Australian Guy Menzies’ flight from Sydney ended awkwardly when he crash-landed in a swamp at Harihari on the West Coast on January 7th, 1931. His heroic effort helped to lift spirits on both sides of the Tasman against the backdrop of the Depression.
The first successful trans-Tasman flight had been completed in 1928 by the illustrious Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew aboard the Fokker tri-motor Southern Cross (see 11 September).
The 21-year-old Menzies took off from Sydney in Southern Cross Junior, a single-engined Avro Avian biplane. He carried neither a wireless nor food; ‘his luggage was one spare collar, a razor, and a toothbrush.’ Menzies encountered rough weather over the Tasman and was driven well south of his intended destination, Blenheim. Shortly before 3 p.m., he mistook a swamp near Harihari for flat ground and crash-landed his aircraft, which flipped upside down. He walked away with a few scratches.
While his arrival was less dignified than Kingsford Smith’s, Menzies was more than 2½ hours faster than his compatriot, completing the flight in 11 hours 45 minutes.
NZHISTORY