KEY POINTS:
The kids' sun warning sticker did it.
Eighteen-year-old Natalie Crimp's arm sticker which "pops" when children have had enough sun so impressed multi-millionaire Julian Robertson and the rest of the interviewing panel that they awarded the Linwood College student the 2007 Robertson Scholarship to study at two American
universities.
And just when life couldn't get any better for the Christchurch student, Robertson offered to fly her to the United States this weekend on his $20 million Gulfstream V corporate jet.
The news came out of the blue with an early morning call last week from John Taylor, director of external relations and development at Auckland University.
"Are you doing anything this weekend?" he asked.
Crimp was stunned when she heard Robertson had offered to fly her to North Carolina for the Robertson Scholarship induction weekend, when the 36 new scholars meet each other and tour Duke and North Carolina universities where they will study for four years. "Can you imagine it? I nearly fainted," she said.
With the offer of a luxury hitchhike to America, she decided to combine plans for her "OE", a four-month stint backpacking in South America. The news of the weekend trip left her two days to pack for a four-year adventure and say goodbye to family and friends.
And then there was the fear, something she had admitted to during a formal interview with the selection panel in Auckland. Crimp is bright, bubbly, upfront and inquisitive, but she is also just a teeny bit terrified of taking the big step, and of failure.
"There's a big difference between sitting at home and dreaming about it, and getting on a plane and not being sure when you're going to see your friends and family again."
The science of how things work and why has always fascinated Crimp. She's studied the causes of pollution and turbidity (cloudiness) in the Heathcote River near her home (logging and a nearby subdivision proved to be the culprits), and looked at a system to compost disposable nappies.
Her third project was the sun-warning sticker which uses a membrane which breaks down under UV, releasing a small spring mechanism. Up pops a cartoon character, or 3D image, to tell the child it's time to go back to mum or dad and ask for more sunscreen.
Business tycoon and philanthropist Robertson, who spends three months each year in New Zealand with his wife Josie, is taken with the sun warning sticker idea.
Last week the 73-year-old drove from Kauri Cliffs, his exclusive golf resort in the Far North, to collect Crimp and take her to Auckland International Airport for the trip on the Gulfstream. After a 19-hour flight, with a stopover in Los Angeles or Hawaii for refuelling, he was due to address the 36 scholars at Duke University.
Robertson has been so impressed with the standard of applicants for the scholarship he is considering offering places for scholars in Australia and Britain.
"The quality of students here is fabulous. So many of them have been involved in debating they know how to make their points in a pleasant way without overreacting."