saw media photos of the missing couple’s white Subaru and told police in June 89 that a man calling himself Pat Kelly had given them a ride in it.
Police traced this identity back to Tamahi. They also found Tamahi in possession of several items of the missing couple’s personal belongings.
Tamahedi was interviewed and admitted to stealing Herglland and Puckinan’s car, but denied ever meeting them.
So now he’s charged with murder, and the trial becomes a media firestorm. A watch was found in the bush belonging to Herglan, an area which Tamahiri claimed he was never at.
However, two trampers testified they met a man and a woman at Crosby’s clearing on the 8th of April 1989.
They positively identified Tamaheri as the man they saw and the woman as matching Heidi Puckin’s description or say they positively identified several items at Tamaheri’s camp.
Now, here’s the rub. The secret witness at the heart of this case was Roberto Koni Harris, known for nearly 30 years only as witness C.
Harris initially swore in court that Tamaheri had admitted to killing the couple, dumping their bodies at sea and stealing Herglland’s watch.
This confession was all said to have taken place while they were both inmates in prison.
This kind of sealed the deal for the jury. Tamaheri was convicted and sent to life imprisonment.
Fast forward to 91 and Herglland’s body is found, but not at sea. When Herglland’s body was found in the bush a year later, the sea disposal claim became debunked.
Crucially, Herglland was still wearing his watch, which Harris claimed Tamaheri stole. 5 years after the trial, Harris swore an affidavit saying he had lied and was coached by a senior detective.
In 2017, Roberto Koni Harris was convicted of perjury for lying about Tamaheri’s confession. In 2020, Tamahedi was granted a rare review due to the purged evidence.
The court acknowledged a miscarriage of justice regarding the false evidence, but upheld the conviction, citing other very strong circumstantial evidence.
This case was honestly a massive media event. The Kiwi public were intrigued and thrilled, and it continues to gain attention to this day.
Future shadow here. Uh just as I was editing this video, I found out that Tamahi’s conviction has been crossed.
Check it out. This is just some coincidence. Well, for more than three decades, David Tomahedi has insisted he didn’t kill Swedish tourists Heidi Parkinan and Sven Urban Hogland.
Today, in a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court threw out his double murder convictions, ordering a retrial.
It is one of New Zealand’s most infamous cases, and after 37 years, it could be starting all over again.
Many documentaries and podcasts have been made about this and even I would like to have a dig into it.
But let me know your thoughts in the comments below. We’re on the home stretch now team.
Number five, Cyclone Bowler 1988. Cyclone Bowler was one of the most destructive and costliest storms in New Zealand’s history, striking the North Island between the 6th and 9th of March 1988.
It is most remembered for the catastrophic flooding and landslides it caused in the Gisbon East Cape and Hawks Bay regions.
The storm slowed as it moved over the east coast, dumping over 900 mm of rain in some hill country areas within 72 hours.
One location recorded 514 mm in a single 24-hour period. Three people died when their car was swept away by flood waters near Talaga Bay.
Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes, including roughly 3,000 from the Poverty Bay flats.
The Wora Bridge was destroyed, severing State Highway 2 and cutting off the town’s water and sewage lines.
Gisbon’s main water pipeline was severed in multiple places. The storm caused over $90 million in farming and horicultural losses with a total government repair bill exceeding $111 million.
In 1988, Cyclone Bowler significantly changed New Zealand’s approach to land management because the torrential rain caused massive erosion on pasture-overed hills.
The government incentivized the planting of pine forests in at risk areas to stabilize the soil.
A landscape change still visible today. Number four, the litany of lies. Arabus disaster, 1981.
The disaster that took place on the 29th of November 1979 lives on in the New Zealand public consciousness as one of the worst tragedies to ever take place.
The investigation that uncovered a corporate cover up was also a massive scandal during the early 80s.
Air New Zealand flight TE 901 carrying 257 souls on board collided with the icy slopes of an active volcano Mount Arabus on Ross Island, Antarctica.
A massive search and identify operation began soon after known as Operation Overdue, which was done in the most brutal Antarctic conditions on the face of an active volcano and carried out by ordinary street cops, some or many who suffer from PTSD today.
Following aviation reports deemed this accident to be the pilot’s fault, a cause of flying below safe altitudes.
This had a devastating effect on the families of those pilots. Thankfully, there were some who didn’t buy this story.
Just as Peter Man launched a royal inquiry in 1981, he found that flight path coordinates had been altered the night before the pilots had taken off, and the pilots were never informed.
An insignificant 2.1 nautical miles. But the problem is is that these coordinates had to be entered into the computers manually and they had a typing error of about 26 mi.
This new typo had the pilots flying directly into the mountain. Add to the fact that there was a sector wide out phenomenon and the pilots couldn’t even see the volcano.
It was found that Air New Zealand had tried to destroy evidence of this blunder and cover it up, eager to keep the blame squarely in the cockpit of flight 901.
And so came the famous quote, “An orchestrated litany of lies by Justice Peter Man.”
Public disputes between the highest levels of government and the inquiry bodies led to legal accusations that Justice Man had not conducted the inquiry ethically.
The disaster took 257 lives, affected many more families, devastated an entire nation, and cost the public’s faith in the authorities.
Probably one of the worst disasters in New Zealand’s history. If you would like to learn more about it and watch my full episode on it, click the link in the description or on the screen here.
Number three, Wellington Trades Hall bomb, 1984. On the 27th of March, 1984 at the Wellington Trades Hall, 63-year-old caretaker Ernie Abbott was locking up the building at the end of the day.
He notices an abandoned suitcase. He probably thinks, “I should move this and somebody might come for it later.”
When he does move it, the suitcase explodes. Ernie Abbott was killed instantly. The resulting blast was powerful enough to shatter nearby shop windows and throw a parked car 2 m across the road.
Abbott’s dog, Patch, was also injured, but survived. A later investigation revealed that the suitcase contained the equivalent of 1 kilos of gelignite.
Other components included a 6volt Ever Ready lantern battery, an accelerant such as petroleum in a plastic soda bottle, and a 60-minute set stove timer and a mercury switch.
A relatively uncommon component, the mercury switch, was part of the device. When the suitcase was moved by Ernie, the mercury tipped, connecting the circuit and detonating the bomb.
While a specific motive was never proven, the attack occurred during a period of intense industrial and political tension between unions and the Robert Moldunled national government.
Police believed the building staff and unions were the intended targets rather than Abbott personally.
Despite extensive investigations involving over 500 suspects and thousands of exhibits, no one has ever been charged.
However, in 2019, it was revealed by police that they did have a suspect. Retired Marine Engineer Edgar Kidman.
Evidence found at Kidman’s home in 1984 included detonators, teal soft drink bottles similar to those used in the bomb, and a newspaper from 1977 with the same pages missing that were found in the suitcase.
Kidman died in May 2021 without ever being charged, maintaining his innocence until his death.
Other theories include IRA involvement, but these were never substantiated. Today, it remains one of New Zealand’s biggest cold cases.
Number two, the Spring Bach Tour, 1981. The game that divided a nation. For 56 days in July, August and September 1981, New Zealanders were divided against each other in the largest civil disturbance seen since the 1951 waterfront dispute.
The reasons for this dispute, the South African rugby team, the Spring Box, were scheduled to visit in mid 1981.
Now, this was during a time when apartheid was still in use by South Africa.
This racial divide also spilled over into sports where naturally South Africa selected teams based on race.
Many countries around the world had placed trade and sporting sanctions on the country in protest of this practice.
Before the All Blacks tooured the Republic in 1960, there were calls for no mis no tour and 150,000 New Zealanders signed a petition against sending a race-based team, but the tour went ahead.
Prime Minister Keith Holio’s statement that in this country we are one people was translated into practice when a proposed 67 tour to South Africa was cancelled.
So naturally, there was a lot of people who felt that the spring tour should not go ahead.
There was also a lot of people who felt strongly that it was just a game and politics should not interfere with it.
Just for context, if you’re watching from overseas, rugby is New Zealand’s number one sport.
It’s seen as a cultural identifier and it’s become part of the Kiwi DNA. New Zealand and South Africa are the two rugby powerhouses in the world and over the last 100 years, they have been major rivals.
When the All Blacks toured in 1970, they sent a multi-racial team, not as the result of international pressure softening South African resolve, but because the South African government allowed Mali to travel as honorary whites.
For some, this was the last straw. Throughout the 70s, there were a few protests here and there, but it wasn’t until old mate Prime Minister Sir Robert or Peggy Mulun acted against the Glenn Eagles agreement, which was basically a signed document that strongly opposed any Commonwealth nations such as New Zealand from participating in any sport with a country that practiced racial segregation like South Africa with apartheid.
Maldun was one of those people who believed that sport and politics should not be mixed.
Robert Mulun made it clear that the government would not allow political interference in sport in any form.
The NZ RFU, the national governing body of the sport, took this as a green light and in September 1980, invited the South Africans to tour the following year.
Well, all hell broke loose, didn’t it? Battle lines were drawn and historians see the tour as a clash between the old and the new New Zealand, which revealed itself in five main ways.
The struggle between baby boomers and war veterans, city versus country, men versus women, black versus white, Britain of the South versus independent Pacific nation.
The Spring Box were officially welcomed to New Zealand at T Poho or Raidi Maria in Gisbon just as they had been in 1965 on the 19th of July 1981.
Despite all the pre-our rhetoric and debate, few anticipated that the country was about to descend into near civil war.
As the tour moved throughout the country, a war played out twice a week as the spring box moved from game to game.
One of the more notable violent outbreaks occurred at the third test in Oakland on the 12th of September 1981.
The All Blacks won the deciding third test, 25 to 22. It was a game when all hell broke loose as protesters fought with police outside the grounds and flower and smoke bombs were dropped on the ground from a Cessna aircraft and >> end of the field.
Smoke bombs, flares, being an attempt to come onto the field. The game will stop.
>> More than 150,000 people took part in over 200 demonstrations in 28 centers and 1,500 were charged with offenses stemming from the protests.
It remains a dark part of New Zealand’s history as its international reputation was damaged by allowing this tour to go ahead.
I could go on and on about this, but I think I’ll save it for a fulllength future episode.
Do you remember the 81 spring box tour? If you do, let me know in the comments below.
And before we move on to our final spot, here are a few honorable mentions.
Black Tuesday, the 1987 stock market crash. Everything changed in October when New York’s Wall Street stock market dropped sharply.
The effects were immediately felt around the world. Billions were wiped off the value of New Zealand shares within weeks.
Many investors lost everything as companies that had overextended themselves were dragged under and went bust.
Small mom and dad investors were also burned by the experience. Rose Noel, 1989. Rose Noel was a triaran that capsized at 6:00 a.m.
On June the 4th, 1989 in the southern Pacific Ocean off the coast of New Zealand.
Four men survived a drift on the wreckage of the ship for 119 days. Alicia O’Reilly, 1980.
In the early hours of the 16th of August 1980 in Christ Church, six-year-old Alicia O’Reilly was assaulted and murdered in her bed while her sister was sleeping nearby.
To this day, the killer has never been caught. The Fox Tavern shooting, 1987. Father of two, Chris Bush, 43, was gunned down at the pub in Maramarua in October 87, and the offenders fled with tens of thousands of dollars in cash, coins, and checks.
Two heavily disguised men, one armed with a double-barreled shotgun and the other with a baseball bat, burst into the tavern and yelled, “This is a holdup.”
The offenders tied up three staff members and forced one to help them find the keys to the safe.
They fled with approximately $36,000 in cash, coins, and checks. It wasn’t until 2016, after a third investigation occurred that two men were finally arrested in relation to the crime.
Mark Joseph Hoget and another man whose name remains suppressed, were found guilty of murder and aggravated robbery.
In May 2021, both men were sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum parole period of 10 years.
The Under Armour Bowl 1981. ANZAC relations took a hit on the 1st of February at Melbourne Cricket Ground when Australian captain Greg Chapel told his brother Trevor to bowl the final delivery of a one-day cricket international against New Zealand Underarm along the ground.
New Zealand’s number 10 batsman Brian Mcketchnney needed to hit an unlikely six on one of the world’s largest cricket grounds to tie the match and keep the series level.
The delivery was legal at the time but not in the spirit of the game.
New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Moldun called the underarm ball an act of true cowardice.
His Australian counterpart Malcolm Fraser agreed that it was contrary to the traditions of the game.
>> Expect Victorian skipper. They’re going to by an underarm. We haven’t believed it. And that’s a disappointing finish.
Disappointed Brian affecting the crowd. Boom. Number one, the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, 1985.
One of the worst events to happen in New Zealand’s history. Everyone who was alive at the time can probably recall where they were when the news broke about the bombing of the Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior.
At the time, France was testing nuclear weapons in the South Pacific. This drew a lot of protest, and Greenpeace was at the forefront of these.
On the 10th of July 1985 in Oakland’s Wimata Harbor just before midnight, two French secret service agents placed and denedated two limpit mines on the hull of the Rainbow Warrior.
The first explosion created a hole the size of a car, prompting the crew to evacuate.
Portuguese Dutch photographer Fernando Periier returned below deck to retrieve his camera equipment and drowned when the second bomb exploded.
The hamfisted DGSC operation was intended to prevent the reign by warrior leading another campaign against French nuclear testing at Muroa at the operation involved at least 11 agents.
Major Alan Marart and Captain Dominic Priier posing as Swiss tourists were eventually the ones captured and convicted.
Both pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. The United Nations brokered a settlement whereby France would apologize to New Zealand and pay compensation of $13 million.
France was also ordered not to interfere with New Zealand trade negotiations. In return, Prior and Maf would serve the remainder of their sentence on how atal in French Polynesia.
New Zealand Prime Minister David Longi called it a sorted act of international statebacked terrorism.
The event severely strained relations between New Zealand and France, especially after France used economic pressure to secure the agents release.
In the event, both were released early. Mafart returned to France because of illness in 1987 and a pregnant pri followed him in May 1988.
Both were honored, decorated, and promoted upon their return home. The bombing backfired, fueling global anti-uclear sentiment and leading to France ending its Pacific nuclear tests in 1996.
The original skip was scuttled in 1987 in Motari Bay to serve as a dive wreck in an artificial reef.
And that is today’s episode. Let me know in the comments which one of these you’d like to see a full episode on in the next installment of my Dark Decade series.
So stay tuned for more of that. You can also find this episode and many more on Spotify.
And as always, I’ve been Shadow Matter and you’ve been awesome. Like, subscribe, and ring that bell.
And I’ll see you here next time in the shadows.
