On January 20, 1932 a survey flight was made from Wellington
to Hokitika on the west coast of the South Island
with the return on the same day.
Stops were made in both directions at Nelson and Westport.
The company involved was Air Travel,
the pilot was M.C. McGregor and the plane was a Simmonds Spartan.
The flights had the support of the Postal Department and airmail
was delivered and collected at each stop.
The postage was 5d made up of 2d surface and 3d air mail.
A total of 7719 items was carried.
Different cachets were applied at the four starting points,
each in a different colour.
Outward
Wellington – Westport
The first cover is one of 736 carried on the Wellington to
Westport leg.
The Wellington cachet is purple.
The cover is postmarked 6 am at Wellington and
was backstamped 11 am on arrival at Westport.
Nelson – Westport
The next cover was also carried to Westport, this time it is
one of 447 carried from Nelson where
it was postmarked at 8.30am.
The Nelson cachet is green.
Return
Hokitika – Nelson
The next cover is one of 502 carried on the return journey from
Hokitika to Nelson and is postmarked at 1 pm.
The Hokitika cachet is dark green.
The cover was backstamped 5 pm on arrival at Nelson.
Westport – Nelson
The fourth cover is one of 484 carried from
Westport to Nelson and is postmarked at 2pm and is backstamped
on arrival at 5pm.
The Westport cachet is red.
A regular service
between Nelson and Hokitika via Greymouth was
set up in February 1937 by Cook Strait Airways.
This connected with their
service from Nelson to Blenheim and Wellington.
In March 1939, a stop at Westport was added to the service.
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All scans were made by the author.
Information on this page is taken from:
Airmails of New Zealand, volume 1 (1955) compiled by Douglas A Walker,
and the New Zealand Airmail Catalogue, (2nd Edition, 1994)
by James Stapleton.
Both are published by the
Air Mail Society of New Zealand