So back to the course using a position of Niger Peak and following the ADF direction shown to Dunedin (if in still air):
(Dunedin is at top of red line)
To make this scenario even more bizzarre, in 15th February 2006 this article by Doug Drake was published in the Timaru Herald as a result of another article by him in the Christchurch Press (if I understand the sequence correctly?):
Is a 44-year-old New Zealand aviation mystery about to be resolved? This question is uppermost in the mind of aviation historian and former Timaru Herald journalist, Doug Drake.
Last night he received a telephone call from what he describes as a fairly reliable source in Christchurch to the effect that a party of deer stalkers recently came across the wreckage of the twin-engined Dragonfly passenger aircraft that went missing on a flight from Christchurch to Milford Sound 44 years ago this month.
In spite of a massive search and rescue operation and on-going searches from time to time the De Havilland-built aircraft, flown by its owner, Captain Brian Chadwick, with four passengers, has never been found.
There were theories that it crashed either into thick bush on the mountain ranges it would have flown over or into the Tasman Sea beyond the West Coast.
Only last Sunday, a new book delving into the missing aircraft was launched on behalf of the author, the Rev. Richard Waugh, of Auckland, at a function at the Canterbury Aero Club in Christchurch, and it is possible this event has sparked a special interest in the affair.
Mr Drake made a strong plea after he had received the telephone call to the effect
that if any person had any idea as to the location of the aircraft wreckage they
should immediately get in touch with the police and/or civil aviation authorities
and pass on their knowledge.
"I told the caller who is known to me that nothing should
stand in the way of the authorities checking out the report that someone knows the
final resting place of the wreckage," he told The Timaru Herald. "The Dragonfly vanished
without trace, and the relatives of the five people on board must still wonder what
happened to them. The relatives are entitled to know at the first opportunity what
happened, and nothing, especially any concern about the payment of a reward, should
stop that happening."
"The conversation I had with the Christchurch caller came to an end, more or less with his promise that he would encourage the people concerned to act without delay. I can only hope that common sense will prevail. If my understanding of the circumstances of the call are correct, we may well know very soon the answer to the mystery that has dogged the New Zealand aviation world for a long time."
I contacted Doug Drake in 2009, and he sent me this... what he wrote at the time:
Dossier on Missing aircraft
Wed Feb 15 9.30am:
Call from Maurice Brown, an employee of Air NZ in Christchurch, 6/166 Salisbury Street Chch (374 4377) as a result of article in the Chch Press today.
Brown told me he was a member of a deer stalking party "at the back of Wanaka" in 1964-65.
One of the party hunting on his own investigated broken tree tops and found underneath them a twin-engined aircraft of what he called the Rapide/Dragonfly type. When he later rejoined the rest of the party he told them about the find, and it was agreed to further investigate the next day. But the weather turned sour, and they chose not to do anything about it, returning to Christchurch that day. They thought of trying to reach the wreck again with a view to restoration, but the matter was dropped.
When I asked Brown if he could identify the area, he said it would not be difficult by drawing a map reference. His understanding was the wreck was reasonably intact, and (I think) they thought those on board might have survived and walked out!!
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