Don’t mention the War … to the German Journeyman

Brief stop at the Nelson Lakes on the way to the West Coast.

We drove from Picton to Hokitika today to set ourselves up for the glaciers tomorrow.  The road trip would have been 5 hours non-stop but naturally we stopped a little bit. 

We picked up a hitch hiker Phil from Germany who was bound for Greymouth (in our direction).  He is a journeyman… meaning a crafter (cabinetmaker in his case).  As part of his post-apprenticeship worldly experience he has to travel the world for three years and one day (while working) with certain rules in place:

• Starting with only EUR5 in his pocket.
• Never paying for accommodation (exceptions allowed while overseas)
• Never paying for transport (exceptions allowed while overseas)

The whole idea is to see the world and get to know people while honing his trade skills.  It was good to see traditions living on in this fast changing world ... he also had his traditional costume plus a walking stick.

We stopped and showed him the sights along the way, namely at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks. 

Naturally, we engaged in conversations with our guest … Kim started talking about Omaka and the World War I aircraft but I had to discreetly remind him “Don’t mention the War!”.  Much like Fawlty Towers, for those of you who are familiar.