This Site is dedicated to all those families of the people that have tragically disappeared on flights in and around New Zealand. I  only hope that from all the effort in building this site and from all the effort of those taking part in this venture, that it will bear fruit in bringing ‘closure’ to their memories!
Gavin Grimmer

I’m not too worried about the amount of people who claimed that it was a light coloured plane that they saw as that just shows that it was quite a distance away from them at the time they saw it.
I’ve placed the photo of ZK-FMQ here again, and you will note that along with the red there is a lot of white, and looking from underneath the fuselage and the wings, they are virtually all white. The impression you first get when you look at the photos is that it is a red aeroplane with some white, whereas it really is a mainly white aeroplane with some red! From all the reported sightings, it seems to be the only  people who said it was red and white are the people who saw it close enough to see the difference.

Continuing north, the next apparent sighting was at Paringa, where the time reported was 2.30pm: Kelly Glass saw a plane heading north, and then at 3.00pm Steve Mahuika saw a plane heading north in terrible weather. A lady  at Bruce Bay also, saw a red and white plane flying along the beach. She was definite on the colour, although she couldn’t give the time.
Just north of Haast to Bruce Bay = 32 n.miles  

According to historic Niwa records, I would estimate that he would have had a 20 knot tail wind for part of this leg:
100 knots = 2.43pm  (19 mins)     
110 knots = 2.41pm  (17 mins)
120 knots = 2.40pm  (16 mins) <
130 knots = 2.39pm  (15 mins)

110 knot time (2.24pm) at Barbara Dibbon’s position (Just north of Haast)  + 16 mins = 2.40pm