Overview The Baker family's connections with the Te Anau Basin go back more than half a century when Russell's father worked on the electrical supplies during the last stages of the Homer Tunnel construction. By 1964 Te Anau had become the family's permanent home and it wasn't long before Russell combined two of his favourite pastimes deer-hunting and aviation. In the late 1960s he was involved in venison recovery as a meathunter and after passing his commercial pilot's licence in 1975 he used fixed...

Overview William Arthur (Bill) Black has become a well-known figure both in aviation circles and among the general population of New Zealand as a result of his search and rescue activities in the south. From a young age he developed a keen interest in aeroplanes and bought his first Tiger Moth while still a teenager. Only a couple of years later he was working as a commercial pilot for Te Anau-based company, Ritchie Air Services, when as well as scenic flights he was providing air-freight services for...

Overview It was 1960 when Dick Deaker first set foot in Fiordland as a schoolboy introduced to deerhunting expeditions. Three years later, he was back on a more permanent basis having started work as a deer culler in the nearby Takitimu Mountains and the Murchison Mountains/Takahe area. It wasn't long after gaining a private pilot's licence in 1968 that he combined his two great interests — hunting and aviation. By bringing out the deer he shot in his fixed wing Piper Cub, he could sell for a relatively...

Overview Ritchie Air Services was the first commercial passenger air operator to be established in Te Anau. It was October 1960 when Ian's wife Dell was put behind a desk with a book of tickets while her husband took their first Te Anau passengers on a scenic flight around the Basin. The business, started in Gore, shifted its operating base to the resort town the following year where Ian, Dell and family changed the way visitors and residents could view the mountain and lake scenety of Fiordland. In...