Late December 1937, at Mechanic's Bay, Auckland, New Zealand. The Pan-Am Sikorsky S-42 arrived on December 26th, the Imperial Airways Short S.23 Empire arrived the following day. The Sikorsky S-42 was subsequently lost the following month on 11 January 1938 in a mid-air explosion when returning to Pago Pago in Samoa while dumping fuel following engine problems on its next flight to New Zealand. It had first visited in March 1937 on a survey flight to New Zealand, and held the honour of being the first flying boat to visit New Zealand. The December flight was a commercial flight, carrying mail but no passengers.

great photos Tawhiri, thanks for sharing,
came across this picture which is was same time of s23 centaurus , for those who like a good read there is a great book about c class flying boat "Corsair" by Graham Coster
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27862259@N02/6187728239

(there are also a few more pictures of Centaurus on that flicker page if you arrow forward)

Credit for the photos should go to Kiwithrottlejockey who posted them, not me. :)

The closest I've been to one is crawling through both the Solent and Sunderland at what was then MOTAT's Meola Road facility in the early 80's, although I believe my father managed to snag a ride on an RNZAF Sunderland flight from Wellington to Auckland in the early 1960's.

There's a fascinating thread here on PPRuNe about a trip to the Far East in the Short C (Empire) Class flying boat Caledonia that started from Poole Harbour in May 1940.
Well worth a read.
See here:
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...caledonia.html

Click on the images (they are hotlinks) and the source and information about the photographs will be revealed.

oops, thanks Kiwithrottlejockey

anyway wet cold day here so just trawling around I found this detailed cockpit photo of "Centaurus"

https://www.flickr.com/photos/545221...n/photostream/

there are some more photo's over on Trove also of Centaurus in Sydney
Search results for 'centaurus' - Trove

Unfortunately the C class Empire Flying Boats suffered a considerable attrition in their first few years, to the extent that proposed services had to be curtailed. Landing accidents were a major, though not only, cause. The postwar aircraft, not really that different, did not suffer to anything like this extent, so the issue was eventually mastered.

Although exotic for the time, flights regularly seemed to have exceptionally early starts each day, and as the crew were with the aircraft for several consecutive days, they must have been pretty knackered at the end. Here's a 1939 timetable from the UK to Australia run. Crews were slipped at Karachi and Singapore, normally with a Qantas crew on the last leg and sometimes they worked west to Karachi as well.

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttima...s/iaw39u-2.jpg

Tiberias, a stop on the Sea of Galilee, is about 820 feet below sea level, and must be about the lowest anyone has ever landed an airliner.

Regarding Catalina endurance, the autobiography of Jack Bamford, Air France's longstanding UK manager from the 1920s through to 1960, "Croissants at Croydon", has a splendid extended description of a flight he took in a Cat during WW2, when in the RAF "for the duration", westward from Prestwick to Halifax NS. That was a 24 hours airborne job as well, with fuel being transferred from ferry tanks at intervals.