May 10th and 11th of May 1962 the Secretary of State for the USA arrived to meet with senior officials in Wellington to meet the Prime Minister Keith Holyoake and other senior officials, probably to drum up support for the Vietnam war.
For security reasons, he arrived at Ohakea where he and his top advisers were ushered into a Focker Friendship leased from Air New Zealand especially for him and his close staff, for the 20 to 30 minute flight to Wellington.
The other people that had accompanied him were loaned a pair of ear defenders and ushered into the interior of a Bristol Freighter, canvas rearward facing seats and all, for their 30 minute plus flight to Wellington.
The look of shock and horror on their faces was priceless
The following day he returned with his support people and departed back to the USA
For those lucky people that have never come into contact with a freighter, it was a late 1940s design that was a medium range transport of freight, or up to 30 troops.
There was a sixteenth of an inch thick skin of Aluminum Alloy between the inside and the two roaring
Hercules engines on the outside.
One of its repeatable nicknames was 10,000 rivets flying in semi-close formation.
