Vulcan in Milford Sound

A depiction of RAF Avro Vulcan B.2 XH562 of IX (B) Squadron flying low through Milford Sound in the dramatic fjordland of New Zealand's South Island.

If you think this looks like one of my flights of fancy - it actually happened, on the afternoon of 2 March 1972.

The Vulcan had gone to the opposite end of the Earth to attend the Hamilton Air Show and to collect a trophy donated by the widow of a former commanding officer.

While there the crew, with the roundel on the aircraft's nose 'zapped' to have a RNZAF kiwi symbol, decided to visit one of the country's most iconic and isolated tourist spots.

It is reported that they made an initial flyover at several thousand feet, down the fjord and out to sea, then turned and ran in at a few hundred feet, up and round the highest of the mountains that enclose the area, before returning down the fjord very low and very fast.

An eyewitness reported: "They went down the Sound at a hell of a bat, it took 20 minutes for the sound to die away and several hours for the smell of kerosene to dissipate."

But a photograph confirming the extraordinary incident appeared in Aeroplane Monthly, taken by an Australian aviation photographer, Neville Parnell, who happened to be in Milford Sound on his honeymoon. I, in turn, came across the story while researching Milford Sound for my own honeymoon trip, in 2017, and could not resist making my own versions.