The ground, was apparently "safe only for seagulls" due to the "soft surface quartered by channels and studded with sharp edged shells". The club members, however, took their opportunity and did the extensive drainage and road works themselves.
To get ready for the Southern Cross' visit on January 21, 1933, 60 unemployed men and six motor trucks had to make the runway longer for the aeroplane.
Kingsford Smith's visit was timed for the New Napier Carnival, to celebrate the rebuilding after the 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake.
The Southern Cross landed in New Plymouth on January 12, making the trip in 14 hours. This was the closest landing place to Sydney. Ten thousand people turned out to meet "Smithy" as he was affectionately known.
Similar to the modern-day Napier Art Deco Festival, it had been arranged for three Air Force aeroplanes to take part in a flying demonstration as part of the carnival to coincide with the Southern Cross visit.
The Southern Cross flew into Hastings from Gisborne on January 20, carrying 14 passengers, and was greeted by 4000 people.
Seven aeroplanes escorted the Southern Cross – four local machines, and the three Air Force machines.
Upon arriving he told the assembled crowd that he did not aspire to be the world's greatest pilot, but the world's oldest, as he valued his neck above everything else and did not "intend risking it unnecessarily".
It would be Napier's turn the next day, and Kingsford Smith would take part in the Napier carnival aero pageant.
The Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, and Lady Bledisloe went for a flight with the aviator before the aero pageant got under way.
The next day, Kingsford Smith and the Southern Cross were back in Hastings taking people for flights for a fee. This was one of the ways he had to find enough money to financially survive.
(While he was taking people for "joy rides" on a Sunday in New Plymouth, police looked at charging Kingsford Smith. A person then was only allowed to work on a Sunday as part of their trade or calling except "carriages plying for hire" (that is transportation). The police said "joy riding" was not a carriage. It appears they did not lay charges.)
One of his fare-paying customers was Mary Adamson of Hastings. This in itself doesn't seem unusual, except Mary was 99, and had her first flight the previous year on her 99th birthday.
Mary was a bit of history herself. She was born in Hobart in 1833, and came to New Zealand aged 2, and at 7 watched the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and saw Hone Heke attack the flagstaff at Kororāreka. She played with the children of James Busby, appointed as British Resident at Waitangi.
At 100, in 1934, Mary flew with a famous aviatrix – Jean Batten. By this time, she had become quite the celebrity as the flying centenarian, receiving nationwide coverage.
Mary died in 1935 aged 101. Just a few months before, she had declared gardening "was a bit past me now".
She had lived in Hawke's Bay since 1864, and the time of her death was thought to be the oldest living colonial born in the Empire.
Charles Ulm, the co-pilot of the Southern Cross, went missing in December 1934 when flying from California to Hawaii and was never found.
The next year Kingsford Smith and co-pilot John Pethybridge went missing while flying from India to Singapore.
Their bodies were never recovered, although an undercarriage leg and wheel washed ashore at Aye Island, near Burma.
• Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a chartered accountant, freelance writer, contract researcher and speaker of Hawke's Bay's history.
