Rove drops in for a flying visit

Picture / Richard Robinson

When Rove McManus was a child, his homemade super hero outfits were great for running round the back garden, but not quite so good for leaping tall buildings in a single bound.

McManus has since discovered that a good line in patter is just as effective as a superhero cape when it comes to flying high, but when the Australian entertainment show host popped across the Tasman the suggestion of a jump off the Sky Tower was a no-brainer.

At 31, McManus is one of Australia's best known faces and the big grin, the buffoonish voices and irreverent schoolboy humour is increasingly well-known to viewers of TV3's Rove, which screens on Friday nights.

McManus said he had been delighted to incorporate touches of New Zealand into his show.

His trip here was a whirlwind three days of media interviews, but he crammed in a surprise stand-up comedy routine at The Classic, scoffed a shipment or two of Bluff oysters, caught up on his te reo by watching Maori TV and recorded his voice for TV3 comedy Bro' Town.

He thinks he might have also seen a new Pope elected.

Down at the Viaduct, he is distracted by the smoke pouring from Devonport and the boom of the Navy practising gun salutes.

"Look. Big white smoke. They've found another new Pope over there."