Many years ago, on my first visit to Richmond Saddle, there was a small hut up there with a very comfy armchair in it! In those days trampers referred to it as “Armchair Hut”. Yet, at some point in the last 20 years, the hut was officially named Richmond Saddle Hut. At the same time, Mt Richmond Hut was renamed Mt Fell Hut.
On subsequent visits I noticed that the hut had been refurbished and extended. The armchair has—surprise, surprise—disappeared. We can’t possibly have comfortable chairs in backcountry huts, can we? The only other hut where I remember relaxing in an armchair was Boulder Lake Hut.
Richmond Saddle Hut (1200 m) with Grass Knob (1495 m).
Richmond Saddle Hut interior.
As the name suggests, Richmond Saddle Hut sits on a saddle immediately west of Mt Richmond and east of Grass Knob. It’s a good base to climb Mt Richmond from, and a great shelter in bad weather. I remember having a very cosy night there, with a warm fire going and rain pelting down on the roof all night.
Richmond Saddle Hut with Mt Richmond.
Bush on Richmond Saddle.
Piece of wreckage of the NAC Lockheed Electra ZK-AFE.
Attached to a wall in the hut is an interesting artefact with a handwritten note beside it: “Wreckage 1942 NAC Lockheed Electra plane crash (near Johnson Peak)”. Some readers of last week’s article “Mt Richmond—a mountain and forest park” commented on the plane wreckage, which inspired me to do a bit of research on the subject.
In a document called “TIGHAR TRACKS, The Journal of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery” (© TIGHAR 2004 Volume 20 #3) [PDF 8.8 MB] I found the following on page 4:
The Mount Richmond Wreck
On May 7, 1942, a Lockheed 10A operated by Union Airways of New Zealand flew into Mt Richmond, a 5,770 foot mountain in the northern part of South Island. Registered as ZK-AFE and named “Kereru,” the aircraft was built in 1937 and bore constructor’s number (c/n) 1103. The pilot, copilot and three passengers who died in the crash were New Zealand’s first airline fatalities. The airplane served its entire five-year career with the airline and almost certainly still had its original interior at the time of the crash.
People who had visited the site in the past few years reported that the wreck was still in remarkable condition, and although it had burned on impact, much of the debris was still there “looking like it crashed yesterday.” Photos of the wreckage confirmed the excellent condition of the metal so New Zealand TIGHAR member Howard Alldred—a veteran of the 2003 Niku Vp Expedition—volunteered to go to the site and see what might remain of the cabin furnishings. Howard visited the site on February 19, 2004 via chartered helicopter.
The plane had impacted the rock face of the mountain “going full chat” (as Howard put it) and the wreckage is a study in what happens when the irresistible force meets the immovable object. Although the many photos Howard took give us valuable information about how an Electra comes apart under those circumstances, no portion of the cabin survived to provide a context for our dado investigations.
Going by the photo on page 5 in the above document, the location of the wreckage is on the eastern slope of the ridge that runs from Johnson Peak to Mt Fell (between Johnson Peak and Mt Fell Hut).
On warbirdsite.com I found a reference to a book by Philip Coote: “Impact Mount Richmond—the Last Flight of the Kereru” (1992). Nelson’s Elma Turner Library has a copy of the book in the Nelson Heritage Collection (library use only). I haven’t yet gone along to read through it, but presumably it would shed some light on the cause of the crash, about which I cannot find any information online.
There is also some info on to the crash on page 14 of “Celebrating 100 Years of Flight, Profile 2003, Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand” [PDF 2.5 MB].
A Lockheed Electra, similar to the “Kereru” (source Wikipedia).
Have you spotted pieces of the Lockheed Electra’s wreckage on Johnson Peak? What do you know about the crash or the “Kereru” ZK-AFE?
I appreciate your comments.
