ordinary Taranaki bloke Rex Hancock is still pinching himself after living the luxury lifestyle of a New York billionaire for just six days.
Staying in an exclusive hotel apartment, the 42-year-old had everything he could have dreamed of, including a chauffeurdriven limo, helicopter tours, passes to Donald Trump’s exclusive personal golf course, and thousands of dollars to spend on whatever he and his family fancied.
He even got to hang out with The Donald, as the mega-rich business tycoon is known, in his penthouse office.
Sadly, after six wonderful days, he had to give it all up and return to ordinary life. And it’s all because super-lucky Rex decided to have a flutter on the lottery.
A healthcare management worker, Rex is currently living in Thailand with his wife Anna and their kids Rafael (7)and Kynan (9). After buying a New Zealand Lotto ticket online, he was stunned when he won the big Trump Up Your Life prize package.
As part of the bumper prize package, which included $100,000, he and his family jetted to New York where they stayed in the Trump Soho Hotel and enjoyed a week as rich-listers.
The reality of rubbing shoulders with the wealthy and famous really hit Rex when he was at Donald’s privategolf course.
With his friend Andrew oelka, Rex teed off on a course that only the elite are allowed to play on – for a cool$200,000 membership fee.
“We checked into the locker room to get changed and I noticed every locker was personalised with a name on it. We asked our caddy about it and he said it was strictly members only and each one gets a locker. So when we got changed again, we couldn’t help but look at some of the names. Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, formerpresident Bill Clinton – wow, we were blown away!”
Rex, Anna, and the kids also shopped until they almost dropped – with $10,000 spending money for the trip.
“Toys, toys and more toys!” laughs Rex, when asked what they bought. “The boys had done their research before we left and found out that the biggest toy shop in the world is in Times Square.
“It’s incredible – I’m running out of words to describe it. It’s so huge there’s a ferris wheel in the foyer. The boys also got to play on the giant piano that was in the Tom Hanks movie, Big. They bought so much Star Wars stuff that we had to buy two extra bags to get it all home.”
The family also had a helicopter ride over the city, visited the top restaurants, and watched ice hockey in Madison Square Gardens.
“I think I can honestly say that if I was a multi-millionaire then I’d like to live in New York,” says Rex.
But the highlight of the trip was when Rex got to meet the man who inspired the whole New York experience – Donald Trump himself.
The prize was for only two people in the party to meet The Donald, so Rex and his mum Sharyn Haigh went in.
“When we got in he pointed at my mum and said, ‘And this is your wife?’ She loved that! I explained that we were told only two people were allowed and that my wife and kids were waiting downstairs. He burst out with, ‘That’s ridiculous!’ and said to his secretary, ‘Quick, go get the rest of the family’.
“They looked a bit stunned when they came in. We all had our photos taken with him and the guy is tall – much taller than I expected. As for his hair, I didn’t even think about it. I’d seen him on TV, talking about his hair and lifting it up and giving it a good tug to show it was real. It didn’t concern me.”
Rex gave The Donald a bottle of a well-known New Zealand vodka to show off Kiwi entrepreneurship, even though the business guru doesn’t drink.
“He said he’d find some use for it though,” laughs Rex, who hopes to return to Taranaki in the near future. He’s used the $100,000 prize money to pay off the credit cards and put aside some for a deposit on a house when he comes back.
So has a bite-sized chunk of being a billionaire given this Taranaki man a taste for the high life?
“The food was amazing so if it was a long-term thing, I’d definitely have to schedule in some regular exercise,” he laughs.
“The only downside has been returning to my ordinary life as a pleb. I felt depressed for about three days!
After having such a great life with the luxury of a driver, it was pretty hard to go back to work on oonday morning.”
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