"Man, I'm buggered,"a beaming Mr Carvalho told waiting media at the finish line of the 1029-step climb.
Mr Carvalho (28), his support team and four members of his family who had flown from Dunedin and Melbourne to surprise the Mosgiel special Olympian were overcome by emotion after his successful bid to climb the 47-storey tower as part of the annual Fire Fighter Sky Tower Challenge.
He completed the climb in 27min 20sec in full firefighting gear.
His friend and coach, Dunedin firefighter Richard Yardley, challenged him to complete the climb after a Carvalho family friend died from leukaemia.
The pair's efforts raised $12,000 for the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation.
They joined 230 firefighters and special guests from 58 fire brigades around the country, including firefighters from Cromwell, Alexandra, Mossburn and Lumsden, for the challenge.
Mr Yardley, who climbed with Mr Carvalho, said eight months of training for the challenge had paid off.
There was only one moment of hesitation during the climb when Mr Carvalho, who has Down's syndrome, overheated on the 36th floor.
But Mr Carvalho's characteristic determination pulled him through, Mr Yardley said.
"I just kept pouring water down his neck to keep him cool and encouraging him to dig it in and he was fine."
Afterwards, busy relaxing with Warriors players Jerome Ropati and Logan Swan at the top of the Sky Tower, Mr Carvalho insisted he never had a moment of doubt.
"When the going gets tough, I get going."
Mr Carvalho's mother, Maureen, father, John, and sisters Maria Carvalho and Lynne Cannon from Melbourne, travelled to Auckland to surprise and support their son and brother.
Mrs Cannon said she had never seen her brother do any of his sport before and was overwhelmed at how "fantastic" he had been.
Swimming coach and friend Dianne Holleyman and Mr Yardley's wife, cardiac nurse Christine Twist, said what he achieved was "amazing".
Mr Yardley said the challenge was the highlight of his career so far, even topping a 400m gold medal at the World Fire Fighter Games in 1996.
"To get a guy like Brodie to do something like this, something that's probably difficult for him to do . . . it's a whole team effort. And that's how firefighters work - as a team, and this was an amazing team."
The two teams from Central Otago survived the challenge, despite their unlucky combined total of 13 participants.
Alexandra firefighters took up the challenge for the second time after being the first South Island team to compete last year, while their Cromwell counterparts ran the steps for the first time.
Both teams had members competing in the individual races during the morning as well as team events in the afternoon.
Alexandra team captain John Mawhinney said members' individual times ranged from 14min to about 22min, which was proof their training had helped.
"The more training you can do the better.
It was still hard but we all managed to complete the run using one tank of air which was one of our goals," Mr Mawhinney said.
The Alexandra team raised $1500 for the Leukemia and Blood Foundation through the challenge, while Cromwell's firefighters raised $10,250.
In total, $90,000 was raised for the foundation, nearly doubling last year's effort.
