The year was 1978, and New Zealand had been waiting so long.

And David Bowie, whose eponymous debut album had hit number one more than a decade earlier, knew his first trip was overdue.

David Bowie at Western Springs stadium in 1983. Photo: Sunday Star Times.

"I'm looking forward to it. It's a long way to go and there have been times in the past when I considered it. But now we're about to start, I'm very happy," Bowie told media, according to longtime fan sites.

The wait was worth it: When Bowie finally hit the stage – at Christchurch's QEII Park at the end of November, after an almost year-long tour – fans went wild, some a little too much so.

The star wasn't afraid to make an example of a group in the crowd, though audience members were left confused quite as to why.

"When a couple of young Maoris kept on raising their right fists (usually taken as a compliment here), he did threaten to leave the stage, adding some gibberish about 'British fascism' being here before the end of '79," Ray Columbus wrote in a review for The Press.

Other fans had a different take.

"[Bowie] only faltered once: to interrupt the set to berate some members of the audience for giving the Nazi salute and "seig heiling" him," JD McLellan told the Bowie Downunder fan site.

"He made some comments about how the National Front would soon be raising their heads in our country and that we shouldn't be seduced by them, 'that's no way to be a rebel', he said, then performed 'Rebel Rebel'."

It was the first and only time Bowie performed in the South Island, but whether the audience was to blame was never known.

From there, Bowie played Auckland's Western Springs Stadium; when he returned five years later, his audience broke attendance records.

The 1978 show coincided with four days of debauchery at Takapuna's iconic Mon Desir, where Bowie was said to have got to know a group of Kiwi girls very, very well, after they made it past his security detail.

The manager at that time, Dick Jones, later said: "I told the police that if ever I rang them, I was in deep trouble. I never cried wolf."

One New Zealand woman, in particular, caught Bowie's eye - and he made her a star.

Geeling Ng found fame as the girl in Bowie's 1983 'China Girl' music video, where she and the singer romped in the sand.

She told The Guardian the music video role was "terrifying": "He had a long history as a performer and I was a model and waitress. And in the storyline we were meant to be intimate."

The pair had practised romping in Sydney ahead of the video shoot, she said: "purely as method acting". But it led to a brief fling.

"After the shoot, I got a call: 'Do you want to come to Europe with me?' I became a bit of a groupie for two weeks. I knew it was a passing phase. I was 23, we lived in different worlds, but he gave me an experience that I'll never forget.

"We were whisked out of back doors of hotels, flying in private jets, David hiding from fans under a rug in the limousine. It was like being in the movies."

The same year, Bowie got close to other Kiwis: Porirua iwi Ngati Toa, in fact.

Back in town for his Serious Moonlight tour, he said it had been "such a long period" since his last visit; he hired his own car and went exploring.

The day after arriving in New Zealand, Bowie visited Porirua – where 3000 people were waiting on Takapuwahia Marae to catch a glimpse of him.

Soon enough, he been welcome on with a powhiri and was having a meal inside, in spite of his reported "raw fish" diet at the time. He performed a special-written song, title Waiata.

Fans queued for hours to get tickets to his first capital show, at the former Athletic Park, and special transport was put on to bring them all into the city.

Bowie urged good behaviour: "We are going to have a good time, just as long as people don't throw bottles and act like hooligans."

That show, and another at Western Springs, were a hit. But then came the long wait, as seven tours passed by Australia and New Zealand.

It wasn't until 2004 that Bowie made it back for his final Australasia tour, with a single show in New Zealand, at Westpac Stadium.

The country had Bowie fever: Online, he outsold all previous artists to visit, hotels were fully-booked, and the bars and buskers on Wellington's streets played his songs in the lead-up to the show.

The weather on the day couldn't have been worse – but it was no impediment to the star.

"I still remember his concert at the Westpac Stadium. Pouring with rain, windy, the stage about an inch deep in water. He said, 'If you're good enough to come out, I'm good enough to play.' Crowd loved him for that," Stuff commenter Collum wrote on Monday night.

High hopes he might be back one more time, after the release of Blackstar last week, were dashed with news of his death.

Kiwi fans were in mourning, with many Stuff readers paying tribute on Monday.

"Saw him at Athletic Park in the 80s ... brilliant concert," commenter The Walker 100 said.

Another fan, Shelleygirl, commented: "The Serious Moonlight tour at Western Springs in 1983 is a wonderful memory for me. What a uniquely brilliant musician and person."