[2] At the age of 16, Wiffen joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II where she served for six years.

[2] In 1975 Wiffen discovered the first dinosaur fossils in New Zealand in the Mangahouanga Valley in Northern Hawkes Bay.

[2] In 1999, Wiffen discovered the vertebra bone of a titanosaur in a tributary of the Te Hoe River.

[3] The fossils Wiffen found are primarily held in a GNS Science collection.

[4] In the 1995 New Year Honours, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to science.