Ken Tustin, New Zealand's most dedicated moose hunter, unsuccessful to date, has penned a book about another passion in his life - flying helicopters.
Ken horrified his parents by announcing he was giving up his perfectly safe and secure job as a scientist to start as an inexperienced helicopter pilot during the deer recovery days.
While there has been plenty written about our adventurous helicopter pilots, it is unusual to hear from the pilot of one of the choppers himself.
Crafted like a TV drama series, full of drama, danger and suspense, this compelling read was hard to put down as the pilot relates his near misses as well as the accidents, including crashing Tim Wallis' pride and joy, his HOT registered Hughes 500 helicopter.
Emergencies never happened on nice days, there were search and rescue and firefighting missions, and the hardest job is to make the decision not to fly, he says.
Based at Wanaka, when the deer capture days dried up, he flew heliskiers, filmed movies, caught goats and even threw lollies to kids while dressed as Santa Claus.
He flew five seasons in Antarctica for the Italian Antarctic Research programme, where he lived "the dream", but also uncovered supply dumps left by early polar explorers.
From the freezer to the fire, he flew in the steaming jungles of Burma and Laos, followed by a stint in Oman where the high chance of politics going sour was infinitely more dangerous than the flying.
Ken Tustin is a terrific storyteller, you can almost sense a twinkle in his eye as he recounts his aerial adventures in some of the world's most interesting places.
