The team were the poster girls for New Zealand apples and were photographed sitting on and gathered around crates of apples or taking big enthusiastic bites from the country's finest produce.
Those were simpler times. It was long before the Silver Ferns became a recognisable brand and the game still had an innocence about it.
That humble tournament in Eastbourne may not have captured the country's imagination in the way the game does now, but it helped netball shake free from its basketball roots and establish its own identity.
When the Silver Ferns attempt to wrest the title from Australia at the 13th edition of the World Championships, which begin in Singapore in on July 4, they will be following in the footsteps of one of the game's greats, Dame Lois Muir.
Muir was the vice-captain in '63 and remembers the tournament as vividly as the voyage to get there.
Amazingly the New Zealand team only lost "a few" balls over board but the training sessions could be restrictive.
"We could only practise ball handling on the first-class deck while all those elite customers had their siesta after lunch," Muir said.
"We did our fitness routine in the morning and entertained the poor guys who had to clean the decks. But we did our fitness then and you were involved in a lot of ship activities. We did the concert at night and did routines for that.
"Our coach Dixie [Cockerton] used to weigh us every few days ... I actually lost weight."
That probably had more to do with the food on board than the exercise regime.
"You got very much the same," Muir said screwing her face up as if reliving the experience.
"Our boat was a bit of a tub, really. The Australians went on the Canberra and were in luxury." The New Zealand team performed a short version of the "Ka Mate" haka before every match and the games were played outdoors with barely a spectator in sight.
New Zealand opened the tournament with an enormous 112-4 win against Northern Ireland and brushed aside Jamaica, Ceylon, England, Trinidad and Tobago before coming unstuck against Australia 37-36.
Forty-eight years have past since that day but the pain has eased little in the intervening years. New Zealand won its remaining four matches but had to be content with second place behind Australia.
That one-goal loss was all that separated the team from returning to New Zealand victorious.
In the dying moments of the game, Muir recalls a pass going over the sideline and an Australian helping its on its way to eat up some of the remaining time.
"I still remember it today. We weren't aware of it so much but there was gamesmanship. There is nothing worse than an Australian playing well and knowing it.
If you've ever been there and lost to them, you won't do it again. We won the World Championships in '87 because I had four girls in that team who had lost to Australia in Singapore in '83."
Muir coached New Zealand at the 1975, '79, '83 and '87 tournaments and coached the national team for a record 107 tests, for 91 wins, 10 losses and six draws.
The 1979 world championship team featured four future national coaches in Yvonne Willering, Lyn Parker, Leigh Gibbs and current coach Ruth Aitken.
Aitken (104 tests) will overtake Muir's coaching record during the tournament. It is a source of pride for Muir how many of her former players have remained in the game and given so much back to the sport.
As for New Zealand's prospects this month, Muir is cautiously optimistic.
"New Zealanders expect New Zealand to be in the final. It is not a given, particularly now with Jamaica and England playing really well.
"Australia look like they have a stronger 12 than we have, so I think we will have to be careful how we manage people at this world championship. You've got to use your players carefully.
"But I'm there for New Zealand. I want to see a sad face on Norma Plummer [the Australian coach]. At the last world champs in Auckland I was president of Netball New Zealand and the least enjoyable job I had was to give the winning Australian team their bouquets. When I got to Norma I wanted to go 'eeek'," she said.
