Eyal Aharoni turned 60 this year so the property developer’s wife, Antoinette, arranged a special treat: a 15 minute flight from Wellington airport in a Strikemaster jet.
By all accounts, the former Israeli army major felt at home in the RNZAF fighter plane.
He was probably happy to leave behind the previous year, which saw his building at 61 Molesworth demolished in the wake of the Kaikoura earthquake.
Nevertheless, Mr Aharoni took the disaster in his stride and worked on planning a new, more resilient building on the site.
His Primeproperty Group owns a number of properties around Wellington, including the 140-room heritage-listed St George Hotel, a once grand dame of the city famous for housing The Beatles in 1964 but now used as budget accommodation.
Primeproperty also owns the Abel Tasman Hotel further up Willis St and the Central City Hotel on Victoria St as well as a number of commercial buildings including PrimeProperty Tower on Lambton Quay and Customs House on Whitmore St.
The company also owns property in Christchurch, Hamilton, Whitianga and Tauranga, including the 81-room Hotel Armitage.
Antoinette Aharoni is the daughter of Raffaele Muollo, who owns the Raffaele Hotel in Oriental Bay and the couple have two children.
Both Antoinette and his son, Guy, one of two children from an earlier marriage, work in the family business, Antoinette as chief executive of the hotels arm, Prime Hotels, and Guy as sales and operations manager.
Mr Aharoni came to New Zealand from Israel in 1988 to further his education as a geophysicist before turning to property development.
His mother still lives in Israel and he has three brothers there.