Napier film historian and avid All Blacks fan Dave Turnbull has two strong memories fuelled by the boys in the Silver Fern.
One is of the game and the other is of the journey all the way home back from Wellington.
"It was a most forlorn journey," Mr Turnbull said..
It was a memorable occasion because it was a double-header," he said of the clash with the Wallabies back in August 1990.
As well as get up on the towering Millard Stand at Athletic Park to see the All Blacks do the business he was also looking forward to what he described as a sort of curtain-raiser - that being a clash between the New Zealand rugby league test side and the visiting Australian rugby league side.
"It was to have been a very special occasion as we were expected to pull both games off ... but in the end we lost them both," Mr Turnbull lamented.
"We couldn't bloody believe it."
Indeed - the league boys lost 24-6 and the All Blacks did only marginally better, losing 21-9.
The event drew a good-sized crowd of about 28,000 on a bit of a murky day, although Mr Turnbull said it wasn't too bad.
"What was bad was the result. It was gut-wrenching and it's a very long way home after something like that."
He has watched pretty well every All Blacks test since they began appearing on television, and before that would tune into the crackling radio broadcasts in the middle of the night when the lads were overseas.
"Never missed them" he said, adding he had seen the ABs play Australia, the Springboks, the British Lions and the Irish live at the big grounds. "We'd always head down for the Wellington tests."
He said thankfully there had been a lot more good results than bad, and also rates the 2011 World Cup Final against the rampaging French as another special memory.
"I also remember well the game against Australia when Goldie (Jeff Wilson) was tackled out in the corner by that little bloke Gregan ... but I don't really want to think about that much either," he laughed.
Mr Turnbull said he never had aspirations to be an All Black but enjoyed his stint "a good few years back" as a prop with Jimmy Hepburn's junior Marist side.
He is looking forward the the clash with Argentina at McLean Park on Saturday and felt good about it.
"We'll win it, no doubt about that because this is a very good side we've got at the moment."