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Sea Bee Air
Sea Bee Air was an amphibious aircraft service that operated from the Mid 1970's to the Mid 1980's
Sea Bee Air primarily operated a Grumman G-21 Goose (8 Seater) aircraft. This aircraft flew from its base in Auckland at Mechanics Bay to Surfdale where the original ramp can still be seen. The service had an approximate flight time of 20mins.
In its time it was one of the only viable ways to enter and access Waiheke quickly with the ferry services taking up to 2 hours.
Sea Bee Air also operated various other services to various other gulf islands and as far as Tuvalu in the Pacific by contract to the UK Government.
Sir Murray Halberg in an recent interview recounts his experience flying into Waiheke in this way:
“On one trip, we flew out of Mechanics Bay and over to Pakatoa Island before landing in Surfdale. It was great to look down and see this beautiful island from the air and realise that was where I lived.”
