On 7 June 1976, McDonald’s opened its doors for the first time in New Zealand. There was a brass band playing and hundreds of people waiting to be among the first to try a Big Mac and fries.

Fifty years later, McDonald’s New Zealand is marking the milestone by sharing 50 facts from its journey in Aotearoa – from the first restaurant in Porirua and the invention of the Drive-Thru timer, to Apricot Pies, Kiwiburgers and the iconic DC-3 restaurant in Taupō. Here are 50 top facts about Macca’s time in New Zealand that may surprise you, make you reminisce and maybe even tickle your McNuggets.

The Macca’s Top 50 in New Zealand

1. New Zealand was one of the first countries in the world outside the US to get McDonald’s.
2. Brothers Hugh and Wally Morris were running supermarkets and had the vision to bring the Golden Arches to New Zealand. They flew to the US and met with Ray Kroc. At first he said no, but they kept at it and eventually he agreed.
3. New Zealand’s first McDonald’s opened in Cobham Court, Porirua, on 7 June 1976, on a site previously home to a squash court. The site was owned by Hugh and Wally Morris, and they decided this would be the best spot to open the first McDonald’s.
4. More than 100 people queued outside on opening day before the doors opened at 10am. In true old-school style, there was a brass band playing.
5. The first Big Mac sold in New Zealand cost 75 cents. Cheeseburgers cost 40 cents, and hamburgers cost 30 cents.
6. The original New Zealand menu had just six burgers, plus a few soft drinks, desserts and fries.
7. A local newspaper ad for opening day offered a tear-off coupon: buy a Big Mac, get one free.
8. New Zealand’s second McDonald’s opened on Queen Street in Auckland in 1977.
9. The first Drive-Thrus opened in Lower Hutt and New Lynn in 1978. Today, Drive-Thru is the most popular way for Kiwis to order their Macca’s.
10. Years later, it was Kiwis who came up with the idea of the Drive-Thru timer, which is now used around the world.
11. McNuggets launched in New Zealand in 1985. Made by Ingham with quality New Zealand chicken breast, today hundreds of thousands of McNuggets are sold each day.
12. And yes, Sweet & Sour is the most popular sauce. A few years ago, many Kiwis were surprised to discover one of its ingredients is apricot.
13. Speaking of apricot, Kiwis loved apricot pie so much that Macca’s put it on the menu in the1980’s and it remained a permanent menu item until 2010. It also made a brief return in 2021 as a limited time offer.
14. The McChicken arrived in 1986. These days McDonald’s sells as much chicken as it does beef.
15. The breakfast menu was first served at Queen Street in 1991. The classic Bacon and Egg McMuffin is the main go-to for brekkie customers.
16. The Kiwiburger launched in 1991, created for New Zealand tastes because Kiwis will put beetroot on anything. The inventor was Waikato franchisee Brian Old.
17. Brian Old didn’t stop at the Kiwiburger. He also briefly introduced sausages to the menu and famously filmed his own Hamilton-only television commercials.
18. The Kiwiburger song has become a New Zealand TV ad icon. Kiwis love hot pools, rugby balls, McDonald’s, snapper schools… It was reimagined for a modern New Zealand a few years ago.
19. The first McCafé in New Zealand opened on Queen Street in 1998. Today, McCafé is one of the most popular coffee options for Kiwis.
20. Here’s one from the ‘did they really’ vault – McDonald’s New Zealand once trialled tomato and chicken noodle soups.
21. There was also a trial of a pre-made take-home meal product called Tonight’s Dinner in the early 2000s.
22. There are now 177 McDonald’s restaurants across New Zealand. The latest restaurant opened a few weeks ago in Newmarket. It’s the fourth site where Macca’s has operated in Newmarket, and the first with a Drive-Thru.
23. Around 1.5 million people visit McDonald’s restaurants in New Zealand each week.
24. More than 10,000 people work in McDonald’s restaurants across the country. It’s estimated over 200,000 people have worked at McDonald’s since 1976.
25. Today, around 90 percent of McDonald’s restaurants are owned and operated by 53 local franchisees. Most own multiple restaurants, with one franchisee currently operating nine.
26. Would you like a career with that? Our last three Managing Directors all started as crew members and worked their way up – proof that a first job can take you a very long way.
27. McDonald’s New Zealand is one of the country’s largest employers of young people.
28. DYK we’ve made it into the te reo Māori dictionary? Makitārana is the phonetic translation of McDonald’s. We’ve also had parts of the menu translated – anyone fancy a Maka Nui?
29. Eggsceptional effort. Our Christchurch franchisees were the first in the McDonald’s system to switch to free-range eggs, paving the way for a nationwide rollout.
30. We use more than 10 million free-range eggs every year – enough to keep a lot of chickens busy.
31. Beef patties are made by ANZCO Foods in Waitara. They can produce around half a million patties a day. The process is very simple: beef is minced, formed and frozen. The trick is in the process, which means there’s no need for binders or other additives.
32. Around 10 percent of New Zealand’s beef exports go to other McDonald’s markets. Yes you read that right – between 20-30 mill kg of beef per year goes to Asia Pacific and North America.
33. Ronald McDonald’s Make It Click road safety programme visited schools around New Zealand for more than 30 years, helping teach generations of Kiwi kids about staying safe around roads.
34. The Taupō McDonald’s, complete with a decommissioned DC3 plane, has been named the world’s coolest McDonald’s.
35. We’ve also got the southernmost McDonald’s in Invercargill and the easternmost in Gisborne.
36. Macca’s offers one of the oldest private tertiary scholarships in New Zealand. For over 30 years we’ve partnered with AUT University on the McDonald’s Te Tai Tokerau scholarship, adding the Tairāwhiti scholarship in the mid-2010s.
37. Building New Zealand’s first McDonald’s came with a catch. When some imported building materials couldn’t be returned to the United States as planned, a deal was struck: New Zealand cheese was traded instead.
38. Rotorua pastry-maker Digby Sykes helped create the apple pie for New Zealand’s first restaurant opening. His original pie mould could only make one pie at a time, so when opening day demand reached 1,152 apple pies, he worked day and night to build a machine capable of making 48 pies at once.
39. More than 100 million buns, bagels and wraps are made for McDonald’s New Zealand each year by Aryzta in Glenfield.
40. Our potatoes are grown by farmers in South Canterbury, using varieties grown especially for McDonald’s, to meet a number of quality attributes.
41. McDonald’s opened its first South Island restaurants in 1987. Two franchisee families – the Traills and the Davis family – have been part of the journey ever since, with the next generation now at the helm.
42. McDonald’s New Zealand launched its Made For You platform in 2007, with food freshly prepared once customers ordered. Prior to that, burgers were pre-made and held in a warming cabinet.
43. Ronald McDonald House Charities became an official New Zealand charity in 1989.
44. The first Ronald McDonald House in New Zealand opened in Wellington in 1991. Today, RMHC New Zealand provides more than 46,000 nights of free accommodation and support for families each year.
45. McDonald’s New Zealand is the forever partner of Ronald McDonald House Charities New Zealand, raising funds each year to help keep families close while their children are in hospital.
46. Macca’s brought back the iconic Georgie Pie Steak Mince ‘N’ Cheese Pie in 2013, delighting fans for another seven years. The urban myth was that McDonald’s bought Georgie Pie to close down a local competitor. The truth was Georgie Pie’s assets were being sold and Macca’s purchased a number of restaurants sites, along with the brand IP.
47. Macca’s once owned a fire engine, which spent years travelling as part of the Variety Bash.
48. We also had a Filet-O-Fish car – yes, really. Today it lives at the Transport World museum in Invercargill.
49. Long before the McCrispy, Macca’s New Zealand even gave lamb burgers a go, proving Kiwis have never been shy about experimenting with the menu.
50. For a country of five million people, New Zealand has left a pretty big mark on McDonald’s history. We’ve created menu icons, pioneered innovations and supplied ingredients that now reach McDonald’s restaurants around the globe.

Some great yarns from the past

The cheese trade behind the first restaurant

When New Zealand’s first McDonald’s opened in Cobham Court, Porirua, at 10am on 7 June 1976, more than 100 people were already waiting outside. The menu was small by today’s standards, with a Big Mac costing 75 cents, a cheeseburger 40 cents, and a hamburger 30 cents.

But getting the restaurant built was not as simple as bringing in the Golden Arches and firing up the grill.

At the time, strict trade restrictions meant importing materials and equipment from the United States came with conditions. The deal reportedly involved returning parts of the building materials to the US after the restaurant opened.

There was just one problem. Some of those materials had already been concreted into the ground.

So, in very Kiwi fashion, a trade was struck instead: New Zealand cheese in exchange for the building materials.

The Rotorua baker who cracked the apple pie

Another great early McDonald’s New Zealand story began in Rotorua, with pastry-maker Digby Sykes.

In the mid-1970s, Sykes was close to losing his business when he was given a challenge to create an apple pie for a mystery customer. That customer turned out to be McDonald’s, which was quietly selecting suppliers ahead of its first New Zealand opening.

Sykes taught himself the science behind the product, experimenting with temperature and texture until he created a pie that came out golden brown, with the distinctive bubbles on the outside.

When McDonald’s needed 1,152 apple pies for opening day in Porirua, there was one problem. Sykes’ original mould could only make one pie at a time. So he worked day and night to build a machine that could make 48 at once.

A “thank you” to Zoe Bates at Omnicom for sending this article to The Upper Hutt Connection.

05/06/26