The tour ceased to be a debate and became a struggle between irreconcilable values. For many, including the Muldoon Government, it was a challenge to the fundamental rights of New Zealanders and the rule of law.
For many others - far more than the numbers that had turned out to march before the tour began - it became an agony that should never have been allowed to happen. Apartheid had no place in the modern world, New Zealand was putting rugby ahead of principle and it was ripping us apart.
In the Herald newsroom chief reporter Bruce Morris wrote a memo to reporters, reminding them of the need to keep their personal position out of their work.
The police regrouped after Hamilton. Riot control squads came to the fore. They practised techniques to break protest lines with baton thrusts, shouting in unison, "move, move, move..."
The protest ranks acquired gangs and formed more aggressive squads with tactics aimed at outwitting the police and disrupting more matches, or at least causing enough dismay to stop the tour.
Scenes of violence and bloodied protesters occurred at nearly every game, culminating in the final test at Eden Park.
A light plane buzzed the stadium, dropping flour bombs on the field. Outside police and protest squads fought running battles in the streets.
Fights broke out when protesters tried to bar spectators' paths to the ground. Rocks were hurled at police in Onslow Rd, A car was overturned.
The "Patu" squad hurdled jumbo bins and charged down Marlborough St with fireworks and incendiary devices.
People lay injured on roads and grass verges, 67 were treated at Auckland Hospital that evening.
The tour was over. The country went quiet and all sides agreed it was an experience never to repeat.
What are your memories of the 1981 Springbok tour? Leave your comments below 
