Chairman Martin Dippie said that was because they managed to celebrate their Christmas party — at their Taieri base — without the pager going off.
"The irony is whenever we’ve had a Christmas party like that, inevitably, the pager goes off.
"It’s a live 24/7, 365 days a year, a brilliant spot to have the helicopter base. They would have been on call as that was going on.
"The nature of the beast."
It was a very successful year throughout the trust — in numbers of callouts and the amount of support from the community, he said.
About 1328 people had been rescued in the 2019-20 year, as reported in October, which was up 11% on the previous year, and accounted for 2275 flying hours.
"It’s a phenomenal amount of flying, an enormous amount of people’s lives are touched by that, which is just fantastic."
Mr Dippie was "incredibly grateful" for the high level of support the trust received from the community, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It had been a special year for three particular reasons, he said.
"There’s a three-part thing. A is just the sheer volume of flights and rescues and patients we’ve been able to assist.
"The second is the callout for donations, just the amazing support that we’re getting from the whole wider region.
"The third is just the dedication of the team.
"Not only the helicopter team, the pilots and the aeronautical team, all the paramedics ... but also the nurses, the district health boards and the regional health centres.
But there had been new challenges to face this year.
Chief pilot Graeme Gale said, like many other business, it was an "extremely stressful" year operating during Covid-19 restrictions, particularly for the medical crew.
"No-one knew at the time exactly what we were dealing with."
The number of rescues increased during the second half of the year and there was a big demand on the service in the past few months, but for good reason, he said.
It was largely due to a new clinical pathway put in place, where, for example, someone who had a stroke would be flown to a hospital where they would get definitive care.
"While we have seen some terrible accidents, particularly over the last three or four months, equally, we have been able to give some hope to those people and hopefully a better outcome."
