We use cookies to help us understand how you use our site, and make your experience better. To find out more read our privacy policy.

Turn of the Century

Television (Full Length) – 1987

This documentary comprehensively traces the history of skiing and winter sports in New Zealand. From Mannering and Dixon, who used homemade skis in an almost-successful ascent of Mt Cook and the hut-building pioneers of recreational ski clubs in their pre-Gore-tex garb, to commercial ski fields and lifts, superb archive footage shows the advances. New Zealand teams at the Winter Olympics in Oslo in 1952 and Sarajevo 32 years later had come some way from the days when carrier pigeons were used to report snow conditions from Canterbury's ski fields to Christchurch.

Recreational skiing began in the early 1900s. These pioneers taught themselves. Their skis were often made from native timber, or fashioned from blades of farm implements.
– Narrator

Produced by

Zealando Films

Music

Music composed by Rob Winch.
Keyboards by Jonathan Crayford. Saxophones Dennis Mason. Synthesiser programming by Dave Parsons