A group of aviation enthusiasts with connections with the Croydon Aircraft Company commemorated two important firsts in the history of New Zealand aviation on Saturday 27 February.
They celebrated the centenary of the first flight to Stewart Island on 13 January 1921, by Capt Maurice Buckley and two passengers in a de Havilland DH9. While this aircraft did not land on Stewart Island, on 27 February 1930 the celebrated aviator Oscar Garden, one of this country’s pioneering aviators, did so.
Garden flew his DH60M Moth G-AASA Kia Ora from England to Australia in October 1930 and, after further training and airline flying in the UK, went on to become chief pilot at Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL, later renamed Air New Zealand).
Having shipped his Moth across the Tasman Sea to his adopted country after the flight to Australia, on 27 February 1931 Oscar Garden landed G-AASA (shortly to be re-registered ZK-ACK) on the beach at Horseshoe Bay. The flight came about after a £5 bet with Myross Bush man Geoff Todd, a passenger in the Moth.
Most of Stewart Island’s inhabitants came from the main settlement of Halfmoon Bay to the beach to watch. By that time only a few aeroplanes had flown over the island, and some children were so frightened at the sight of an aircraft approaching they ran and hid in the bush.
When Garden and Todd touched down at Horseshoe Bay in windy conditions, a wheel caught a pile of seaweed and steered them into the water. No injuries to Moth or crew resulted, however, and the pilot and passenger returned in triumph to Invercargill.
This first landing was also commemorated by the party from Mandeville, flying from Invercargill to Stewart Island on its exact 90th anniversary. This time the crossing was made by the DH60M’s direct descendant, DH82A Tiger Moth ZK-BFH from the Croydon Aviation Heritage Museum. The landing was made, not on the beach at Horseshoe Bay but on the harder and straight sands of Mason Bay on the island’s west coast. This bay is renowned as being one of the few places where kiwi can be seen in daylight.
The Tiger Moth was flown by Ben Morrison, Croydon Aircraft Company chief pilot, along with Sam Paton, chief pilot of Stewart Island Flights, and accompanied by a Cessna 182 flown by Scott Milne. After a briefing which included a weather forecast for Foveaux Strait and Stewart Island, they took off from Mandeville at about 2.30pm on 27 February, refuelled at Invercargill and flew across Foveaux Strait to land at Mason Bay.
After commemorative photographs of aeroplanes and crews they flew back to mainland New Zealand.
- Article by Peter Owens, photographs via Ben Morrison.