Originally Posted by
Wheezygeezer
There is Short Solent IV restored in Auckland New Zealand , it’s an ex - TEAL aircraft which operated inter- island services till I believe 1960 . Google flying boat services from New Zealand . The same restorers also had and ex RNZAF Sunderland. Saw them both still work in progress in 2016 .
Yes, TEAL gave them up at the end of 1960. But 'inter island' for a New Zealand operator is misleading, because the aircraft on the once-fortnight "Coral Route" was operating from Suva in Fiji, eastwards through the South Pacific islands which did not yet have airports, to Tahiti and back. It was normally two days each way. The connecting sector from Fiji down to Auckland had been passed on to TEAL DC-6s some time earlier.
Ansett continued to run from Sydney to Lord Howe Island until 1974, when the airport opened at the latter, but this was a shorter run within the day. Even then they were not finished in scheduled service, as the Ansett aircraft were sold to Antilles Air Boats in the Caribbean, where they operated intermittently with the mainstream Grumman Goose fleet there, Antilles was owned by flying boat expert Charles Blair, with his Hollywood actress wife Maureen O'Hara, who occasionally acted as flight attendant on them. I believe that was their last scheduled operation.
Ansett also did a few charters, one was in 1963, a multi-day air cruise round the South Pacific in traditional style, first day was Sydney to Lord Howe Island, where they overnighted. Unfortunately the Short had not been adequately secured offshore, a wind sprang up in the night, and crew and passengers woke up next morning to find the aircraft across the bay, overturned on the rocks. There's photos of the event, including one of all looking speechless at the scene, here :
VH-BRE Short S-25 Sandringham Mk 4 (aussieairliners.org)