Millonare for a Day...

Yesterday was probably one of the most memorable days of my life to date. You will not believe what I got to do...

My boss, Al Spary, owner of Skybar and 6 other bars in the region, not to mention liquor distributors, liquor stores, and countless real estates, called all the bar managers for an all day meeting. He didn't describe the events of the meeting, but just instructed us to get a taxi at 8:30am.

We arrived to his estate to find three helicopters with their rotors going and were just told to get inside. I'd never been in a helicopter before and always wanted to, so you could imagine how excited I was!

(Kieran, our manager, and Adam, Angelo, and Dan, other Bar Managers)

So here, at 9am, and after being handed an ice cold Heineken inside a helicopter, we took off and began what was to be one of the best adventures I've had to date. Immediately, I was amazed at how versatile these machines were and how quickly they could gain altitude. In no time, we rotated 180 degrees and were 2000 ft up, moving West at 105 Knots.

We headed toward Glenorchy and the Routeburn Track and within 30 seconds traveled the track that took me 3 days only a few months ago. During our initial flight, we flew close to the mountains getting views I only have had in my dreams and that you saw in Lord of the Rings: mountain peaks and ridges running underneath you and opening up into large valleys. I was in the front row seat and experiencing these first hand.

(To Glenorchy via Chopper)

(Routeburn Track from the air)

(Glenorchy, top left, and On the way to Milford)

Next, on the radio I heard, "Al, you wanna go through Milford?." I thought holy crap, we are going through Milford via helicopter, a trip people pay 700 dollars for! We descended through clouds and valleys and passed snow capped mountain peaks in the morning sunlight on our way to Milford, a convoy of three choppers, on a mission.

My third visit to Milford was of course spectacular in the air. Snow topped peaks and calm deep waters below made up the visual stimuli. We stopped for fuel there and then went straight for Bowen falls. Our pilots took us vertically up the falls right next to the water, and turned around and went straight back down toward the ocean floor! Shit! My stomach was turning and I felt like I was dreaming!!

We continued out toward the Tasman sea winding close to the glacial carved rock faces and fern trees. We reached the coast and flew about 100ft up really fast over waves breaking on the coastal rocks. We even found a huge seal colony that we whisked by. Oh my god, what an experience! And it gets better...

There were two huge rocks out at sea and our pilot put the chopper sideways through the middle of them! We followed the coast for another 10minutes and landed on a remote beach only accessible via helicopter or boat.

(The West Coast with Dan and Adam)

We had another beer there and enjoyed the scenery before we hopped back in our cool transport devices and were off. Now up to Mt. Aspiring National park into the glacial capped alpine peaks. We flew just barely above rocky snow covered peaks before Al told the pilots to land.

(Bar Managers: Dan, Angelo, Adam, Rob. Right: All of us enjoying Bollinger Bubbly)

(Al and I)

We landed in the middle of nowhere on a glacier and then broke out a case of Bollinger Champagne! Man, Al has style! He really knows how to enjoy life-a completely different lifestyle being a Millionare. I just couldn't believe it! Here we were in the middle of the Alps in New Zealand, hopping out of helicopters and downing cases of $150 bottles of bubbles. I just felt unreal, like all of the South Island was our playground, like this magic land that we were treading up through the air and exploring like you'd do in a dream. Going anywhere you wanted to go, and doing anything you wanted to do. I got to experience that and I still cannot believe it. How lucky I am. Wow. To think if I'd never left my cubicle in the states and came down here...I just can't fathom what has happened here.

We took off from there, flew up to a high valley glacier and flew right next to it, admiring its giant crevasses and beauty. Again, our pilot, who I'm told is one of the best in the world, flew really close to the glacier, pitching downward toward the snow capped crevassess...man. Maybe I'm still dreaming.

We winded our way through canyons heading toward the East coast, stopping for fuel while refilling our glasses of champagne. We made it to a small old mining town called Dansey's Pass, parked our helicopters and went into the pub. We dried our feet by a hot fire and sat down to have some lunch. I can hardly eat from excitement.

After lunch we took off again and went to St. Bathens, another small mining town in the middle of nowhere. It was just crazy, parking our helicopters and zooming up to these pubs. People couldn't believe us, they were taking pictures of us like we were celebrities. It was then I really felt like a rock star. I got to feel what it was like to actually be famous, a Millionare. We just parked our choppers wherever there was space in open lots. It was so laid back. We did more shots at the Vulcan lodge there and just got back in our flying machines to head to the next pub. We were on a pub crawl all over the South Island, via helicopter. Man, what a trip!

(Maniatoto Valley from the air near sunset, NZ's Big Sky Land)

Flew up to the final pub, the Cadrona hotel and ski lodge, about 4pm to find seven people staring at us and taking pictures. You don't know how cool you feel when you get out of a chopper! Millonare for a day, mate. Wow.

This day will last in my memory forever and probably won't be easily topped. I work my ass off for Al as all the bar managers do. He expects a lot, but then he does things like this. Gives you experiences that money can't buy, well, my money anyway. I am so lucky. It was the first time he'd done this for everyone, I was in the right place at the right time. We'd clocked over 4 hours of flight time, and you could tell even the pilots were having fun.

What a way to experience New Zealand.