Slipping over during a discus throw while wearing Bata Bullets sneakers and arriving late to a lunch with the Queen were just some of the stories the couple recalled.
The pair were part of the New Zealand team at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games and returned to the park on Monday to see the newly opened $1.2 million Games-themed playground.
“This is amazing. It’s a real asset to the community, it’s wonderful,” Mene said.
The playground pays tribute to QEII’s rich sporting history.
It has separate zones for younger and older children, including a basketball court, adventure course, spinning carousel, nature play area, basket swing, tube slide and a large sandpit featuring a digger and buried fossils for children to uncover.
Stage two of the project, featuring a children’s-sized oval running track complete with stadium-style seating and a winners’ podium, is due to open next month.
An asphalt running track was laid last week but needs a curing period of two to three weeks before markings can be painted.
QEII was damaged beyond repair in the earthquake and demolished in 2012.
“It was very, very cool. Just made us feel so proud,” said Sally.
Mene arrived in New Zealand from Samoa in 1966 to train as an aircraft engineer with National Airways. He and Sally were both members of the Christchurch Technical Athletics Club at the time. They married in 1970.
Back then, athletes had to fund their own participation in competitions, which was a financial burden on a young family.
“We’d just had our 16-month-old, Chris, when we competed,” Sally said.
“We used to do bottle drives and things like that to raise money.
“We didn’t have the flash gear, we had no sponsorship. I used to wear Bata Bullets and that’s what I threw the discus in” she said.
Bata Bullets were flat-bottomed affordable sneakers popular in New Zealand, selling millions in the 1970s and 80s.
“It must have been slippery under foot, and in the qualifying round I actually fell over in the circle on one of my throws,” Sally said.
“But I still qualified towards the top of that grouping.”
Mene also wore Bata Bullets for the throwing events, but fortunately had met an athlete before the Games who worked as a sports shoe sales representative, so had better footwear for the running events.
The couple were among athletes, including Dick Tayler and Valerie Young, invited to a luncheon hosted by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia, berthed in Lyttelton.
“We were a husband and wife competing in the games. I guess that’s why we've got the invitation,” Mene said.
“We all gathered at the (athletes) village and were running late. Dick Tayler’s wife arrived late from Timaru also.
“When we got to Lyttelton, the guard on the gate said, ‘Hurry up, the Queen waits for nobody’. We were late and we were hungry because it was lunchtime, so we rushed up the gangway,” Mene said.
The French-style lunch featured a salmon mayonnaise appetiser and roast beef fillet “a l’Anglaise”, served with butter beans, new potatoes, peas and a crisp side salad.
“The meal came, and you could put the whole lot in one go on the fork. And that was your lunch,” Mene recalled.
Said Sally: “The coffee came in little a wee cup,” to which Mene chipped in: “I couldn’t even get my finger into the handle.
“So we all look at each other, and we wait until we get to the village so we can get stuck into some food,” he said.
The earthquake damaged stadium was demolished in 2019 and the site transformed into open green spaces.
Four new play areas inspired by Lancaster Park’s sporting history will include an embankment with sports tower and rugby imagery, a stadium tunnel with crowd imagery and sound and a children’s athletics track.
A start on the project has been delayed due to global supply chain problems and equipment availability.
