Josh Aperahama-Painanui, trip manager for Contiki, talks to Elisabeth Easther .
I was born and bred in Tawa, Wellington, but most of our family holidays were to the Coromandel. We had a little plot of land at the Hahei caravan park that was hired on a yearly basis. Our tent went up in exactly the same place each year till one year we found out they'd sold it and built cabins so we couldn't go back. That was quite sad. When I was a kid I remember loving a travel show called Wild On! so mum took me down to the local bookshop and I bought a map of Europe and drew a route of all the places I wanted to go to.
When I went to the UK on a rugby contract, during the summer months I jumped on a Contiki trip. I went through the brochure and found a tour that went to all the places I'd wanted to go. It was a 32-day camping trip in peak summer and it was hot, no one slept in a tent, we pulled our mattresses out underneath the stars. I become good friends with the South African driver, and he said I should apply to work for Contiki - that I had the right sort of personality.
When I was working for Contiki in Europe, at the end of the summer season, sometimes a big bunch of staff would get together and plan a destination and in 2009 about 30 of us went to Southeast Asia. When you get tour managers and drivers together, out of work, they switch their brains off and become the most stupid travellers in the word, a huge cluster of stupidity. So what we did was, one person took charge each day, they'd plan our train tickets, our hostel, and what activity and that's your day done, because your brain turns to mush.
When you've got 53 people on the bus, the hardest thing is trying to cater to everyone's needs. Everyone comes with expectations. Some people want culture, others want adrenaline and some just want to party - so it's kind of hard, especially at night time, when you're in smaller towns like Waitomo or in the Bay of Islands. It's quite hard when you get a lot of Sydney socialites who get all dolled up to go to the Waitomo pub and the guys there are all in gumboots. But when you get an amazing group it doesn't feel like work, it's like doing a roadie with 53 mates - 99 per cent of groups are like that. If they're having an amazing time, we're having an amazing time, too.
