Centenarian happy to give it a whirl
A BIRTHDAY surprise got the heart of a 100yearold matriarch in Dunedin racing yesterday.
The family of Alma McRobbie gathered in Dunedin on
Tuesday to celebrate her birthday.
At the party, Mrs McRobbie told her family she had hit triple figures by living to her motto ‘‘use it or lose it’’.
The family thought her statement was the perfect time to reveal her birthday present — a booking for her first flight in a helicopter.
As the Chatsford Retirement Village resident boarded the BK117 helicopter at Taieri Airfield yesterday, she said she was up for the challenge.
‘‘I’ll have a go at most things,’’ Mrs McRobbie said, sitting in the cockpit, as the twin engines spun the rotors.
Mrs McRobbie is no stranger to action.
The keen ballroom dancer, roller skater and skier celebrated her 90th birthday on the Shotover Jet.
She was a regular swimmer and enjoyed a rollup on the bowling green.
Her daughter Sandra Goodchild said her mother sat in the copilot seat for two trips from the airfield to Larnach Castle yesterday.
Behind her in the helicopter were family members including four grandchildren and eight greatgrandchildren.
Mrs Goodchild said the flight was ‘‘brilliant’’ and the ‘‘magnificent’’ weather allowed great vistas of the city from the cockpit.
‘‘She thought it was absolutely wonderful and enjoyed every minute of it.’’
A highlight of the trip was seeing the castle surrounded by mist.
Mrs Goodchild said a doctor recently visited her mother at the village and calculated her heart would have beaten about 3.7 billion times since she was born.
As the helicopter lifted yesterday, the heartbeat tally increased.
‘‘The helicopter would have added a few beats on,’’ she said.