18 Jul 2019

Moon landing footage flown on special delivery from Sydney

From First Up, 5:53 am on 18 July 2019

At 7.30pm on July 21st 1969, New Zealanders tuned into the news and watched man walk on the moon for the very first time. But that footage wasn't beamed straight from the moon to our TVs - in fact ahead of its broadcast, a tape had to be collected from Australia. Two men from the NZ Defence Force were tasked with the job - Navigator Mike Phil and Pilot Gavin Trethewey. Mr Trethewey told producer Lydia Batham about that day, and how until recently the event had slipped his mind.