Life in New Zealand in 1971 - the last time the Lions won a tour here

Crowd at Lions tour match 1971. Photo / Herald

The year was 1971.

The British and Irish Lions captained by John Dawes and coached by Carwyn James were ecstatic, having won the test series against the All Blacks.

They were the only - and remain the only - Lions side to have won a test series in New Zealand. They lost all four tests in the previous tour of 1966.

They'll be hoping for a repeat in their 2017 tour, which officially kicked off when the played the NZ Provincial Barbarians in Whangarei last night.

This is the Lion's 13th tour of New Zealand and the 12th time they've played the All Blacks (they played against regional Kiwi teams, not our national team, on their first tour in 1888).

The Herald on Sunday remembers what life was like in New Zealand the last time the Lions won a tour here 46 years ago.

• The average house price was $11,500 ($152,500 inflation adjusted)
• The population was 2.8 million, 600,000 of those lived in the Auckland region
• Arthur Allan Thomas was wrongfully convicted of the Crewe murders
• We were protesting the Vietnam War in Queen St

Demonstrators in Auckland carrying placards taking part in a protest march against the Vietnam war. Photo / Herald

• KFC opened its first New Zealand store in Auckland
• Shops were shut on Saturdays and Sundays
• The Race Relations Act was passed on 17 December, banning discrimination based on race, nationality or ethnicity
• The Melbourne Cup became the first sporting event to be broadcast live to New Zealand via satellite (in black and white)
• Ex-Black Cap Adam Parore, Olympic champion triathlete Hamish Carter and former All Black and Warriors player Marc Ellis were all born
• David Bowie invented his alter ego Ziggy Stardust
• Keith Holyoake was the Prime Minister

Keith Holyoake.

• Kiwi-made Pukemanu, the first TV drama with regular Maori characters, first aired

Pukemanu first TV drama with regular Maori characters.

• The average weekly wage was about $59.73 for full time workers in April 1971. When this is inflation adjusted, it works out to about $1,221.83 today
• Paul & Linda McCartney's single Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey was the biggest hit, topping the charts for seven consecutive weeks
• Of the 1.1 million Kiwis in the workforce, only 29 per cent were women