We recently returned from ‘Rendezvous Canada’, an annual gathering that features a showcase of Canada’s best Tourism products, along with a large contingent of foreign buyers. This year’s event was hosted by the City of Halifax, NS, whose proximity to Newfoundland allowed us an opportunity to host two, post event, “familiarization” trips for clients who were especially interested in purchasing our tourism products. Thankfully, McCarthy’s Party Tours were chosen to guide this enthusiastic group of ‘International Selects’.
“…returned from Rendezvous Canada…”
Though these “Fam” trips are often a hurried affair, our schedule made allowance for “special” stops to witness those momentous occasions which can, and often will present themselves at the most unexpected times here in Newfoundland. An especially brilliant decision, for there were several such occurrences which delayed our arrival and made our days that much more spectacular.
We saw an eagle pluck a fat, old, flat fish from the shallow waters of Colliers Harbour. The goats at the Doctor’s House Inn had delivered several new “kids” just before we arrived. A minke whale arrived early this year, leading us all around Bay Bulls Harbour before we even got handy to the ‘Bird Islands’. The Sullivan boys put on a ridiculous performance at their song house in Calvert. We found a chap on the top of Signal Hill who was kind enough to stop and pose for us with his two Newfoundland dogs. Young Claire Gatherall surprised us with an impromptu ‘Screech In’ ceremony aboard her family’s tour boat. The head archaeologist happened to be on site and took the time to provide a thorough interpretation of the “dig” atJohn Guy’s first colony in North America. And let’s not kid ourselves, the beer at the Quidi Vidi Brewery was really cold, and the musicians at Green Sleeves Pub wouldn’t break long enough to use the toilet, let alone catch our breath.
“… beer at the Quidi Vidi Brewery was really cold…”
These all provided good reason to stop, but the longest delay was experienced when we dropped down off the hillside highway and hooked the corner that delivered us to the beach front in the town of Cavendish – site of the classic Newfoundland advertising photo with the three, brightly painted fishing stages. This is undoubtedly a beautiful vista, selected from many thousands of similar sites found throughout the island – but what really amazed the group, evoking the most joyous chorus of squeals, was its authenticity.
They’d visited many places, perused endless pieces of fulfillment literature, and viewed thousands of promotional videos, but never had they seen anything quite like this. They explained that their world is filled with digitized images, enhanced colours, special effects, and yes, even photo shopped features – thus, they never expect to capture those “Kodak” moments in a real-life environment. Yet here things were true in every detail, and their personal photos were arguably finer than those found in our province’s own photo catalogue. As such, Newfoundland was aptly rewarded when they chose this image as the new “profile” picture for their social media site.
“…profile picture…”
If a picture is worth a thousand words – you can only imagine the stories they’ll share when they post the rest of their album.
Thanks for visiting.
Go safely, come back safely, Godspeed.
