On 21 June 1964 the Beatles touched down at Wellington airport for the start of the New Zealand leg of their ‘Far East’ tour. Awaiting them were seven thousand avid Beatles fans, barely contained behind wire fences, whose screams drowned out the noise of the jet engines. The band’s arrival heralded the start of a week of unprecedented fan frenzy that gripped the country.

After landing, the Beatles were greeted by the Te Pataka concert party with a haka, hongi, and presentation of tiki. Film footage of the event taken by the NZBC shows the bemused reactions of the Beatles to this display of Maori culture. They were then driven in the back of a station wagon from the airport through Wellington to the St George Hotel, waving to fans who lined the roads.

This photo from the National Film Unit collection shows NZBC cameramen filming the Beatles as they were driven across the tarmac after their arrival. The cameramen are unidentified, but the camera on the forward car has been noted as a 16mm Arriflex ST. It was the only time the Beatles ever visited New Zealand as a group. During their short tour they visited all four main centres and played six concerts to several thousand fans. Throughout the country the reaction of fans to the band’s presence was hysterical, raising concerns to older generations at the level of pandemonium created by this brush with Beatlemania.