Following my previous post on the newly registered amphibious Savannah ZK-CEE2 (see HERE), we have been contacted by the new owner Fergus Watts who has sent some more information on its history:
Fergus advises that the Savannah is a 2016 factory built example that was flown out of Nusatupe Island in the Western Solomon Islands, which is South of Bourganville in the Solomon Sea, and also about 400 km East of Port Moresby in New Guinea. Nusatupe Island is pretty much all airstrip and was constructed by the Americans during WW2 by flattening two islands and joining them together using the excavated material. It was redeveloped in 2013 under a New Zealand aid programme and is now Nusatupe Airport, and this is where Bishop Capelli based I-C664 in the hangar photo'd above.
Don Luciano Capelli was the Bishop of Gizo Diocese in the remote Western Solomons. The Savannah features his own personal coat of arms, designed when he was appointed Bishop in accordance with Catholic and Vatican heraldry tradition, and that has been kept for ZK-CEE2. The above photo shows him pointing out details of the crest. He retired in August 2023 and left the Solomons in 2025 after which Fergus Watts acquired the Savannah and recovered it to New Zealand.
Fergus told me that although the Savannah was registered to a Napier address in the medium term it will be flown out of Whangarei by him and Steve Cull.
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