Ernle clark was farming at waikari New zealand when he sailed to England for a holiday in 1936 with his mother and mother who lived there

     while in England he brought himself a plane and decided to fly the single engined percival gull back to New Zealand in time for the shearing season and flew from England in october 1936 and he was dubbed the flying farmer in britain and arrived at wigram Airfield in November 1936,upto 20000 people greeted him on his arrival , he was the second person to fly solo from England to New zealand and the fifth to fly solo across the tasman

Like most Ernle he was said to be a modest man ,even a little shy at times, and never made another long distance flight , he served in the royal air force in the  second world war as a squadron leader and was awared the distinguished flying cross , Ernle Clark died in 1964 aged 58

There is a small nature resreve named after Ernle clark in new zealand

[Researching Ernle] [The flying farmer]