Some 30 kilometres up the highway from Franz Joseph Glacier in South Westland, a small park commemorates the event that put the settlement of Harihari on the map. In mid-afternoon on 7 January 1931, 21-year-old Guy Menzies landed his Avro-Avian biplane there, completing the first solo crossing of the Tasman Sea. It was a remarkable flight if a high-risk venture. To reduce the weight of the single engine plane that he named ‘Southern Cross Junior’, Menzies had left behind in Sydney many essentials, including life raft and radio. But he made it safely, reaching New Zealand in just under 12 hours’ flying time from Mascot Aerodrome.
The Earliest Trans-Tasman Flights
Guy Menzies’s flight was not the first to cross the ‘ditch’, as the Tasman Sea is often referred to. Just over two years earlier, Charles Kingsford-Smith piloted the ‘Southern Cross’, a three-engine Fokker with a crew of four, from Sydney to Wigram Aerodrome in Christchurch. A significant journey in that it linked the last outpost of the British Empire by air, Kingsford-Smith’s flight was officially sanctioned and supported. Menzies on the other hand concealed his true destination, believing the authorities would veto his planned ocean crossing. Instead the pilot indicated he aimed to break the record for flying from Sydney to Perth. Only when he was airborne were Menzies' real intentions known, as he turned east, bearing for Blenheim at the top of the South Island.
Right from the time of the Dutch explorer who gave this corner of the Pacific Ocean its name, the Tasman Sea has earned a reputation for being a difficult stretch of water to cross. The weather here can be hard to predict, as sub-Antarctic cold air mixes with subtropical conditions to constantly generate stormy weather. That’s what confronted Menzies as he set out for New Zealand, his craft buffeted by strong winds and lashed by driving rain along the way. Despite the mid-summer season, Menzies almost froze as he skilfully piloted the small bi-plane towards New Zealand.
Southern Cross Junior Makes Landfall in South Westland
As Menzies pressed eastwards, navigating by compass alone and constantly changing altitude to avoid the worst of the turbulence, the weather forced him well south of his planned course. Rather than an arrival in the sunny Marlborough town of Blenheim on the expansive Wairau Plain, Menzies was on a heading for the rugged terrain of South Westland. Here the Southern Alps lay just beyond the coast, and the aircraft’s fuel was running low. Menzies’ decision to reduce the bi-plane’s weight so it could carry extra fuel had in fact been a good one. Without it he would have run out by now.
Nearly 12 hours after leaving Sydney, Menzies crossed the coast in the vicinity of South Westland’s famous glaciers. The Southern Alps were obscured by cloud, making an effective barrier ahead, while to the south lay the Fiordland wilderness. Menzies turned north, immediately on the lookout for a place to land. He found it in the La Fontaine Swamp near the tiny settlement of Harihari. As Southern Cross Junior flew in to land among the flax bushes, its wheels sank in the bog. But Menzies had put the bi-plane down with great skill, and all he suffered was a little indignity. On impact the plane gently cart wheeled onto its back, and when her pilot unstrapped himself, he fell head-first into the muddy swamp.
Remembering Guy Menzies, Pioneer Aviator
For his exploits, Guy Menzies became a media sensation on both sides of the Tasman and a hero on the West Coast. At Harihari today, in Guy Menzies Memorial Park, there’s a replica of Southern Cross Junior in a small museum. It was constructed in 2006 to mark the 75th anniversary of Menzies’ historic flight, along with signboards that tell the story. As part of commemorations, Australian businessman and aviator Dick Smith re-enacted the crossing in a single engine Cessna.
La Fontaine Swamp has long since been drained and converted into farmland. The site where Menzies landed is designated as an historic place, marked by a stake and windsock. Guy Menzies went on to join the Royal Air Force, becoming a squadron leader in World War Two. In November 1940 he was posted as missing, believed killed in action, when flying over the Mediterranean.
Source
Peat, N., The Tasman, Biography of an Ocean, Penguin, Auckland, 2010
Brian Cross - Brian is a feelance writer specialising in content for the corporate sector, based in Wellington, New Zealand.
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