Popeye Lucas: Queenstown

"Popeye" Lucas must have had both flying in farming in his horoscope, for these two elements have dominated his life; and, for quite a long. Of it. He combined the two, for he was first a pioneer and then a leading practitioner of agricultural aviation. he left farming in Otago to join the Royal Air Force just before the Second World War, during which he flew light and heavy bombers in the European theatre, and formed and commanded the RNZAF's first transport squadron in the Pacific. During these days, he acquired the DFC and bar, together with the nickname by which he is still universally known, and the reputation for a turbulent and independent energy that has survived on into his peacetime activities. Immediately after the war he made Wellington officialdom's life a misery with his repeated efforts to get private-enterprise civil aviation really off the ground, and he then turned to developing the Queenstown firm that proved the versatility of light aircraft and below the link variety of useful tasks - scenic flying, top dressing, aerial oversowing, ferrying whitebait, provisioning deerstalker's and climbers, rabbit poisoning, cattle-spotting, ambulance service, and some emergency rescue operations in which only a pilot of his guts and experience could have taken, and survived, apparently suicidal risks. On leaving active flying in 1960, he turned back to his earliest life interest - farming. The Cecil Peak station on Lake Wakatipu keep to was his choice, and here he faced the challenges offered by this property - and bio officialdom - with the same tiger-ish energy that characterized his flying during peace and war. And with characteristic quickness to see and exploit opportunity, he developed the station as a guest-house and tourist attraction, and he made literally thousands of new friends through the hospitality offered by himself and his family to Cecil Peak's visitors. --- excerpt from book's flyleaf