Q What do you like about the job?
I like the people aviation attracts; those that own iconic warbird aircraft and the ones who fly them are great personalities. A big part of my job is also relationship building, working on relationships with the CAA and the different air forces, as well as the owners of historic warbird aircraft. There is a lot of goodwill from those guys. We have to pay quite a bit to get the vintage aircraft here but it is nowhere near what their costs are of owning that aircraft. Insuring a Spitfire is probably upwards of $100,000 a year.
Q Were you interested in aviation before Warbirds?
No, my idea of aviation was jumping on a 737 and going to Auckland.
No. I went up once with U-Fly and took over the controls and I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. I am a history buff; that’s why I love the air show.
Q So, would you say you see the show from the point of view of a spectator?
I see the show from the community’s point of view, because I love the fact this airshow is still the biggest gig in the Southern Lakes after 30 years. I believe Warbirds over Wanaka is up there with the top New Zealand events such as Wearable Arts and Field Days. Over that time we have contributed about $200million to the region’s economy. It is running at about $20million a year at the moment, and we attract upwards of 5000 international visitors. When I look at other events, I don’t know any others that attract that many international visitors and then there are all the New Zealanders that come.
Q You have been general manager for six years now. Is it getting harder to get vintage aircraft to come?
They move around. Back in the day when Sir Tim [Wallis] started the airshow he had his alpine fighter collection here and it was one of the world’s great collections, but after his accident that collection got sold off. People often say that was a real shame but the way I look at it someone else is enjoying those aircraft now, and we’ll get other aircraft here.
We’ve got the Bouchon ME109 coming here this year and we’re always looking for other aircraft from overseas but it is a big logistical exercise to get them here. You’ve got to take the wings off them and these are 70, 80-year-old planes, so taking the wings off is an issue for some of the owners.
I think it’s a connection with an era, a schoolboy thing to do with guys brought up reading comics with Spitfires, and New Zealanders trudging off to war. I think it is part of that whole renewed interest in the war but not war as such or warmongering. I think it is because it is part of our history and we want to know more about it.
It is also a generational thing. We’ve had ones who came with their dad years ago and now they are bringing their kids, so that says to me the air show will continue.
Q But you don’t just have vintage aircraft; you also have vintage cars on display.
At the last airshow we had vintage trucks but this year we’ve got the Packard rally and we are looking at parading some of the Packards on the runway as some of the classic aircraft fly above, which is going to be pretty special. We’re also going to have a special tribute to Sir Tim, who turns 80 later this year. George and Tim Wallis were the original organisers of the airshow, along with Gavin Johnston, but unfortunately Gavin died suddenly last September.
Q You’ve had a few health issues yourself haven’t you?
Yes, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in October. I had a raised PSA level and had a biospy which showed quite a large amount of low-grade cancer in the prostate but about three weeks before I was about to have surgery I hit a barbed wire fence riding on my bike. I was lying on the side of Mt Aspiring Rd with my arm all ripped to shreds and all that I could think of was "are they going to have to put off the prostate surgery" but the doctors in Dunedin were fantastic. They did the skin graft a week earlier than they normally would and my surgeon in Christchurch said he would still do the surgery for the prostrate. I initially asked the surgeon if I could postpone the surgery until after Easter because I was worried about the impact on Warbirds. He said "why would you?" So I had the surgery and when they took out the prostate the cancer was very close to the margins, so if I waited, who knows what might have happened.
I am enjoying trying to handle the massive growth we have in this town, although I’ve rapidly realised you cannot please everyone. We need to be learning from Queenstown. They’ve got some big issues over there, but I think Queenstown is geographically more challenged than Wanaka. One of my big things is trying to push through our lakefront development plan and get the cars off the lakefront, particularly camper vans. It wasn’t bad when it was just Christmas but now it is months and months of them blotting out the lakefront. I don’t blame the tourists, because they’re allowed to park there, so why wouldn’t they? I also think Wanaka people have to be a bit more reasonable about parking. They grizzle about having to park and walk more than a couple of hundred metres to where they are going and they still think they can park outside a shop but those days are gone.
Q Wearing your Warbirds hat, do you have any concerns about Wanaka becoming an overflow airport for Queenstown?
I like the concept of two airports one district. People have said to me "you won’t want the airport to grow as it will affect Warbirds" but in Melbourne they have Avalon airport in Geelong, south of Melbourne, where they have the big airshow every two years and Jetstar flights take off in the middle of that airshow. So, why can’t we have an airshow here and have Air New Zealand flights taking off in the middle of the day? It can be done.
I also love the fact that Wanaka airport is an opportunity for our town to have some good high-paying jobs here. We’ve got helicopter maintenance companies here that have international contracts and they have to employ top engineers to work on the helicopters. Our town can’t be sustained on minimum-wage jobs and unfortunately a lot of tourism jobs, except if you own a business in tourism, pay the minimum wage. We need those people here to make our coffee and do all those other things but to sustain a really good community we need to have people who can earn good money and afford to live here and raise their families here.
Q What’s your next biggest challenge?
Trying to work out how are we going to top this year’s Warbirds in 2020 ... I love this job.
