WHEN BOATS FLEW OVER THE CITY
THE sight of a TEAL flying boat swooping down to Evans Bay was redolent of the glamour of early plane travel out of Wellington.
TEAL’s famous Solent flying boats served the Coral Route to the South Pacific Islands out of Auckland, but they also flew the first international passenger flights out of Wellington, starting in 1950.
The planes used to land in Evans Bay, in the days before the airport was built.
At the start, trips to Wellington were intermittent and usually tied up with special events, but a regular flying boat service to Sydney was set up in 1950.
The first plane to Sydney – the Ararangi – flew out on October 3, 1950, heralded with a green signal rocket fired by the mayor, Sir William Appleton.
Flights left four times a week and took 10 hours, in what was considered luxury for the time – and indeed stands up well compared with economy-class air travel today.
A Solent double-decker seated 45 people in padded leather recliners, with tables, served by stewards.
The flight included a four-course meal – cooked on the plane – and it was even possible to smoke in a lower-deck lounge.
A ticket cost £30 one-way, which is more than $1700 today. At the time it was thought both fast and convenient.
More than 300 people showed up to watch the first takeoff – all thinking it was about time, according to The Evening Post.
‘‘There was an atmosphere almost of relief,’’ it said. ‘‘The years of waiting are over . . . Wellington has at last got a direct link with Sydney.’’
Appleton, who was also pushing to get the city airport open at Rongotai, said he hoped the land and sea runways would complement each other.
‘‘This is a milestone, or should I say a landing stage. When Rongotai is developed, Wellington will be almost unique in the world in having two such facilities on its doorstep.’’ The set-up for the Solents was makeshift – three garages underneath a block of flats hosted TEAL, customs and immigration officials.
Later, a pontoon and terminal was built to service the craft.
As well as its passengers, Ararangi’s first flight carried more than 50,000 letters.
It was hoped the planes would speed up deliveries across the Tasman.
The pilot was Captain C Griffiths – ‘‘a mileage millionaire who has made more than 900 Tasman crossings. Few people can beat that record’’.
In its editorial, the Post rhapsodised about the new service and bemoaned the delays in getting it set up.
‘‘In air developments the capital city has been treated as a sort of poor relation . . . now the time has certainly arrived for us to take our rightful place in the country’s network of air services.’’
That was not to be. The flying boat service was popular, but TEAL moved decisively into land-based planes in the years after the Wellington-Sydney route opened, scotching many of the dreams expressed by Appleton and the Post.
The last flight left Evans Bay on June 25, 1954. Wellington Airport did not open until five years later.
Even then, it has never been the inter- national hub Appleton and many others since have hoped for.
Debate over whether to move it somewhere else or extend its runway continues to this day.