History of Hari Hari
Hari Hari is a small settlement located in the Westland district of New Zealand’s South Island. The area was originally inhabited by Māori, who travelled through the region in search of pounamu (greenstone), which was highly prized for tools, weapons, and ornaments.
European settlers arrived in the region during the 1860s gold rush, when prospectors flooded the West Coast in search of fortune. After the gold rush subsided, many settlers stayed on, turning to farming and timber milling as the main industries of the area.
The town is perhaps best known internationally as the landing site of Guy Menzies, who completed the first solo trans-Tasman flight on 7 January 1931. The 21 year old Australian took off from Mascot Aerodrome near Sydney in a single engined Avro Avian biplane called the Southern Cross Junior — officially bound for Perth. What the authorities didn’t know was that Menzies had secretly planned to fly to New Zealand all along, and the crossing was made without the prior knowledge or approval of the civil aviation authorities in Australia. After approximately 12 hours in the air, poor weather forced him off course and he crash landed upside down in the La Fontaine swamp near Hari Hari, having mistaken it for a grassy meadow. Remarkably he emerged with only minor scratches. Local residents were initially so skeptical that he had actually flown from Australia that he had to produce a sandwich bag from Sydney airport to convince them!
Throughout the twentieth century Hari Hari remained a quiet rural community, with farming, particularly dairy farming, becoming the backbone of the local economy. Today the town serves as a stopping point for travellers exploring the stunning scenery of the West Coast.
Sources: Wikipedia | New Zealand History – Guy Menzies Trans-Tasman Flight | Papers Past