Gavin Grimmer
Thanks to Robin’s 8mm movie footage, I thought of how Chadwick seemed very keen on giving his passengers the absolutely best possible scenery to view, and if it meant burning up extra fuel (and hence profits) then that didn’t seem to be even a consideration for him. He was building his business - a tourist business he considered the best in the World (and he was probably right... at the time) and so found no problem going the extra mile to promote that business – after all, one extremely satisfied customer generates many more.... a lesson many businesses seem to have lost sight of today.
And so once again, where to from here?
I thought that maybe he had continued down on the eastern side of the Remarkables (mountain ranges further south), then back up on the western side and maybe had crashed for some reason on approach into Queenstown, but there being no obstacles to encounter when over Lake Wakatipu, it just didn’t seem to fit... and so I thought.. at the time that we may never know!...
Then I noticed Chadwick’s Eastern route as published on page 192 in “LOST” (Wanaka to Milford Sound):
Wanaka - Cardrona – Queenstown – Lake Wakatipu
I came to realise Chadwick’s selling point for this trip was a trip to Milford Sound. Due to cloud cover in the Paringa area making it apparently impossible to get through, it appears Chadwick has chosen to go over the top, (as in the 8mm movie) so it is not unreasonable to think he is still going to provide the sights of Milford... only via a different route than that originally intended - due to the weather on the day.
Had he not been able to actually get there, I imagine at least a partial refund would have been expected … giving Chadwick even more incentive to get his passengers to Milford to keep up his profit margins.
Page 62 in “LOST” shows Chadwick’s itinerary... the highlight obviously being a landing at Milford Sound:
(Slide from my Christchurch February 2023 Presentation):
Note: 4 x Lunches were ordered via Flight Plan and transmitted to Milford presumably via Morse code (page 110 in “LOST”)
... and the drawcard of lunch... another strong reason to continue to Milford!
With this all in mind, I can now easily envisage Chadwick continuing on to Milford... can’t you?
Just because one route was blocked by cloud, didn’t mean all hope of getting to Milford was dashed... it just meant they would have to go a different way...
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