Big crowds expected for airport opening

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 49, 24 June 1965, Page 1

Big crowds expected for airport opening

Although there is no planned official recognition of the inaugural flights from Taupo airport, large crowds are expected at Wharewaka Point when the Spanz scenic flights are made on Saturday and the first scheduled flights on Sunday.

The airport, built at a I total cost of about £96,000, will be the finest of its type in New Zea1 land. The cost has been shared ; equally between the Gov- ■ ernment (50 per cent.) and the two Taupo local bodies, ■ the Taupo Borough Council

I (374 per cent.) and the ! Taupo County Council (124 per cent.). It wa^s due for opening last December 17, but wet weather held up the contractors, Roadmakers NZ Iitd. and Emoleum Ltd., - delaying pperations time and again.

I The final sealing work | beat another round of bad | weather virtually by hours and in the past three weeks, final preparations have been going on. The radio beacon^ has not yet been installed, l but it is expected this will jcome to hand shortly. Obseiwations of the site i of the airport leads the ! Taupo Airport Authority to ^ believe that Taupo will prove an invaluable alter-^ nate landing field for aircraft kept out of Hamilton,1

Rotorua and even Auckland bv bad weather. | Frequently, reports of ! these airfields being weath- ! erbound have coincided | with clear weather at | Wharewaka Point. | Taupo's move toward an i airport dates back to December 14, 1961, when the first flight into the pumice strip at Rangitaiki was made by Spanz. There was a big crowd on hand that day to welcome the DC3 Viewmaster, Ernest Ruth-

erford, as she touched down in a shower of pumice dust. Unfortunately, this strip, 28 miles from Taupo, proved too dangerous for the flights to Napier and was subsequently abandoned. Spanz have been eagerly awaiting the day when the permanent field is ready. A two-page feature on the airport and Spanz appears on pages 4 and 5 of this paper.