Westpac Rescue Helicopter paramedic Chris Deacon is calling time on the job after 30 years.
Deacon's swapping four blades for four wheels, moving on to become an ambulance officer in outback Queensland.
"They should have looked at my CV a little closer, I know nothing about snakes and I don't like spiders," he told Seven Sharp.
The shift brings an end to his career as one of the service's longest-serving air medics.
Kelly Lawson, who Deacon treated after she was crushed by a leaping 350kg dolphin off the Coromandel in 2006, called him a "hero".
But to Deacon, it's part of the job. Asked about the "hero" tag, he said: "No, no, no.
"An extraordinary set of circumstances, while just sitting on a leisure craft she has been struck by a dolphin," he said.
"[The] overwhelming memory I have at the time is just thinking, if I don't do what I have to do, this lady here is going to die."
It's a big shift from when he left school to be a carpenter. Now, he's completed an estimated 4000 missions.
"I was scared of heights, got motion sickness, don't like blood and hate needles and here I am," Deacon said.
"I'm just like any other Kiwi that puts their trousers on one leg at a time and goes to work, hopefully remembers his undies."
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