From the Coral Route to MOTAT

[By Murray Dewhurst in Auckland] 

I’ve always been drawn to the flying boats at MOTAT (the museum of transport and technology). Not just because they’re enormous in physical scale and their ungainly boat like appearance but they make you imagine how much fun it must have been to fly into the Pacific Islands back in the days before land based airstrips.

Occupying that part of aviation history somewhere between passenger ship travel and today’s jet air travel. They connected New Zealand and the Pacific Islands to the rest of the world. Now that would have been a superb way to fly to the islands.

The Short Solent Aranui above did just that for TEAL (Tasman Empire Airways Limited) it originally flew between Mechanics Bay, Auckland and Rose Bay, Sydney. We’re talking pre Auckland Harbour Bridge days here – it used a LOT of the harbour as it’s runway.

Once land based planes took over the Sydney route Aranui flew the evocatively labelled ‘Coral Route‘ — Auckland to Fiji, onward to Samoa, then the Cook Islands (landing at atoll Aitutaki rather than the larger Rarotonga), next stop would have been Tonga and finally Tahiti — about 20 odd hours in total.

The Short Sunderland above flew with the RNZAF right up until
1966. Today it’s one of only 5 left worldwide. It could land anywhere
loaded with the personnel, accommodation and kit to keep an air force
running far from home.

This is the workshop hanger below, absolutely jammed with interesting old planes and paraphernalia, including a Lockhead Lodestar, various wings, fuselages, airframes, a Huey helicopter being done up for Westpac rescue helicopter training. If you ask nicely the knowledgeable old blokes in there will show you around, some of them even worked at TEAL, NAC, and Air New Zealand back in the day so they know their stuff.