A lot of people can pinpoint a life-changing moment, but for Queenstown’s Jason Medina that moment was also a life-saving one. He talks to Philip Chandler about how his demons got the better of him, and how his life’s changed since he got given a second chance
Having had two cops save his life six years ago, it’s not only Jason Medina who can be eternally grateful.
That’s because the 51-year-old’s also channelled that gratefulness into supporting Queenstown as one of the community’s most active volunteers.
He volunteers each Wednesday for the Salvation Army’s foodbank and discreetly helps countless other people.
"All I am doing is what was done for me," he says, somewhat modestly.
"My grandmother always taught me, charity begins at home and Queenstown is my home.
"I’ve got to honour what [the cops, supported by St John ambulance staff] did for me, they saved my life so I’ve got to live a life that’s worth saving."
Life started for Jason in a city just north of Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States.
"My mom wanted me to be a doctor but I started working in restaurants [initially at a truck-stop cafe, at only 14] to get myself through school.
"I almost joined the navy but my eyesight was too bad so they rejected me — I’m really glad they did."
He also went to barber school and cut hair for a few years but still worked in restaurants.
"I started as a waiter then moved into restaurant management/maire d’ work."
He met a Kiwi and moved to Queenstown in 2004.
"I lovingly call him husband number one and I’m now with husband number two though I’ve never been married."
His first local job was at Copthorne Lakefront before managing the Heritage Hotel restaurant.
Jason later opened, in a management capacity, three Queenstown restaurants, Bella Cucina, Jervois Steak House and Blue Kanu before joining Debs and John Pickens’ Artisan Catering in 2013, which introduced him to events work.
There he got to open another restaurant when they took over Lake Hayes’ Akarua, which is now Mora.
Meanwhile, he was struggling with mental health and addiction issues.
"It’s just part of my genetic makeup, the disease of addiction runs on both sides of my family."
He even underwent a residential programme with Salvation Army in Dunedin — "that’s why the Salvation Army means so much to me" — however he kept relapsing.
Then, on May 15, 2019, he decided to end his life. "That’s the only way I saw out, because I didn’t know how to stay stopped."
Cops Alex Cully and Matthew Hargreaves had been to his house for a welfare check "and knocked on the door and I didn’t answer".
They were getting ready to leave and heard [a noise in the garage]. They broke into it to save Jason.
"I’ve got told I had five or 10 minutes left."
St John crucially also assisted on-site, he says.
"This was the time I finally got serious and went off to a big treatment centre in Auckland and I was away for about nine months — that was the turning point."
Jason says his attitude’s "I’m clean and sober just for today".
"Some days are tougher than others, you get these intrusive thoughts, but I just have to play that tape forward."
The next year, to thank St John, he completed a staggering 100 canyon swings with Shotover Canyon Swing, raising about $14,000 for the cause.
"It’s always been my favourite activity to do."
Back at Mora, Jason says regular customers Royalburn Station owners celebrity chef Nadia Lim and Carlos Bagrie regularly badgered him about working there before joining them in ’23 as their "sales and customer relations guy".
"If you told me even three years ago I’d be working in a primary industry and I’d walk away from my [35-year hospo] career ...
"My time at Royalburn has literally changed my life."
He and Lim this year cooked up the idea of cajoling 13 men to strip for a charity calendar shoot in the farm’s spectacular sunflower field — Jason is ‘Mr April’ and his charity’s the Sallies’ foodbank.
It will be available soon via nudesunflowercalendar.co.nz
The Salvation Army — which is seeking funding to relocate its foodbank to its Remarkables Park premises — is also one of four finalists in the running for funding from women’s initiative Impact100 Whakatipu.
Jason will be pitching members for a $100k grant at its annual awards ceremony tonight.
Meanwhile, as a side gig he’s a wedding celebrant and has also done three send-offs — celebrant work will be his retirement gig, he says.
As part of his recovery he’s also become a huge gym junkie, training at Industrial Fitness six days a week as a "mental health routine".
A Kiwi citizen, or ‘Yankiwi’, Jason says Queenstown "means the absolute world to me", and he gets defensive if people bag it.
"I’m really grateful for the rich and full life I have here, we have a spectacular community and I will lay my bones here." scoop@scene.co.nz
