There are beautiful places and unique scenery everywhere...all over the world. From the rugged West coast of New Zealand’s South island ...to the Royal Mile at Edinburgh castle...to the gob-smacking Mediterranean views in Cinque Terra, Italy...to Sydney’s Opera House Harbor...to the clear caribbean waters of Staniel Cay Bahamas...to the awe inspiring Grand Canyon... All of these places that I have been fortunate to visit have a common thread of being gorgeous destinations. But the underlying theme of a location reaching that “Awesome” label is of course your interaction with the people there and sharing it with someone.
Individuals can make or break the experience. Being in good company enhances the aura of a place ten-fold. For example, I am often reminded of my experience at Camp Cherokee. Facility-wise, it is very rustic with no fancy “bells and whistles”...it’s the people there that make the experience memorable. The same goes with many of these fantastic destinations...the people that you encounter along the journey make it the difference of being just another beautiful location or being an unbelievable experience!
Europe was better because of my fellow backpackers, Catfish and Patches. Australia was an outstanding experience because of my mates Emily, Ron and Tish. Well so far, my kiwi adventures have been killer due to my new friends in Auckland and now here in Barrytown. Just think about it yourself, a sunset is much more vibrant and vivid when sharing it with someone. Sweet as!
Started off the week with a trip to Karamea (the northernmost settlement on the west coast of the south island). This is where the Heaphy Track begins... a beautiful 4 day tramp. We did some rock climbing, trail running, grilling, cave exploring and boshing. It was nice but I did forget my bug spray and my legs got dominated by the sand flies. The rest of the week has consisted of bone carving (carved a bone into a really cool necklace), cooking for guests, landscaping the gardens out back, shoveling gravel for new paths, and teaching people about Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving, "Number 2" (the manager), hosted a Hangi in honor of this holiday. A Hangi (pronounced Hungy) is a traditional Maori meal that is cooked in the ground. The following is a description: We dug a knee deep pit 4 ft X 4 ft. the day before. Then yesterday we put in chunks of iron and metal, then a fir
e on top and got it real hot for several hours...Usually you use rocks instead of metal but the rocks here will explode so we used metal. Then Number 2 and I prepped the food...duck...stuffed chickens...pork butt...potatoes...kumara (like a sweet potato). Next we dug everything out of the pit...ash, rocks, metal... it was really hot and we had to do it quick (20 minute window to keep the heat). We put the metal back down, draped a wet duvet cover on the rocks...placed our food that was in crates on the metal...draped 3 more wets blankets on top of that...then recovered with tons of dirt and sand and packed it down. The food gets steamed for about 5 hours and no steam can leak out or it wont cook. Pretty intensive but fun! About 8pm we uncovered it and pulled everything out...it was DELICIOUS! So moist! We had about 35 locals show up and everyone enjoyed it. Number 2 made a little anouncement about the Hungi in honor of my Thanksgiving holiday! Choice!
