Trip itinerary

This trip itinerary was created for Peter Snell in 1964.

Peter married his first wife Sally (nee Turner) in May 1963. Fellow Olympian Murray Halberg was Snell's best man. Peter and Sally's overseas honeymoon included him running several races in California.

The following year, from 4 March to 4 April 1964, they travelled to South Africa for a holiday, where Peter ran in non-pressured races. This itinerary provides an insight into an international athlete's personal life in the 1960s where family, work and training had to be carefully balanced (this was during the period of amateurism in New Zealand sport - there was no financial or corporate support for his training and racing).

Sir Peter Snell

Sir Peter Snell (1938-2019) was one of the world’s greatest athletes in one of the world’s most admired sports – middle-distance running. He became a national celebrity when he won the 800-metre race at the Rome Olympics in 1960. He went on to win two more golds at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 in an unrepeatable double of the men's 800m and 1500m.

In 2000 he was named New Zealand’s Sports Champion of the 20th Century. During his running career he won three Olympic gold medals, two British Empire and Commonwealth Games gold medals (at Perth in 1962) and set six world records. In 2002 he was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to sport, becoming Sir Peter in 2009.

Snell was a pupil of the master coach Arthur Lydiard who was responsible for the finest era in New Zealand athletics from 1951-66.