Henry Wigley

Who was Henry Wigley?

Sir Harry Wigley, born Henry Rodolph Wigley was a pilot, entrepreneur and pioneer of the New Zealand tourism industry.

In 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 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 Ohau.

In the early 1950s Wigley also encouraged the company to involve itself in the aerial topdressing businesses, and in 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 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.

Wigley died of a heart attack in Christchurch in 1980.