Air New Zealand 50th anniversary stamp, 1990

The genesis of Air NZ was in 1940 when 10 passengers travelled from Auckland to Australia in the flying boat Aotearoa of Tasman Empire Airways Ltd (TEAL). That journey took nine hours - Air New Zealand trans-Tasman jets today take less than three.

For lots of info and heaps of photos, see the book The Aircraft of Air New Zealand and affiliates since 1940 by Paul Sheehan.