Q 01/05

What did a low-flying Cessna drop on the Eden Park pitch during the 1981 Springbok tour's final test?

A) Leaflets

B) Smoke canisters

C) Flour bombs

D) Paint balloons

Answer · why

C) Flour bombs

Flour bombs rained onto the pitch from a Cessna 172 piloted by Marx Jones and Grant Cole on 12 September 1981, yet the test was played to a finish. Ou...

Q 02/05

Which organisation's flagship Rainbow Warrior was sunk by French agents in Auckland harbour in July 1985?

A) Greenpeace

B) Sea Shepherd

C) Friends of the Earth

D) World Wildlife Fund

Answer · why

A) Greenpeace

Greenpeace had owned the Rainbow Warrior since 1977, and it was bound for a protest against a French nuclear test when two DGSE operatives sank it, dr...

Q 03/05

News that Hillary and Tenzing had climbed Everest reached Britain on the day of which 1953 event?

A) The Festival of Britain

B) Churchill's Nobel Prize

C) The first Commonwealth Games

D) The Queen's coronation

Answer · why

D) The Queen's coronation

The Queen's coronation on 2 June 1953 shared the headlines with the Everest news, which the press hailed as a coronation gift. Hillary was knighted fo...

Q 04/05

In which architectural style was Napier rebuilt after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake devastated the town?

A) Gothic Revival

B) Art Deco

C) Brutalist

D) Bauhaus

Answer · why

B) Art Deco

Art Deco was at its fashionable peak when Napier rebuilt in the 1930s, and the quake also lifted the Ahuriri Lagoon by more than 2.7 metres, draining ...

Q 05/05

What swept away a rail bridge over the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai on Christmas Eve 1953, killing 151 people?

A) A flash flood from storms

B) A logging dam failure

C) A landslide

D) A volcanic lahar

Answer · why

D) A volcanic lahar

A volcanic lahar from Mount Ruapehu's Crater Lake destroyed a bridge pier only minutes before the Wellington–Auckland express arrived, though the volc...