Bristol Freighter hotel..

Arise my love (Song of Soloman)

I think the words might be associated with Michael Card’s song “Arise my love (Song of Soloman)” (http://www.songlyrics.com/michael-card/arise-my-love-lyrics/). A possible reference to the current owner saving the airframe?

If you run a Google search on “Arise my love” there are also some (non-aviation) YouTube clips.

Thanks for the clarification. The photograph in the link from the Daily Mail page is not particularly sharp and it looked like 5909, but with the explanation and photos above I stand corrected.

No problem.

As it’s NZ5906 I attach two photos from my album of 5906 – again taken at Gan in 1958. From the state of the engine nacelle it looks like it was burning oil at a horrendous rate, but perhaps that’s normal or Freighters!

British engines. Designed to make the British oil industry profitable.

To all you lottery winners out there, latest news is that the Woodlyn Park complex is now for sale:

“A motel made up of converted planes, trains, and ships and featuring Hobbit holes is on the market.

Woodlyn Park at Waitomo has catered to tens of thousands of tourists over almost two decades through owner Barry Woods’ Kiwi culture show, themed restaurant and bar, and unusual motel cabins.

The 3.5ha complex not far from one of the country’s most popular attractions, the Waitomo Caves, was judged most innovative hotel concept at the Worldwide Hospitality Awards in Paris last year.

It is home to a 1918 railway carriage which sleeps up to five people and a twin-engined 1950 Bristol Freighter with its cockpit, fuselage, cargo hold and tail converted into two self-contained units”

More at: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11147267

Thanks for the several posts clarifying their use in Vietnam and by whom.

The Bristol Freighter at Woodlyn Park is NZ5906 / ZK-EPC (c/n 13059, ex G-18-113), not NZ5909 as asserted above

Thanks for the clarification. The photograph in the link from the Daily Mail page is not particularly sharp and it looked like 5909, but with the explanation and photos above I stand corrected.

As it’s NZ5906 I attach two photos from my album of 5906 – again taken at Gan in 1958. From the state of the engine nacelle it looks like it was burning oil at a horrendous rate, but perhaps that’s normal or Freighters!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]222345[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]222346[/ATTACH]

The Bristol Freighter at Woodlyn Park is NZ5906 / ZK-EPC (c/n 13059, ex G-18-113), not NZ5909 as asserted above.

There was Vietnam war useage of these aircraft by the RNZAF – from Kiwi Aircraft Images:

” Between 1968 and 1971 41 Squadron also flew weekly supply missions in support of New Zealand units in South Vietnam. (40 Squadron C-130Hs flew a monthly schedule). . . . . After 1971 the support flights continued, but were at less frequent intervals up to the fall of Saigon.

From April 4, 1975 two aircraft (NZ5903 and NZ5907) were active from Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut airport delivering relief supplies (mainly to An Thoi Island) and flying out refugees. NZ5903 was withdrawn on April 14, although it returned to Saigon for one last flight on April 20, captained by F/L D. Monti. (F/L Monti had flown the last B170 flight out of Pnom Phen on Nov 22, 1973).

The other aircraft, NZ5907 captained by F/L D.Carter, was one of the last military aircraft out of Saigon on April 21, 1975 carrying the remainder of the RNZAF detachment, the NZ Ambassador and Embassy staff, and refugees.”

http://www.kiwiaircraftimages.com/b170.html

NZ5906 achieved notoriety when it was hit by groundfire while flying in Indonesia 13Oct1965.

After its military serviced finished NZ5906 was sold to Ron Dwen in 1978.

The Dwen interests envisaged setting up a freight airline, and so ZK-EPC was registered to National Air Freighters NZ Ltd., Auckland 27Jun1984. This company changed its name to Hercules Airlines Ltd. as from 12Nov1984, and this Freighter carried out around 303hrs flight time carrying the Hercules Airlines colours until it was withdrawn in 1986.

The aircraft remained derelict at Ardmore until it was purchased by John Black and transported by road to the Waihi Beach airfield in September 1994. John set it up as a restaurant at that site and the Bristol was repainted back into its RNZAF colours. The meals were cooked in an adjoining kitchen, and the tables for the restaurant were set up in and around the aircraft. For a gold coin donation, you could climb up in to the cockpit area.
The project appears not to have been a success, and soon the restaurant closed. The aircraft was then used as the Waihi aero club rooms until it was bought by Billy Black and Barry Woods to be removed to their Woodlyn Park motel located near the Waitomo Caves in December 2001.

Stored at Whenuapai 1978:

ZK-EPC at Ardmore 3Sep1978:

At Ardmore in Hercules Airline colours April 1985:

Restaurant time, Waihi Beach 1995:

Our family stayed at the park in mid-2004, and booked both of the units in the Bristol Freighter at that time.
The following is a report I did in 2010 on that visit:

The aircraft is set on a level pad between a hillside and a duck pond

Close up, you can see that the entrance to the unit at the front of the aircraft is located on the starboard side and the rear unit entrance is on the port side

Not quite sure what the wording on the nose refers to, perhaps someone with a literary education can enlighten us?

The aircraft is nicely fitted out for occupation. Looking towards the front of the aircraft, the separate bedroom is in the nose, with the kitchen behind that, on the left

while behind the kitchen/dining area are two bunks (immediately claimed by the twins, E and J). The bathroom is at the rear of this unit, located about the centre of the aircraft

In the rear unit, looking forward, that bathroom abuts the other one with a divan/folding bed on one side and the dining area on the other

The kitchen unit is pretty much the same with the separate bedroom located in the tail

The cockpit is accessible via a wooden ladder from the front unit, and has definitely seen better days with moss flourishing on the windows

However, this did not deter those who were after a twin rating at an early stage of life. Here E carres out the start engines procedure

then J takes over to prepare for take-off

A shower of spray and we’re away – all concentration on the task of getting the Bristol moving.

I revisited the property in June this year ( 2013).
The ship and the hobbitt holes have been added since that time, and there is a lot more vegetation growth around than there was in 2004.

For full coverage of all of the New Zealand Bristol Freighter history see
http://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/11951

Is this true?

No, but it was used in Vietnam by New Zealand Forces :angel:

Is this true?

Not that I know of. I think they have it confused with a DH Caribou.

The Daily Mail says in one caption “Guests can also stay in a Bristol Freighter plane, which was an aircraft used during the Vietnam conflict by American armed forces”. Is this true?

Barry, a.k.a. ‘Billy Black’ is what you’d call a bit of a character. I remember he had a dancing pig as part of a stage show that he named Don Rash after the then-Leader of the Opposition!

The railway carriages have been there for years, but I don’t think I remember the Bristol (it’s been more than 10 years). A bit further south there was the DC3 which had been turned into a cafe, too. I always wanted to stop there as a kid, but we never did. Maybe next time I’m home?

http://www.mangaweka.co.nz/dc3-aeroplane.html

Ahh…. to fall asleep between a pair of large Bristols