Valerie Ellen Arnold

Aunty Val and Melinda were the eldest and youngest of my Granny and Pa’s 10 children (nine girls and one boy) and were both very special to them and our whole family. At the time they went off on their adventure to Antarctica, Aunty Val was 49 and Melinda had just turned 17. Melinda had just completed her School Certificate and Aunty Val was shouting her this adventure, celebrating her ending school and her starting her first job the following week. I am one of their 20 nieces and nephews and Aunty Val was like a second mum to us all. She had many stories to tell and filled us, well me at least, with grand ideas of travel and adventure. While she encouraged fun, she also instilled in us a strong sense of discipline and the importance of working hard. Vocationally she spent a short time as a Catholic nun and then as a registered nurse. Her last job was a charge nurse at Middlemore Hospital Ward 5, where she was highly respected by patients and all the hospital staff. Melinda, being the youngest of a big family, was very loved and special to her mum and dad, not to mention her eight older sisters and brother. She loved music and dancing and was very much looking forward to finishing school and starting to work. Aunty Val and Melinda have lived on in our hearts for the past 40 years, and the memories of that afternoon and evening on November 28 1979, as the details of tragedy unravelled, are indelibly etched on our minds — as is the charred remains of the aircraft on the side of Mt Erebus. Source: Camille Kirtlan (niece) via https://insights.nzherald.co.nz/apps/2019/erebus/

On the morning of 28 November 1979, Air New Zealand Flight TE901 left Mangere airport, Auckland, for an 11-hour return sightseeing flight to Antarctica. At 12.49 p.m. (NZST), the aircraft crashed into the lower slopes of Mt Erebus killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew on board. It was the worst civil disaster in New Zealand's history. Source: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/erebus-disaster