Clockwise from top left: Jonny Reid drives Black Beauty to victory; Valerie Vili arrives home after the Olympics; Andy Bray at his daughter Natasha's funeral; John Key after his victory on election night. Photos / Glenn Jeffrey, Brett Phibbs, Sarah Ivey
Video is one of the fast-growing new developments on nzherald.co.nz. Here we pull together some of your favourite videos of 2008.
The year started with an adrenaline rush as an A1GP car raced a Boeing 777 at Auckland Airport. Black Beauty, driven by Jonny
Reid, beat the aircraft down the runway.
Planes continued to fascinate our readers in March, with the wobbly landing of a Lufthansa plane receiving more than 40,000 views in only a few hours.
During April, the canyoning tragedy that killed six students and a teacher from Elim Christian College drew widespread sympathy, and one video in particular moved our readers - that of bereaved father Andy Bray speaking about his daughter Natasha.
In July, the amateur footage of a falling tree nearly crushing a motorist in Nelson went viral, with the lucky escape being broadcast around the world.
August was the month of the Olympic Games, and two videos in particular deserve a mention - Herald writer Steve Deane's attempt to eat a Michael Phelps-style breakfast, and the triumphant return of our Olympic team.
In October came the shocking death of Austin Hemmings, stabbed as he went to the aid of a woman in distress. The video of the police statement showed the tributes the public had placed at the scene in memory of his heroism.
The month of elections, November, saw Barack Obama elected the first black President of the United States, and his victory speech was the most-watched video for several days afterwards.
In the New Zealand elections, John Key's victory speech was popular, but almost as many of you wanted to see Helen Clark's concession speech, in which she resigned as leader of the Labour Party.
Finally, in December a defining moment of 2008 came when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at US president George W. Bush.
Thank you to all our viewers for your support both on nzherald.co.nz and on our YouTube site. We look forward to sharing more great videos with you in 2009.
- NZHERALD VIDEO TEAM
