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14-649: Rodolph Wigley 's Mt. Cook Motor Car Service provided the first car transportation from Fairlie to the Hermitage in February 1906. The company owned four Darracq 40 and 60 hp service cars and carried mail and passengers. The business collapsed in November 1907 but in 1912 Wigley restarted operations as the Mount Cook Motor Co. Ltd. By 1918, there was a weekly service car between Mt Cook and Queenstown over

28-517: A 6 hp De Dion car and drove it to The Hermitage hotel near Mount Cook ; and subsequently dissolved his first firm and formed the "Mount Cook Motor Co Ltd" with four Darraq cars to provide transport for tourists to The Hermitage and from 1912 Queenstown also. When the Lakes County Council tried to stop motor cars on the Queenstown route by banning any vehicle propelled by its own power from

42-457: A critical two mile stretch, he hired men with horses to pull the cars with passengers over the section. After the Great War he purchased five war surplus British aircraft and formed "The New Zealand Aero Transport Co" in 1921, the precursor to Mount Cook Airline . He was also a notable mountaineer, making the first mid-winter ascent of Mount Cook with two guides, on 11–12 August 1923. He formed

56-575: Is the only company to land scenic flights on the Tasman Glacier to this day. The Mount Cook company at various times owned or established many other tourism and transport businesses in New Zealand : Rodolph Wigley Rodolph Lysaght Wigley (21 October 1881 – 27 April 1946), known as "Wigs" to his friends, was a New Zealand businessman from Fairlie in South Canterbury, and pioneer of

70-641: The Lindis Pass using Cadillacs . The company depot was in Fairlie. Rodolph Wigley's Mount Cook Motor Co , later called Mount Cook Landlines , provided inter-city and sightseeing coach services. Originally providing services to the Aoraki / Mount Cook region of the South Island , the company grew to take over many other New Zealand bus companies: H&H of Invercargill, Luxury Landlines and Hawkes Bay Motor Co of

84-630: The North Island . In 1989 the Mount Cook Landline exchanged several routes with Newmans Coach Lines , the two companies each specialised to the South Island and North Island respectively. When in 1989 Air New Zealand sold Mount Cook Group's non-airline assets to Tourism Holdings Limited , the latter scrapped the coach route services and the Mount Cook brand. In December 2019, Mount Cook Airline

98-598: The 1930s, Wigley entered the family firm, the Mount Cook Tourist Company of New Zealand which his father Rodolph Wigley had founded, but he had begun pilot training while in his teens, and at the outbreak of World War II joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force , first as a flying instructor, then as a fighter pilot in the Pacific — leaving with the rank of wing commander Wigley had been captain of

112-520: The New Zealand ski team in 1936–37, and after the war led his company in establishing new ski-fields and facilities at Coronet Peak and Lake Ōhau . In the early 1950s, Wigley also encouraged the company to involve itself in the aerial topdressing businesses, and on 22 September 1955 he successfully landed on the snowfield of the Tasman Glacier with an Auster Aiglet aircraft fitted with retractable wooden skis of his own design. After that flight, which

126-530: The New Zealand tourism industry. He founded the Mount Cook Group of tourism and transport companies, which were taken over by his son Harry Wigley . He was a son of Annie Caroline Lysaght and Thomas Wigley , MLC and sheep-farmer. His mothers sister was the artist Sophia Augusta Lysaght . His first business in 1904 was "Wigley and Thornton" which transported wool from South Canterbury sheep stations to Timaru using steam traction engines. In 1906 he purchased

140-598: The Tongariro Tourist Company to build the Chateau Tongariro which was opened in 1929. In 1999, Wigley was posthumously inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame . Harry Wigley Sir Henry Rodolph Wigley KBE (2 February 1913 – 15 September 1980) was a pilot, entrepreneur, and pioneer of the New Zealand tourism industry. Wigley was born at Fairlie in 1913. In

154-601: The first to climb Mt Cook in winter. The first skifield in New Zealand was developed on Ball Glacier in Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park ; the company opened another at Ōhau . Mount Cook Line Skifields developed and operated the Queenstown ski areas of Coronet Peak and The Remarkables , now owned by NZSki Ltd . The company developed ski plane conversions of Auster aircraft in its own workshops at Fairlie , in South Canterbury. Now independently owned, Mount Cook Ski Planes operates Cessna 185s and Pilatus Porters , and

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168-511: Was later purchased by F.W. McDowall Ltd. In 1921 Rodolph Wigley leased The Hermitage hotel from the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts and began expanding it, installing electricity and telegraph, catering for skaters and skiers and employing mountain guides. He introduced and developed skiing , mountain climbing and winter holidays. The company was the first to offer package holidays to tourists. In August 1923 Wigley and two guides became

182-484: Was merged into Air New Zealand and ceased operations. Mount Cook Freightlines was a trucking company which operated linehaul and rural freight services. It grew out of the general passenger/mail operation in 1925, and grew steadily a freight network around the South Island, and, later into the North Island. In its last few years it provided part of Air New Zealand 's domestic cargo network. Mount Cook Freightlines

196-617: Was reputed to be the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere, ski-plane trips to Tasman Glacier became a key part of the Mt Cook tourism. On 11 January 1946 , Wigley was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Miliatary Division) , in recognition of conspicuous service in operations against the Japanese. In the 1969 Queen's Birthday Honours , Wigley was appointed a Commander of

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