Last ride of a young high-flyer

Stace Hopper's body was strapped into a helicopter for a race with a Subaru rally car, driven by a friend. Photo / Supplied

With his body strapped into a helicopter and his mate racing his Subaru rally car on the asphalt below, Stace Hopper made his flight to eternity.

Mr Hopper, whose family owns coastal land development company Hopper Developments and Hopper Construction, died aged 27 in a plane accident last week.

He was farewelled in spectacular fashion.

A friend, Tavake Barron Afeaki, wrote of the funeral: "Then the big grey bird rose higher and roared away to line up with the Subaru on the runway.

"They raced, powering down the runway all the way to the northern end, the car breaking heavily to stop, the chopper banking up and to the sky ... the brake lights glowed on the car, and the big bird heaved up to the heavens and Stace flew off into the horizon, humming away in the distance to a small, diminishing dot."

About 2500 people attended the farewell at the North Shore Aero Club on Wednesday, described as "moving, gut-wrenching, beautiful and fabulous" by Mr Afaeki.

"Stace would have loved his farewell," he said.

"In style, with family, whanau and friends there to see him off."

Mr Hopper was killed instantly when his Cessna 206 crashed at the Marsden Cove Marina in One Tree Point, near Whangarei.

The single-engine plane burst into flames when it clipped a van his brother Gray Hopper, 24, was driving.

At the funeral, Gray Hopper delivered an emotional speech of their upbringing, bonding and fun.

He said his brother loved flying, and had been flying since the age of 18 and gained his private pilot's licence from the North Shore Aero Club in 2008.

Stace Hopper was to have driven his Subaru in the Targa Bambina rally around South Auckland on the day he died.