75th Anniversary of South Westland Air Service

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Does anyone have any further information about the planned activities to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the start of Air Travel NZ Ltd's South Westland air service, being held on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th December 2009 at Haast?

I attended the 60th anniversary airshow at Hokitika in December 1994 and I'm trying to decide whether to head for Haast for the 75th anniversary celebrations. I imagine accommodation will be the limiting factor, hence the reason why I'm trying to discover exactly what is planned and if it will be worthwhile attending, so that if I do decide to go I can book a room at the World Heritage Hotel at Haast Junction before they get booked out.

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Historic NZ flight to be marked

NZPA | 12:25PM - Friday, July 17, 2009

A flight regarded as signifying the birth of New Zealand's airline industry will be marked this year with 75th anniversary celebrations in the small West Coast town of Haast.

On December 18, 1934, Captain Bert Mercer, the first New Zealander to achieve 10,000 flying hours, began his Air Travel (NZ) Ltd services between Hokitika and South Westland.

Aviation historian the Rev Richard Waugh said today that this country's airlines could all trace their lineage to that date.

"Aviation today is incredibly important in New Zealand and it had its beginnings with a remote air service," he said.

"You can go further and say Air New Zealand can trace its origins back to Fox Moths landing on the beaches of South Westland."

Capt Mercer's scheduled services became indispensable to the isolated region, which had previously had to rely on coastal shipping.

Air NZ predecessor NAC and West Coast Airways continued with the flights until 1967, when the new Haast highway, which opened two years earlier, made the operations uneconomic.

Auckland-based Mr Waugh, who is organising the celebrations on December 18 and 19, expected up to 1000 people to make the trip to Haast.

"The more remote the place, the bigger the crowds we seem to get," he said.

"I've had events here in Auckland with 200 people, and I've had them at Karamea and Wanaka and you get hundreds and thousands."

Mr Waugh, who is also writing a book, Hoki to Haast: New Zealand's First Airline due for release in November, had a personal interest in the anniversary.

His father, Brian Waugh, flew the service from 1959 to 1967 and was its last pilot.

"As a child, I was party to some of the flights," he said.

"I hardly knew at the time that it was such an historically and sociologically important air service."

The planned programme for the celebrations will include a vintage air pageant and among the planes on show will be the Fox Moth that made the pioneering flight.

"Amazingly enough, the very first aircraft that Bert Mercer used has survived and has been restored, and will return in an airworthy state in December," Mr Waugh said.

"I don't think there are many other nations in the world that have their actual beginning airliner still airworthy."

Also on the agenda is the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the Haast district being the southern terminus of the service.

The plaque will be next to the Haast Aerodrome and at the entrance to the town's visitor centre, which receives more than 100,000 visitors each year.

nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/5732615/historic-nz-flight-to-be-marked

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I've been doing a bit of searching on the internet and have discovered the following webpage which contains some basic info about what is planned....

www.nzairlineresearch.co.nz/can_you_help.htm

I'd still appreciate any further info anyone has though. I reckon it would be an awesome little air pagent with some great South Westland hospitality thrown in. And although the World Heritage Hotel at Haast is booked out that weekend (I went online to their website to check), there are still rooms available at the other hotel at Haast Junction as well as at most of the accommodation places in Haast Village a couple of kms down the road.

[corsair67]

I reckon it'd be worth going to - and anyway, if the air display turns out to be nothing much, there's nothing quite so much fun as getting rolling drunk on the West Coast of the South Island in the evening. ;D

[Dave Homewood]

Mmm, fresh, proper Monteiths. Can't beat it.

It sounds like a good event. If anyone goes I'd love to see photos on the forum please.

[corsair67]

Mmm, fresh, proper Monteiths. Can't beat it.

Until you wake up the next morning/afternoon with that unfresh Monteiths taste in your mouth. ;D

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I sent an email to Richard Waugh last night requesting more info.

I've just got home from work to discover a reply from him in my inbox requesting my postal address so he can send a whole lot of stuff about the event to me by snail mail, so I've replied with those details and I'll see what turns up in my PO Box. Richard has also put me on the email list to receive regular email updates.

I've spend the occasional night in the hotel at Haast when passing through between South Westland and the Southern Lakes. I've always had a good time there....many of the locals are bloody hard-cases and they are also very aviation-minded. Most of the locals I've ever had a few beers with in the pub either fly aeroplanes (or helicopters) themselves, or regularly get around the district in them. It has always amused me how you can be driving down the road to Jacksons Bay and go past a really rough house, with a rough-looking car in the driveway and a very expensive-looking helicopter parked on the front lawn.

[DragonflyDH90]

At this stage Croydon will be taking the Fox ADI, Dragonfly AYR and Dominie AKY, we will be offering seats ex Mandeville and points enroute (mostly Wanaka). It looks like it may well be a very interesting event with the DC3 in attendence (possibly 2) and one or two secret guest aircraft (not confirmed).

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I'm going to wait until I get more info from Richard Waugh, but I'm about 75-80% certain I will go. It should be a great weekend.

And the fact that the 75th anniversary of the start of the South Westland air service by Air Travel (NZ) Ltd is coming up on 18th December means that another aviation anniversary is coming up not long afterwards — the 15th April 2010 is the 75th anniversary of East Coast Airways Ltd commencing scheduled services between Gisborne and Napier. I can still remember the 50th anniversary back in 1985. The early morning Air NZ Fokker F.27 Friendship service from Auckland to Gisborne, then on to Napier and Wellington had a special guest onboard sitting in the cockpit jumpseat: Ron Kirkup — one of the two original pilots (with Tiny White) when the service began in 1935. He went as far as Napier for a civic reception, then returned on another Air NZ service to Gisborne for a civic reception there.

It's hard to imagine now how NAC, and then Air NZ used to fly Fokker Friendships on short hops between Gisborne and Napier. We often used to return to Gisborne on an Air NZ service after running a train to Napier. At other times, after running a train to Napier at night, we would return on Cookson's newspaper plane to Gisborne very early in the morning.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Aug 3, 2009 22:06:51 GMT 12 DragonflyDH90 said:

It looks like it may well be a very interesting event with the DC3 in attendence (possibly 2) and one or two secret guest aircraft (not confirmed).

Ah....so that explains why the locals held a working bee and extended the runway at the Haast Aerodrome! ;D

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From the Otago Daily Times

Runway extended for airline party

By MARJORIE COOK | Saturday, 18 July 2009

Haast's humble airstrip looked like an auction yard recently as 20 locals mucked in and extended the runway in preparation for one of the biggest community celebrations in a long time.

The Haast 75th Airline Anniversary, on December 18, will celebrate the first commercial flight in New Zealand and is expected to attract at least 2000 visitors and 70 to 80 aircraft to the isolated South Westland community.

Although the party is several months away, anniversary committee chairman Kerry Eggeling believes in being prepared.

"We put 2500 cubic metres of gravel on to the airstrip but must have taken the same amount off the airstrip in mud beforehand. There was an incredible amount of machinery there. It was like an auction yard," Mr Eggeling said.

The activities required seven trucks, three diggers, two bulldozers, two graders, three front-end loaders and one roller, and many Haast locals and businesses pitched in with fuel and food.

The runway is on land owned by Dave Saxton at the junction of State Highway 6 and Jacksons Bay Road and has been extended 70m to 860m at the north end so large aircraft can land in December.

A turning point has also been created at the southern end of the airstrip.

The first commercial flight in New Zealand was into Haast and was undertaken by the late Bert Mercer in 1934, in a DH83 Fox Moth.

Croydon Aircraft Company owner Colin Smith, of Mandeville, said the Fox Moth was a significant part of New Zealand's aviation history and had a colourful past.

The Fox Moth went to the United Kingdom and the United States after it finished operating on the West Coast but was brought back to New Zealand in 1996 by a trust Mr Smith and his wife Maeva set up to protect historic aircraft.

The Fox Moth has been restored and now provides joyrides from the Croydon Aircraft Company airfield at Mandeville.

It is expected to be at Haast in December for the celebrations.

The event would also coincide with a book launch by Auckland aviation historian and writer Richard Waugh.

www.odt.co.nz/your-town/hawea/65834/runway-extended-airline-party

[kiwithrottlejockey]

[Peter Lewis]

Aug 2, 2009 22:41:41 GMT 12 kiwithrottlejockey said:

I've been doing a bit of searching on the internet and have discovered the following webpage which contains some basic info about what is planned....

www.nzairlineresearch.co.nz/can_you_help.htm

Glad the website helped.
As Richard feeds me any updates I will post them on that page and also copy them to this thread.

As an aside, I have just added details of Rex Daniell's book "What did you do in the war, Poppa Rekka?" which has been republished and is now available through www.nzairlineresearch.co.nz

(Rex was one of the co-founders of SPANZ, although this book deals only with his wartime experiences).

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Aug 8, 2009 20:44:44 GMT 12 Gavin Conroy said:

Sounds like a great line up attending.
Might make it a weekend for joy rides and go flying in AYR,AKY, and ADI.
Have always wanted to so what better place to do that.

I've been thinking exactly the same thing. I've always wanted to go for a ride in those three aeroplanes as well and I've been thinking Haast might be the perfect place to bite the bullet and do it.

I've made up my mind....I'm definitely attending. Richard Waugh mailed me an info pack all about the weekend so I've paid the registration fee to receive all the newsletters and other stuff about the events at Hokitika and Haast. I've also booked to fly to Hokitika on the Friday morning and am planing to pick up a rental car and drive to Haast. I'm going to drive back to Hokitika on the Sunday afternoon and spend the night there, then I'm flying off to Gisborne on Monday morning to catch up with some friends before Xmas. I'm planing to phone the Haast World Heritage Hotel tomorrow to book for the Friday evening dinner and film evening as well as the 75th Airline Anniversary Dinner on the Saturday evening. Richard Waugh informs me there are still vacant rooms in the hotel for that weekend, but they are keeping them for people who are going to be in Haast for the Air Pageant and Anniversary Dinner, so I might try and grab one of those as well. Otherwise, there's still plenty of other accommodation available in Haast that hasn't been booked yet (I've been on the internet checking).

It should be a great weekend. Even if the weather turned to crap and ruined the flying displays, I reckon the aviation film evening and the anniversary dinner would still make it worthwhile. And if the weather holds up and I get to go for a fly in some classic on de Havilland aeroplanes, then that would be the icing on the cake.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

For anyone else who is thinking of going to this event, the Heartland World Heritage Hotel (formerly known as the Haast World Heritage Hotel) has a special package deal covering two nights accommodation, two breakfasts, a packed picnic lunch for the Saturday, and two dinners (a barbeque dinner on the Friday before the film evening and the anniversary celebration buffet dinner on the Saturday) — but you need to phone Scenic Hotels' central reservations number to get the special deal, rather than contacting the hotel at Haast directly.

Phone [phone] and inquire about the "Hoki to Haast 75th Anniversary Fly-In" package. The cost is $320 for a single person occupying a double room, or $235 per person for two in a twin or double room. Otherwise, if you plan to stay elsewhere in Haast, and wish to book for the celebration buffet dinner on the Saturday evening ($37.50 per person), phone the hotel directly on 03 7500828. Entry to the film evening (at the hotel) following dinner on the Friday is by making a donation to the local school.

Go to the HaastNZ.com website to check out other accommodation options in the Haast area.

Hopefully I'll get to catch up with some of you there.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Hokitika Airport honours its heritage

By JANNA SHERMAN - The Greymouth Star | Thursday, 06 August 2009

The Hokitika Airport is set to undergo a re-branding, paying homage to the Coast’s pioneering aviation history.

The launch of New Zealand’s first scheduled airline service, between Hokitika and Haast, almost 75 years ago, means the Hokitika Airport is the longest serving in the country.

New signs recognising that feat will soon be put in place, and the man who made it all possible, Captain Bert Mercer, will also be honoured.

Hokitika Airport Ltd has accepted a request to rename the arrival and departure lounge at the airport terminal, as the ‘Bert Mercer Lounge’.

The entranceway will be re-branded as ‘Hokitika — Home of New Zealand’s First Airline’.

However, a suggestion of naming the surrounding airport streets to commemorate some of the pilots of the 1934 to 1967 era was rejected.

Auckland aviation historian Richard Waugh, who is driving the re-branding as part of the 75th anniversary celebrations, proposed that the main entrance road be renamed after Frank Molloy to ‘Molloy Drive’. He also suggested another road be named after pilot Norm Suttie, and the road behind the hangars changed to ‘Waugh Way’ in honour of his father, Brian Waugh.

However, the current street names will remain.

Meanwhile, a commemorative plaque will be placed at the Haast airfield to mark the southern link. It will be unveiled in December.

www.greystar.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3603&Itemid=41

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I discovered this story archived on the ODT website while searching for something else....


From the Otago Daily Times

Memories of flying re-lived

By MARJORIE COOK | Monday, 12 May 2008



THE OLD SCHOOL PLANE: From left — David Glubb (60), of Christchurch, Roger Eggeling (63), of Nelson,
Kerry Eggeling (60), of Haast, Peter Eggeling (64), of Christchurch, John Buchanan (65), of Australia,
and Cliff Eggeling (62), of Timaru, with Betty Eggeling (87) front, at the Haast airstrip on Saturday.
Behind them is the Dominie aircraft the men flew in 50 years ago to bring Mr Glubb to Haast.
The aircraft is now based at Mandeville, with Croydon Aviation Co. — Photo by Marjorie Cook.

A flight in a DH89 Dominie on May 10, 1958 gave 10-year-old Christchurch lad David Glubb the shock of his life and changed his outlook for ever.

A re-enactment flight on Saturday, celebrating the anniversary of his first visit to Haast, brought the memories flooding back for Mr Glubb and his friends — only this time the flight took him over familiar places to be greeted by familiar faces.

Fifty years ago, the Loreto College pupil accepted an invitation from the Eggeling brothers to stay at their Haast farm for the May school holidays.

In what was to become an annual event, the holiday journey involved a 2.30am start to catch the railcar from Christchurch to Hokitika, before flying south to Haast.

The adventure was a return favour for the times Mr Glubb's parents had hosted the Eggeling boys at their Blenheim Rd home during term-time weekends.

As children, the Eggeling brothers and their cousins, the Buchanans knew more about airplanes than cars, buses and trains.

Roads to Haast were not completed until the 1960s with the Dominie service ending shortly after the Fox Glacier road was finished.

“Everything I did in that fortnight was a new experience. I had never ridden in a railcar, never flown in an airplane, never ridden a horse, never shot a deer, never caught an eel ... I think I learned the most in that fortnight than any other fortnight,” Mr Glubb recalled on Saturday.

When the boys went home there were jobs for them to do, so David pitched in too.

He took to Haast so well he visited frequently and even lived on the coast for six years, running the Haast motor camp.

Betty Eggeling recalled when the boys came home from their Christchurch schools they would “explode” with energy and required a lot of feeding.

“But we seemed to keep the sheep and bullocks up to them. And plenty of plum duffs,” Mrs Eggeling recalled.

She and her husband Charlie, who died in 1995, had four sons and two daughters.

Charlie would keep the boys under control “fairly well” until they got out of earshot, Mrs Eggeling said.

If they heard a “Cooee” or the crack of Charlie's stock whip, they knew they were in trouble.

“It was just a huge shock for us to go to boarding school. We'd never worn a pair of shoes in a lives,” Kerry Eggeling recalled. Cliff Eggeling said he had never seen a train or eaten ice cream until he went to school.

“I take my hat off to Mum and Dad ...”

“Boarding school got our brains working so we could be more academic. But it was a hell of a hard for them. Mum had all four boys at boarding school at once,” Cliff said.

The flight from Hokitika to Haast used to cost £4 and 10 shillings for each of the passengers.

To charter the Dominie which seats eight, now costs about $900 an hour.

Pilot Ryan Southam, of Gore said only 10 of the aircraft were still flying in the world.

www.odt.co.nz/your-town/haast/6826/memories-flying-re-lived

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Someone left a copy of the free giveaway Wanaka newspaper in one of the trains at work the other day. I was taking a look through it and noticed an advertisment from the organisers of the Air Pageant at Haast on 19th December calling for persons interested in setting up food and other stalls at the event to contact them. In the advertisment it stated they are expecting 1,500 people at the air pageant.

I guest that would be a huge crowd for a Haast event.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

75th Airline Anniversary — Newsletter No.1

(4.31MB download — PDF document)

[Gavin Conroy]

Am now going to Fleetwood Mac on December 20 so will have to leave straight after the flying on the Saturday but never mind, will be a great weekend thats for sure.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Sept 9, 2009 20:49:16 GMT 12 Gavin Conroy said:

Am now going to Fleetwood Mac on December 20 so will have to leave straight after the flying on the Saturday but never mind, will be a great weekend thats for sure.

Will you be there for the film evening on the Friday?

Or are you just going to head to Haast for the day on the Saturday?

[kiwithrottlejockey]

The magnificent desolation of Haast

Edge of the earth!

By PETER REID - The Dominion Post | Saturday, 07 March 2009



SHADOWLANDS: A setting sun and unsettled sky bring
a relentless feeling of solitude to Haast Beach.
— PETER REID/The Dominion Post.

Remoteness, isolation, desolation — three things you're unlikely to demand from a holiday, I'm guessing.

Yet, for some, desolation can be inspiring and romantic. So, yes, while New Zealand offers its fair share of extreme sports and snow-capped vistas, it also possesses something often overlooked: nothing. Glorious, beautiful nothing.

If you're someone who finds the idea of being miles from anywhere appealing, of being free from cellphone ringtones and irate motorists, of finding space, then Haast, on the South Island's West Coast, might be for you.

My girlfriend and I, travellers from Ireland and Britain, never intended Haast to be more than an overnight stop en route from Wanaka to Fox Glacier. We were soon won over by its rustic charm and magnificent desolation.

Nestling unassumingly where the coast rises into the mountains and rainforest of South Westland, Haast consists of three main zones: Haast Township, Haast Junction and Haast Beach.

With a population of 297, the majority of "Haastafarians" live in the township, a small pocket of civilisation where you'll find accommodation for most budgets, a restaurant bar, a mini-supermarket and, just up the road, the visitors' centre.

But then it's not about Haast itself; it's about its position within that beautiful nothingness. It was only when we ventured out that we began to get a sense of the environs: the emptiness, the space.

Heading south, we drove along a straight road disappearing into the vanishing point, the ocean crashing on our right, clouds of wind-swept heather to our left. Vast banks of wetlands soon scrolled into view, no doubt hiding a multitude of species.

From bird life to seal and penguin colonies, nature is everywhere in the Haast region, and the lifeblood of the many organised river safaris.

Within a few minutes we had arrived at Okuru Beach, a deserted fishing hamlet, and took a walk along its craggy beach, the tide not so much rolling in as seeping in from obtuse angles, sweeping into strange puddles, melting and eddying around jagged ancient rock formations. We were the only people on the beach until a resident joined us, a bright-eyed labrador who insisted we play fetch with him. Soon he was gone, and we were alone again.

Jackson Bay is about 45 minutes from Haast, and the southern-most point on the West Coast where the road literally, well, ceases.

Passing only a few cars on the journey, we entered the village with a feeling that this really was New Zealand's ultimate cul-de-sac.

Not in a bad way, though; from Farewell Spit on New Zealand's South Island to Land's End back in Britain, there's something inherently appealing about going as far as you can, venturing to the very edge, and this really was a frontier of sorts.

As if to echo my sentiments, a splintered wooden sign, hand-painted in greasy green paint and hanging from a shack, said: The End Of The Road? I was intrigued by the question mark. For me, there was no doubt — we really could go no further. Actually, it felt more like the end of the world.

Jackson Bay is another fishing village of some historical significance. Originally settled in 1875, immigrants hoping to start a new life found their hopes drowned as relentless downpours destroyed their farms.

Pleas to the government for assistance in building a wharf were ignored, meaning the town was soon isolated and in need of vital supplies. A road to the village was not built until the 1960s and by then, the farming communities were long gone.

Today, it is a privilege to enjoy that sense of isolation, exactly what proved the downfall for those early settlers.

Modern-day Jackson Bay has fishing very much at its heart. Rusted, salt-encrusted metal contraptions sit alongside all manner of hulking, spike-adorned paraphernalia.

Below the wooden jetty, among frolicking seals, fishing boats bob on grey water, their pilots clad in grimy waders and gumboots, their weather- beaten faces telling more than a thousand shanties ever could.

The Cray Pot provides the centrepiece to the village: a cafe in a portacabin serving fish and chips, whitebait and other locally caught seafood.

It's the perfect place to sit and hear tall tales of giant squid and mermaid sightings, and its reputation is such that blackboards advertise its wares along the main road all the way back to Haast.

After a day of big skies, near-silence and solitude we made our way back to Haast, calling in at Haast Beach on our return.

A huge swath of shale along the coast, Haast Beach was, as expected, deserted, and strewn with oceanic bric-a-brac, the blustering wind and the crashing waves the only sounds.

As the sun cast long shadows in the golden twilight, and my girlfriend and I meandered, I realised that Haast provided the perfect antidote to our previous two locations, Queenstown and Wanaka.

Haast was quiet time. Haast was thinking time. Haast was great!

www.stuff.co.nz/travel/1389857