Join Together - The New Zealand Commonwealth Games Story

This TVNZ doco chronicles New Zealand’s participation in 18 Empire and Commonwealth Games — beginning at Hamilton, Canada in 1930 when a Kiwi team of 18 participated in four sports. A cavalcade of gold medallists (including Yvette Williams, Dick Tayler, Anna Simcic and Neroli Fairhall) recall their glory days at the event which was set up to be “merrier and less stern” than The Olympics. Special emphasis is placed on the three New Zealand-hosted Games: at Auckland in 1950 and 1990, and Christchurch in 1974 (which hastened the local arrival of colour television).

I’ll always remember the crowd was chanting “black”. I thought, “My God, what are they doing? The guy in front of me is black and the guy in front of him’s name is Black. Get that sorted out”. But they went back to chanting “Tayler, Tayler”.

– Dick Tayler, Gold medallist at the 1974 Christchurch Games

Key Cast & Crew

Andrea McVeigh

Director

Steven Orsbourn

Producer, Cinematographer

Paul Anderson

Editor

Jude Callen

Executive Producer

Peter Elliott

Narrator