Q&A with Cam
Name: Cam
Hometown: The Grid City! That’s Christchurch, New Zealand
Living in: Auckland, NZ
Occupation: I am an event coordinator for the New Zealand Ambulance Service and a self employed event manager that works on skiing and snowboarding world tour events
Wearing: Alue Two Plus in Classic Tortoise
"Imagine being like Indiana Jones, but hanging out with heaps of awesome animals. Next stop stop Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. Do you know how rowdy the biodiversity is there? Bulk rowdy."
What is the best trip you've taken with your Alues? Ah man, probably would have to be their maiden voyage on the Cheetah 2 (Chico 30 sailboat) through Indo, Malaysia and Thailand. Like looked a little too much like a photoshopped travel brochure through those lenses, so lush. Good times in tropics with new and old friends and nothing to do for 2 months.
You travel a lot for work. If you could move anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would it be and why? Probably Norway, cruising around the fjords. Everyone is so chilled in Norway and down to earth. It's so amazingly beautiful and grand - like the best parts of NZ only scaled up, but with a completely different culture which I love. If only beer was cheaper…I would live there in a second.
If you could be anything, what would it be? A professional "adventurer" and potentially part-time zoologist. Imagine being like Indiana Jones, but hanging out with heaps of awesome animals. Next stop stop Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. Do you know how rowdy the biodiversity is there? Bulk rowdy.
What's your favorite thing about New Zealand? Hmmm, I'm torn. I like that nobody ever goes to around 70% of the country - everyone has their own secret spots. But I also like that when I am in a store and someone says, “hey mate, how are you today?” they actually want you to answer (things get heavy at the dairy sometimes when you’re buying a pick-me-up spearmint thickshake).
If someone had one week in NZ, what would you recommend they do? I would recommend they spend way longer then a week - New Zealand happens to be in the middle of nowhere relative to most of civilization. But, if you only had a week I would say have a surf west of Auckland; eat fish and chips in Coromandel; swim in a thermal river in Central; drive through the Desert Road; somehow check out a sunset in Taranaki; have a night out in Wellington and breakfast on the waterfront; catch a ferry over to the mainland (South Island); have a night in the sounds at someones bach (beach house); go wharf juming; drive to Takaka and chill with hippies before kayaking the Abel Tasman; head down the stormy West Coast and go through the Haast Pass to Wanaka; get sunburned by the lake and have beers with locals; drink wine in the Gibston Valley in Queenstown and then either head down to the Caitlins to go surfing or fly to Christchurch to check out the destroyed city. At some point you'll decide you don't want to leave and start planning to migrate.
What's the best part about your job? Ambulance service - driving around in the marked cars. Own company - traveling around the world by myself and always knowing there will be like minded cats and cool people to work with.
If you could have one superpower what would it be? I think invulnerability. Life would be soooo much fun without the constant threat of injury. Imagine all the things you could try?
Do you prefer putting on ski or snowboard events? Skateboarding. Skateboarding comps are fun because you can do it anywhere, and the kids stoke out so hard. Even the pros are stoked. And the barrier to entry is so low (all you need is a skateboard and shoes) that you get wildcards from all over the show.
What's your favorite food? I love food to much to pick one. Maybe some sort of home cured Italian meat?
What essentials do you always make sure to pack when traveling? Alue Two Pluses. Also a wallet, passport and socks. Anything else you can buy, steal or trade for if absolutely necessary. Noise canceling headphones and moody music are pretty key too!
