Commemorative flight marks 100 years since Cook Strait crossing

Today marks 100 years since World War I veteran Captain Euan Dickson completed the first flight across the Cook Strait, with bonfires lit in provincial towns to guide his way.

• This story was first published by RNZ

The flight in 1920 from Christchurch to Trentham in Wellington was carrying the first air mail between the South and North Islands.

A Fox Moth, with a RNZAF NH90 flying chaperone, will depart Christchurch Airport today, flying past the Air Force Museum of New Zealand at Wigram.

It will then fly over Kaikoura, Omaka, and then across the Cook Strait and land at Trentham Racecourse in Upper Hutt this afternoon.

• Listen to pilot Aaron Patchet speak to RNZ's Corin Dann about the flight.