Proud, honored and humbled were the words that Robert, known as Jules, Tapper made use of while describing the chance of his being made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to aviation and tourism.

Born and raised in Invercargill, Mr. Tapper later shifted to Dunedin and attended John McGlashan College, before finding his obsession for the aviation industry.

An active pilot of aircraft, helicopters, gliders and paragliders for almost 49 years, Mr. Tapper had achieved substantial amount of experience through qualifications and practical application in a number of facets of aviation both in New Zealand and overseas.

For more than 35 years Mr. Tapper had made a considerable amount of input to tourism and aviation in the Queenstown-Fiordland area, where he was the co-founder of the Hollyford Valley Walk, which had won him two tourism awards, Walk New Zealand Marketing Group and Hollyfordair Travel.

Mr. Tapper rejuvenated aviation operations for the Mount Cook Group and held numerous senior executive posts there and at Airwork NZ Ltd.

A former Director of Alpine Guides Mt Cook, Queenstown Chamber of Commerce and Destination Queenstown, Mr. Tapper was also Tourism Flightseeing's General Manager.

Mr. Tapper is the Lakes District Air Rescue Trust Chairman and a Trustee for the NZ Fighter Pilots Museum Foundation and the Southern Regional Air Ambulance Trust.