It's a long way from Fordell to Sydney's airport, but there's more than just a connection measured in kilometres.
On April 18 a plaque was unveiled commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first-ever flight from the airport by Wanganui-born pilot Joseph Joel Hammond.
On this Easter weekend, Fordell farmer Eric Hammond was
reflecting on his family connection to the colourful Captain J.J. Hammond.
The bloodline goes a long way back, but Captain Hammond's father was Eric Hammond's great-grandfather's first cousin.
The historic Sydney flight, on April 18, 1911, was made in a Bristol box-kite biplane and lasted barely 10 minutes, with the flimsy aircraft soaring to a height of about 40m.
Captain Hammond was one of the early aviation pioneers and thousands of Sydney siders bought tickets to see a man flying. Media reports later described Hammond as "The Flying Man", the "Bird Man" and the "Aeronaut".
The Hammond family has its roots in York Farm that brothers Matthew and Richard established near Marton in the mid 1800s. But Matthew's grandson JJ - described in the family history as a "man who knew no fear" - had no time for rural life and in 1906, aged 20, he headed to the Klondike goldfields in Canada.
Soon after he joined Wild West legend Buffalo Bill's circus and toured Europe where Hammond's horsemanship brought him more fame.
Three years later he was flying in France, and by 1914 was back in New Zealand as test pilot for the government, piloting its first plane, a Bleriot Monoplane Britannia. When World War I broke out he was back with the Royal Flying Corp doing aerial reconnaissance work above the battlegrounds.
The US entered the war and Captain Hammond was "loaned" to that government to assist with training.
He died in Annapolis in the US state of Maryland when his plane crashed, his only accident in nine years of flying.
A monument in his name was later erected at nearby Chesapeake Bay..
