Newscom.au report
Antarctic pilot reaches NZ
December 15, 2003
AN Australian pilot who became the first to fly over the South Pole in a homemade plane flew back to New Zealand today after being stranded on the ice for six days without fuel.
Jon Johanson from Adelaide in South Australia refuelled his single-engined plane with supplies donated by a British woman aviator who had abandoned a separate around-the-world attempt to fly over both the North and South Poles.
US and New Zealand Antarctic authorities had refused to help him out.
Johanson took off from the US McMurdo base ice runway just before 2:00am Monday (0000 AEDT) and touched down at Invercargill on the southern tip of New Zealand at about 2.55pm local time (1355 AEDT).
"He's safely landed and he's just going through the border control checks," Invercargill Airport operations manager Eric Forsyth said.
Aussierotor
Whilst still stranded, Johanson was asked (in an interview for ABC.net.au) if he'd been treated with courtesy, apart from the fuel issue?
"Oh always, with the Americans here and - and, of course, I'm dealing with the Americans. I've only ever met the New Zealanders three times. The American people on the ground here are just the most friendly, wonderful people that American people usually are. I couldn't speak highly enough of them."