Elisabeth Easther talks to Waiheke tour company Potiki Adventures' ambassador of good will
I grew up in Golden, Colorado, a little town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains famous for the Colorado School of Mines and Coors Beer, one of the worst beers in the world. Mum was thebest homemaker ever and Dad was a top gun fighter pilot who moved into explosive engineering and building tunnels through mountains. Then he became a master leather craftsman, doing calculator cases for Hewlett-Packard.
When I was young, Dad purchased a gold mine with two of his friends so most of our holidays were spent camping there. It was in the middle of nowhere. Because Dad was a mushroom connoisseur, one time we bought home four garbage bags full of them, and we ate them for months.
Growing up I also spent a lot of time at my best friend's farm. As little kids we were allowed to drive the car to the mailbox and when we saw rattlesnakes we'd run them over. Where I grew up we also had bears, mountains lions, and all kinds of wolves.
I didn't get on an aeroplane till I was 19, and once that happened I didn't look back. At that time I helped start a company called Experimental and Applied Sciences and we travelled a lot, mostly in the States but also to Jamaica and the Bahamas. In Florida, I experienced rain in really hot weather for the first time. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world and I danced on the balcony for two hours in the hot rain.
We sold the company in '96 and I bought a house and travelled the world for four years, mostly by myself. Africa, Thailand, Tahiti, Japan, Iceland, I spent a lot of time in the Caribbean. I needed to immerse myself in other cultures, rather than go in and be American, I'd just fit in. Eat what they eat, stay with people and completely forget that I like to go to the bathroom on a porcelain toilet. Or that I like to eat chocolate all the time. I submerged myself in other people's cultures and it really helped with the way I connect with people today.
Ami Cusack - ambassador of goodwill, Potiki Adventures, Waiheke.
Iceland would have to be a favourite. I did that with a group of friends. This guy's sister lived there and she planned everything. In seven days we went volcano climbing, ice climbing, spelunking, kayaking, horseback riding — I don't think we could've fit anything else in. We camped the whole time.
Because I used to be a swimwear model, I was cast to do The Amazing Race.
They found me and another model and two weeks from leaving the other model had to pull out because her mum was ill, so CBS asked if I wanted to do Survivor.
Survivor is tough. Really tough. We were all really sick the entire time but the fact that you're playing for a million dollars keeps you going. But I liked having no cellphone, not knowing what time it was and being outdoors all the time. When I got home, for the first few weeks, I had to sleep outside in my volleyball sandpit.
Back in Colorado, I helped build two craft beer bars — literally built them hammer and nail — and someone from New Zealand came into Jake's Brew Bar and asked if I'd run their place, The Cove, on Waiheke Island. I had no idea where that was but I heard "New Zealand" and I was like "ooh yes, adventure yes".
I met Bianca on Waiheke and I knew within weeks of meeting her that she was going to be my person for life. We got married a month and a half after meeting and now I work with her company, Potiki Adventures. I can't do any of the tourism stuff because it's all cultural and I'm not Maori so I work in the background, making sure everything is beautiful, the food is delicious.
I mostly work with kids, tramping with young people who are doing their Sir Edmund Hillary Awards. Or with prisoners. We take some of the worst young offenders in the country on simulated camping experiences. That's so rewarding. They're just kids, so to be reminded there are good people out there who care how they turn out when they're released back into the communities is so important. We also work with teen mothers from Northland, all Maori women, and help them connect with the outdoors and their heritage.
Maori culture is so beautiful to me. It resonates in my heart and I can't watch a haka or hear a song or see a welcoming ceremony without crying because it touches me so deeply.
