Anything wrong with putting the OTP code in the subject line, as well as the email body?
This will prevent emails from threading and in general, allow the user to fetch the code faster. By default, it's just in the body.
Am I missing anything?
When I was younger I was such a nomadic soul. I was raised in New Zealand and my first job was as a ski instructor. Then I became a white-water rafting guide in the early Nineties [says Hamish McMaster, 59].
My first global adventure was in 1995, with three friends. We drove a VW campervan from Switzerland to Kathmandu. We travelled through Iran, which was one of the friendliest places on earth — so friendly that strangers invited us to stay with them and we rarely had to book a hotel. Isfahan, south of Tehran, was a highlight: we bought a carpet and the seller took us to dinner. You couldn’t have met more welcoming people.
For half of the Nineties, I’d worked as a rafting guide. The lifestyle meant I could camp outside for 300 days of the year — I found it hard to sleep inside. The sense of freedom and being really present, with no distractions, is incredible. There’s something truly magical about sleeping under the stars, hearing the sound of the river, waking with the sunrise and feeling alive. Returning home to four walls always felt constraining, and for me requires a period of adjustment, though I must admit that as I get older, there are some merits to sleeping in a comfortable bed.
McMaster’s career meant he could camp outside for 300 days of the year
I met my wife, who’s English, in 1999. We settled in her home town, just outside Doncaster. My business, Water by Nature, which organises rafting and sailing experiences, had been up and running for a couple of years by then. I promoted it initially in a way that I thought would capture the public’s attention: by taking a rolled raft — 16ft long, 100kg and with a capacity for eight people — on the London Underground and inflating it in Leicester Square. It didn’t work that well. I spent the day freezing cold and only collected a few pennies from one lady who thought I was taking donations for the RNLI. It didn’t deter me, though — I’m a Kiwi; we’re resilient.
I spend more time on the water now than I do in Yorkshire. In many ways, I lead a double life. My marriage ended in divorce in 2020 so when I am at home, I’m dad to my two children, Holly, 19, and Josh, 17. I’m cooking, cleaning, going to school events — then I’m off on the water.
McMaster: “There’s something truly magical about sleeping under the stars”
It’s hard, of course, not being there to share in my children’s lives 24/7. I hate missing their sports matches and activities, but the flipside is that they support me and are used to me being away.
We make time count when we are together and have had lots of adventures that many of their friends wouldn’t dream of: rafting in the Grand Canyon, road trips across Europe, wakesurfing and surfing, cycling, sailing, being campervan “roadies” through New Zealand. They started their own adventures when they were very young, rafting with me on the Salmon River in Idaho, aged four and seven. Once a year, I let them choose a new place for us to visit.
I do have an office job when I am back home — selling trips, managing logistics and generally running the business. It’s not all time on the river. Reporting to a boss or permanently sitting at a desk isn’t for me, though, and I’m grateful I don’t have to do that. The variety and excitement of experiencing amazing places and seeing the smiles on customers’ faces first-hand is what I need.
My new partner, Melissa, lives in York. It’s hard not to be with her all the time — she has her own job at home. As our children grow (she also has two children from a previous relationship) we do know we’ll have more time together eventually. And I’m not tied to a mortgage, as I rent my home.
McMaster is never more comfortable than when out on the water
I based myself in the UK because of my children, but they are growing up and I plan to return to New Zealand at some point in the next few years. The culture back home is very relaxed — I love it. England is a beautiful country, its history and countryside especially, but I can’t quite shake the desire to go back to my homeland. Melissa is originally from South Africa and has also lived in England for most of her adult life, but neither of us has ever felt fully settled here.
Running trips in New Zealand, which span the North and South Islands, will keep me somewhat nomadic. I will continue to travel abroad, particularly in French Polynesia, where I run sailing adventures — it’s another place I could easily imagine living, on board a boat, spending my days showing people the region’s beauty.
In many ways, my life has been richer for not living in a house. I appreciate the world around me and live in the moment. When I see my friends and family, I make the most of the time I have with them — I try not to look back or forwards. That’s what travelling and living outside gives me — the ability to be fully present.
