Mount Iron Aerodrome facts for kids

Mt Iron Aerodrome was an aerodrome in Wanaka, New Zealand.

The original 'Pembroke' town airport located at the base of Mt Iron, a large prominent rocky hill at the entrance to Wanaka just beneath the site of Puzzling World Amusement Centre. Approximately 800 m long compacted grass runway with day markers. Established in the 1940s. A small terminal building provided facilities for the local sightseeing airline, Aspiring Air, with regular viewing flights to the upper reaches of Lake Wanaka and Mt Aspiring. The little airstrip also provided a link to Makarora and Haast. Regular sightseeing aircraft were usually Cessna 206 and de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver types. As tourisim began to take hold in earnest in the early 1980s, the Mt Iron site became too restrictive due to growth of the town, proximity of Mt Iron and aircraft no larger than the Britten-Norman Islander that could safely land there.

In 1984, it was decided to develop Sir Tim Wallis's private Luggate airstrip into what is today Wanaka Airport. The old Mt Iron aerodrome was dis-established as a public airstrip in 1986. It is still reasonably well defined today but is now being built over with a new road named Sir Tim Wallace Drive crossing over the old terminal access road.