R.e the Concorde damage in NZ... it was actually caused by a set of HS-748 air-stairs blown across the tarmac by the Canty Norwester.
Many red faces at Mt Cook - and apologies to BA.
The jet was on a charter flight full of American millionaires.
It was left leaking fuel from a puncture underwing.
They towed it around to the Air NZ maintenance hangar and fixed it within 24 hours from memory.
Requests from the local meeja to cover expert Air NZers patching the world's fastest pax jet were bluntly declined by BA's man in London.
The millionaires departed on a charter 767 for Sydney.
And late the next glorious summer evening - a slightly younger Tartare heard the unearthly roar of 4 Olympuses - and watched the Speedbird depart to the North, leaving four trails of soot over the garden city.