Injun Joe

This is the life story of ‘Injun Joe’, born Wellwyn Harris Collins, in 1950. His mother was half-caste Maori of the Ngati Kahungunu tribe, his father a Scottish-Irish immigrant whose family had substantial holdings in Hawke’s Bay.Joe became well known as an elite hunterhelicopter pilot, one of New Zealand’s most dangerous occupations of the time, in what is now known as The Last Great Adventure. Unafraid of his own fears, he lived to hunt, then fly, at times with a blatant disregard for authority.His name is inextricably linked to the exploits that typified the early days of aerial hunting in New Zealand when the industry was wild and young, and anything could happen, when helicopters and cockpits replaced horses and saddles.Joe, an imperfect hero, always attracted attention, whatever he did. He lived life with a single-minded passion that sometimes led to obsession, but his courage, steel nerves and kindness gave him a compelling quality that appeals to something deep-rooted in the average person.“Sixteen years after his death, people still speak of his sharp eye, his fearlessness and prowess as a venison hunter pilot still whisper his name as one of the country’s most heroic hunters of the time.”Marion Day, Joe’s partner of some sixteen years, has agreed to tell his story good and bad based on the facts drawn from various journals and diaries that Joe kept throughout his life.