Runway extended for airline party

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 2500cu m 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 Rd 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.