Tiger Woods has one, Harrison Ford has one, the Beckhams have one, and for 17 minutes yesterday Queenstown reporter Tracey Roxburgh got to fly in one . . .
Imagine flying to work every day in a jet.
Nestled in an opulent, reclining seat with your feet up, sipping on an ice-cold bottle of Evian, charging your laptop, chatting to your mates on your cellphone, munching on almonds and having your own loo just 3m away - it wouldn't be a bad life.
It's a lifestyle I thought about for a while yesterday - 80 minutes to be exact.
That was the time it took for my $25 ride home to Queenstown crammed in a shuttle bus, during which I relived the 17 minutes I had just spent in the lap of luxury, flying to Wanaka in a $NZ4.3 million Cessna Citation Mustang jet aircraft.
I sat in the shuttle with my knees up to my chin, accosted by body odour and mindless chatter.
I decided I much preferred my previous ride.
Described by most as a "boardroom in the sky", the Citation Mustang is the "baby" of the Cessna jet fleet.
At $1100 an hour it's not cheap to run, but there's more to the cost aspect than just the bottom line, according to Citation sales director Robert Hollander and Aeromil Pacific Aircraft sales director Nicholas Jones, who "shouted" me the trip to Wanaka.
For one thing, there's the time saved on the ground.
Yesterday in Queenstown, a cart pulled up and I was escorted straight to the plane, VIP style.
No queuing, no checking in, no flight delays, no security checks, no waiting on other passengers and no, I didn't have to turn my cellphone off.
I had decided to trade in my ugg boots for a nice pair of high heels - one cannot be seen entering or exiting a luxury jet in sheepskin boots.
But the interior of the Mustang was not designed for heels - not for anyone taller than 1.35m, anyway.
Within seconds of the engines firing up, I was given my safety briefing and we were taxiing down the runway.
It took just 17 minutes - 1020 seconds - to take off, fly to Wanaka and land.
When I boarded the shuttle to get home, it took precisely 80 minutes for me to realise my place in society.
As I was getting off the shuttle, one passenger looked at me in my high heels wondering who I thought I was.
I smiled politely, clutched my Cessna Citation jet brochures and considered asking for a big pay rise.
