Events on this Day – 9 March

Young surveyor William Quill needed only basic climbing equipment, including a billhook and an alpenstock, to scale the side of the ‘great Sutherland waterfall’, which cascades down for 580 m near Milford Sound.

‘Opononi George’ or ‘Opo’ was a young female bottlenose dolphin which warmed the hearts of thousands of people at Opononi in Hokianga Harbour between June 1955 and March 1956.

First held at the Masterton War Memorial Stadium in 1961, the Golden Shears competition has become the iconic event for the shearing and wool-handling industry in New Zealand.