Some flags cost $35 to $40, and flags produced in China cost Michael around $10. If he couldn't get a flag he wanted, he would send a dealer a picture and they would make it for him.
"In the end, I had $25,000 worth of flags."
His interest in flags was contagious, and he says many people in New Zealand don't realise some towns and cities have their own flags.
"A chap in Christchurch had the Stewart Island flag, and the Chatham Island flag, and after I bought them he started selling them to others."
He says with the exception of the yachting community, New Zealanders aren't really that into flying flags, compared to people overseas who fly flags for their village, their town, their country and their military.
He put up the Ukraine flag for one day after the war broke out but says he wouldn't fly the Russian flag.
"Flying flags can upset some people and I was nervous about this."
Michael would fly a flag each day at his Jarden Mile home in the Taupō suburb of Nukuhau. He says his neighbours "were quite pleased about it, and would always comment on the flag of the day" and one neighbour would even come and put a flag up when Michael was ill.
"But the ropes and fittings would clang on a windy night and I would try to stop it."
Working out what flag to fly each day was easy, Michael would refer to an index book, outlining celebrations and observations from around the world, and says every day there is a different flag that can be flown.
In 2012 he published the first edition of a book he wrote about flags titled Fly the World's Flags, but as he was new to publishing he didn't pick up some mistakes and a second edition followed soon after. Then there were flag changes so he printed a third edition. He has sold 400 copies altogether and says the first edition cost $25 to print but costs had gone up to $45 for the latest edition.
He would sometimes be asked to speak at a local function about his aviation career and interest in flags and says he could bore people to death about flags "but I wasn't a good speaker".
One day in 2020 the Nukuhau bus driver came to see Michael, asking if it was okay to introduce Taupō Intermediate School digital technology teacher Mason Elliott who also rode the bus.
"I would wave at the driver all the time and I became quite good friends with Mason, he has a sports car and I am into cars."
At the time, Mason was organising a flag competition at school and he asked Michael if he would like to be involved. During the competition period, Michael would choose a flag from his collection to fly on the school flag pole, students would have to identify the flag and write an interesting fact about the country of origin.
Michael says he is happy knowing his flag collection will be enjoyed by the Taupō Intermediate School community and that students will use the flags to learn about different countries.
