00:00:00
Speaker 1: Remember Jim Hickey? Spent over two decades on screen as the One News weatherman. He's been a teacher, a surf lifesaver, and a keen aviator. And he's coming to town next month, hosting a dinner in support of the Aero Club and some scholarships they're setting up for students of Ashburton and Mount Hutt colleges. You can read all about that in today's edition of The Courier. Make sure you get it right, Luke.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: The Courier.
00:00:24
Speaker 1: Great write-up they've got in there. It's been so neat catching up with Jim this week. You can listen back to all the chat you may have missed on the Breakfast Ashburton with Luke Harden podcast. In this bit, I start by noting how lucky we are to have Lyle and the team at the Aero Club offering up these scholarships.
00:00:40
Speaker 2: Oh, heck yeah. I think it's a great cause because, you know, a microcosm of all that is I've seen over the years that we've been here. Unfortunately, the Aero Club here, which was started in 1928 in New Plymouth, actually closed up six or seven years ago. Oh, no. But there were a number of pilots who trained here. I know some of them who are now flying, you know, first officers or captains for Air New Zealand. And they're trained. And the Aero Club training is a really big part of the aviation story in New Zealand because it's a launching pad. You've got to get your licence. If you want to go on, you've got a commercial rating. You can get a twin engine rating, aerobatic rating. And all those things are catered for in the Aero Club. And, of course, the Mid Canterbury one has got a great pedigree because there's so many different facets of the operation there. You know, there's the Aero Club itself and there's the aforementioned museum. There's the function centre. There's just a lot of vision with the volunteers who've worked over the years and the collection of aeroplanes they've got down there now. It's world class. So that's a stimulus in itself. We just get young people seeing that and the opportunity to pick up a scholarship. This is what this event's all about. I was just really pleased to be invited to come down. So hopefully there are other more interesting people than me who will be saying something on the night. There's a really good, they're putting a wonderful sort of gala dinner on, so it'll be neat.
00:02:03
Speaker 1: Mate, you're far too humble to get kids involved in what really is one of the wonders of modern engineering. You mentioned that you're not flying so much these days, but you've still got advantage. Do you live on an airport?
00:02:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm talking to you now. I walk out here now, I'm looking at a Q300, a New Zealand aeroplane. To the right of that, there's an ATR, which is probably the Auckland flight, which goes about this time of the day.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: Really?
00:02:29
Speaker 2: And then 150 metres across the car park is our cafe called E-Espresso. Bit of a pun, A-I-R-Espresso.
00:02:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got it.
00:02:37
Speaker 2: And when I'm finished with you, I'll be walking over there for probably a nice bit of quiche and one of our nice, freshly brewed coffees. Talk a whole lot of rubbish to some of the customers over there.
00:02:46
Speaker 1: Oh, what a neat treat.
00:02:47
Speaker 2: Anything but the weather.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, we hope so. So you run a chain of cafes and you live in a hangar at New Plymouth Airport. Are you a bit like Daryl Kerrigan of The Castle?
00:03:00
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, yes, mate. Oh, my wife makes beautiful cakes. Beautiful, Rishol.
00:03:07
Speaker 1: Is that your line at the cafe? Yes, it is. What do you call this, love?
00:03:12
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly right. Oh, look what she makes. It's beautiful. It's a sandwich or something. Yeah, no, the band's done really well. We've got three operations. Well, we co-owned them now. Sue and I are retired, but we still... own part of the of the businesses and what have you but there's three operations at Queenstown Airport that we co-own you know good coffee and because we say if your coffee's not good you can have the best food in town but you might as well go home because no one's going to turn.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: Up I find as I get older I'm becoming a more nervous flyer I don't know what it is knowing what you know about planes and how they work and all that sort of stuff what reassuring things can you say to people like me.
00:03:52
Speaker 2: There are not too many clues on what you can do. Some people take medication.
00:03:57
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to say something like turbulence is a good sign of airflow. Well, it is.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: It's angry airflow. You're going to get all that. But, I mean, statistically, it's safer in an airplane than it is in a car.
00:04:15
Speaker 1: Well, there we go. Now we're back onto it.
00:04:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you don't like the fly, you're not going to see much of the world, unfortunately. You've just got to harden up a little bit.
00:04:27
Speaker 1: Oh, Jim Hickey, what a delight it's been catching up. Safe travels, and I look forward to having a whole bunch more fun with you at this aero dinner next month.
00:04:36
Speaker 2: Great to talk to you. Thanks very much.
Speaker 1: Remember Jim Hickey? Spent over two decades on screen as the One News weatherman. He's been a teacher, a surf lifesaver, and a keen aviator. And he's coming to town next month, hosting a dinner in support of the Aero Club and some scholarships they're setting up for students of Ashburton and Mount Hutt colleges. You can read all about that in today's edition of The Courier. Make sure you get it right, Luke.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: The Courier.
00:00:24
Speaker 1: Great write-up they've got in there. It's been so neat catching up with Jim this week. You can listen back to all the chat you may have missed on the Breakfast Ashburton with Luke Harden podcast. In this bit, I start by noting how lucky we are to have Lyle and the team at the Aero Club offering up these scholarships.
00:00:40
Speaker 2: Oh, heck yeah. I think it's a great cause because, you know, a microcosm of all that is I've seen over the years that we've been here. Unfortunately, the Aero Club here, which was started in 1928 in New Plymouth, actually closed up six or seven years ago. Oh, no. But there were a number of pilots who trained here. I know some of them who are now flying, you know, first officers or captains for Air New Zealand. And they're trained. And the Aero Club training is a really big part of the aviation story in New Zealand because it's a launching pad. You've got to get your licence. If you want to go on, you've got a commercial rating. You can get a twin engine rating, aerobatic rating. And all those things are catered for in the Aero Club. And, of course, the Mid Canterbury one has got a great pedigree because there's so many different facets of the operation there. You know, there's the Aero Club itself and there's the aforementioned museum. There's the function centre. There's just a lot of vision with the volunteers who've worked over the years and the collection of aeroplanes they've got down there now. It's world class. So that's a stimulus in itself. We just get young people seeing that and the opportunity to pick up a scholarship. This is what this event's all about. I was just really pleased to be invited to come down. So hopefully there are other more interesting people than me who will be saying something on the night. There's a really good, they're putting a wonderful sort of gala dinner on, so it'll be neat.
00:02:03
Speaker 1: Mate, you're far too humble to get kids involved in what really is one of the wonders of modern engineering. You mentioned that you're not flying so much these days, but you've still got advantage. Do you live on an airport?
00:02:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm talking to you now. I walk out here now, I'm looking at a Q300, a New Zealand aeroplane. To the right of that, there's an ATR, which is probably the Auckland flight, which goes about this time of the day.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: Really?
00:02:29
Speaker 2: And then 150 metres across the car park is our cafe called E-Espresso. Bit of a pun, A-I-R-Espresso.
00:02:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got it.
00:02:37
Speaker 2: And when I'm finished with you, I'll be walking over there for probably a nice bit of quiche and one of our nice, freshly brewed coffees. Talk a whole lot of rubbish to some of the customers over there.
00:02:46
Speaker 1: Oh, what a neat treat.
00:02:47
Speaker 2: Anything but the weather.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, we hope so. So you run a chain of cafes and you live in a hangar at New Plymouth Airport. Are you a bit like Daryl Kerrigan of The Castle?
00:03:00
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, yes, mate. Oh, my wife makes beautiful cakes. Beautiful, Rishol.
00:03:07
Speaker 1: Is that your line at the cafe? Yes, it is. What do you call this, love?
00:03:12
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly right. Oh, look what she makes. It's beautiful. It's a sandwich or something. Yeah, no, the band's done really well. We've got three operations. Well, we co-owned them now. Sue and I are retired, but we still... own part of the of the businesses and what have you but there's three operations at Queenstown Airport that we co-own you know good coffee and because we say if your coffee's not good you can have the best food in town but you might as well go home because no one's going to turn.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: Up I find as I get older I'm becoming a more nervous flyer I don't know what it is knowing what you know about planes and how they work and all that sort of stuff what reassuring things can you say to people like me.
00:03:52
Speaker 2: There are not too many clues on what you can do. Some people take medication.
00:03:57
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to say something like turbulence is a good sign of airflow. Well, it is.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: It's angry airflow. You're going to get all that. But, I mean, statistically, it's safer in an airplane than it is in a car.
00:04:15
Speaker 1: Well, there we go. Now we're back onto it.
00:04:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you don't like the fly, you're not going to see much of the world, unfortunately. You've just got to harden up a little bit.
00:04:27
Speaker 1: Oh, Jim Hickey, what a delight it's been catching up. Safe travels, and I look forward to having a whole bunch more fun with you at this aero dinner next month.
00:04:36
Speaker 2: Great to talk to you. Thanks very much.
