Merchant Enterprise

The Whistling Wheelbarrow ZK-SAE still sits forlornly outside the closed Argosy Cafe just beyond Woodbourne airfield on highway 6 between Blenheim and Renwick.

Note the owl on the wing - there is another at the same spot on the other wing (they are in the same state as the argosy - Static). The Starlings on the props are for real though.

This blurb is attached to the fuselage side.
ZK-SAE was built as G-ASXN for BEA and first flew on 10-03-1965 gaining its UK c of a on the 26th. It moved over to Canada and became CF-TAJ on 06-07-70 for Midwest Airlines and was operated by Transair.

My records show it as arriving at Blenheim, via the UK, on 12-07-74 (which differs from the above details). The "Merchant Enterprise" was withdrawn from use on 30-09-90 having flown 45,646 hours over 34,874 cycles. It was officially cancelled from the NZCAR on 03-10-90 and was taken over by the Argosy Trust in Fbruary 1991.