(this is the #31 giveaway enabled post - check the giveaway details below)

Where And When? 😎

It was a truly amazing, rewarding, recharging, unique and priceless experience. I can say, I regret nothing of the amount of NZ dollars I have put into this trip, and yes it was quite expensive for a family like mine, but because I was for a long time buffering for it, financially possible. So, in my view, this is a totally plannable thing for ANY Hive person who would love one day to attend one of these.

And again, the reward? You can't even imagine it long-term!

I will make a few points about it further below, but before doing that I will get to the juicy highlights and experiences I had and my feedback towards those.

To start this journey, I needed to pick a great picture for this post... and because I am not a great photographer, guess what... yep, it's someone else's picture! 😎 - but an awesome one in my view!

(by @bil.prag on this post)

And for me, it says it all, we all are Hive!

And if you wish to get into more experiences (not just mine), please check the HiveFest Community posts or my reblogged ones (I did a few of the ones I caught, but there are tons of them). In general, there are already soooo many experiences and details from everyone, that obviously I was not going to do a retrospective of what happened. Instead, you can get to that on other's posts and check it out for yourself. I am going to focus on my experience.

This was me in the Park with the family 2 weeks before HiveFest, thinking I would get my hat in time (which by the way, spoiler alert, I didn't, but more on that later). This version I am wearing was the first one, and the best result in the front I got.

Around this time, I was getting super excited about going out and all my thoughts were around wrapping work as much as possible... hence my "not so happy expression" on that day. The sun was not helping too... but that's irrelevant.

I had prepared most, in terms of how I was going to #giveaway my other two hats, but I didn't have a clue of what to expect, hence why I changed things a bit (more below) later on.

Either way, I was motivated as HELL to get off work, have a 35-hour journey to Split, and enjoy the most of it! My expectations from the organizing party were quite high, but that was not even 50% of my objective (meeting people!).

The day finally arrived, and I had made my way to the airport in Wellington. The day was super nice (as you can see above), and that helped with the nerves a bit. Leaving family behind is always a stressful thing when you are travelling across the planet...

The sky was blue and the way to Wellington Airport is like a 10-15 min drive (when not even less)... the runway is very short (not A380s here, but Boing 747's used to land here in the past), but doesn't pose any challenges for takeoffs!

Finally arrived at the airport, and to my best surprise, I see @gtg (Gandalf The Grey) on a fricking giant Eagle! This Wizard is an important piece of the puzzle in this trip... (and he might not even have known by then, but you were mate 😉, thanks).

Did you notice my narrative mood swap? Yep! Intended... the journey has started, NOW!

Forky, not Frodo... was ready to fly! All the magical rays shining on meeself... and I even received a blessing from an unknown future wizard...

(Onboard on Hive) - an MP3 sound of my 4 year old son saying this... before I left Wellington...

Working on making something on this...

We went through the magical conical nuances of taste, in preparation for the desires of teleportation conjurations into Split Shire! And suddenly, before dusk, the empowering force of moving a big eagle bird out of New Zealand, finally took place.

Let's GO!

And we (yes @gtg was coming along with, in his spiritual magical eagle) did magically appear in Sidney! 5-ish hours of hard work teleportation done... Super efficient, but I was drained... These special conjurations take a lot of energy, and I always got very good advice from another "top of the hearth" (not Middle Earth) friend, @detlev said once to me, that when you are in need, BEER will follow.

And there I did, followed the advice, recharged my mana, and solved most of my pakapaka (Maori noum for dryness in this case, but not sure if best suited)! Ready..ing... myself towards the next jump... I told @gtg to go ahead because this bird was way bigger than his eagle! 😜

And you can see @gtg taking off on the top left, disguised as a "real-life" eagle! Ahead of myself... Go go go! Not sure how, but some minutes after he was already in Europe! 😁 Moving towards HiveFest Shire...

I had then to recharge my mana and using the chambers of rejuvenation, did put some magical ingredients into play. They did an amazing work of restoring my health at least 69% fold 😏. The Elixir bar master was also very good... 😉

Fast forward... I was ready for the final jump. It was a dark split matter! Ready to enter a new world of wizardry and find members of the hive community... I was fricking eager!

I did manage to transverse the last portal safely, and the first hiveiens I encountered were a powerful triplet of @vsc.network people! One of those hiveiens (@geo52rey), did actually come on the same teleportation tunnel as meeself... @vaultec can confirm!

(Funny note about this "transportation tunnel", aka plane, was that it would make a similar noise as a 50cc scooter would do when you rev it repeatedly, furiously teasing someone. I have the sound recorded on my phone. It was very funny among the people on the plane, before it took off, while taxing through the airport)

In sum, they conjured IRL stuff against meeeself, and I was so blasted, that I took their verification chamber into the depths of Split. They offered free passage... so as an explorer, took it as a token of our friendship (more potion details later on). 🙏

After my arrival, I was in need of an HIVE power rejuvenation elixir. That happens to be the Super GRIM drink (I would read CRIM, from @crimsonclad, but that's just me... 😜).

Me transforming into a new Hiveien... 🤩

Me spreading my ATX into double vision (a BEER in NZ)...

The Split Shire weather was magnificent...

Here, on a remote paradisiac beach, where the rejuvenating water was 25 Celcius, I found more hiveiens, @louis88, @rivalzzz, @masterswatch, an obscure hive dark side friend, and two mermaids pending being introduced to the Hive blockchain. 😎

The countdown for the first Split Shire meeting was impending... and the weather was sooo nice!

Finally at the drinks place to start meeting everyone else, and no one was paying attention (in the above picture) to @forkyishere but he (ME) was having a fricking realization... 😍@lordbutterfly to whom I shook hands and then forgot I had the next day 🤣😎 (the night was full of magic 😜)...

Also, notice @gtg trying to empower @akipponn with her Hive amulet! While @roelandp was powering up before the actual HIVE labelling would drive him crazy... 😅 (lots of hard work doing this... 🙏 tks for it, I surprisingly know why...)

This night was the night I met most of the #hive people I already knew on-chain... introductions night. I had a really PUMP evening on this day. To the surprise of everyone... NO PHOTOS! It was GOOD! REALLLLY GOOD... 😜 I can't spare more details, I just lived that moment in Split... 😎

Rest assured, the morale was amazing... I met probably 20% to 50% of people on the first day (more than 50%, I already knew already on-chain). And that was the amazing 😍 thing (and one of the objectives) to me. I can't name them all, but it doesn't matter, because they all know I really enjoyed meeting them (at least now 😏).

HiveFest 2024 - Split - Photos of the Opening Drinks in Paradiso Bar

You can find images to this day across many other posts (check above link for example)... 😜 - so, I am not going to repeat what's already on blockchain. Go find more posts on the #HiveFest community.

(by @louis88)

In this day, I did made an effort to touch base with almost everyone (all of you were A LOT). Sorry if I didn't have a longer chat with you or we did met in this day or later ones. Some people might have even got random handshakes, but I most of the time knew who they were (or now I do), so hopefully they knew the same (if not, no worries). It was all a respectful thing anyhow...

And all I wished for was to say "Hey, this is Forky, nice to meet you and thank you for all you do towards this community" 😎 - even if the handshake was quick and unnoticed... 🙃

New DAY! I remembered waking up early... 6 AM thing... JetLag was helping... probably! But I slept like a baby... and I was ready 💪 for the DAY! - Famous last words... 🤣

This day, we were meant to be on a new, what was to be known as "GreenHouse" (Greta might have been proud!) and have a nice amount of people presenting super interesting stuff.

First... I left the "dormitory" place and joined the unknown obscured friend, that was lingering around a magical bus stop, like me... 😎

I thought we could use these boats... but somehow he or I didn't want to go rouge the first (second) day... 😏 yet!

And here is an image of the wild life of Split people... that don't yet know the #Hive potential...

We both enjoyed the (rushed?) walk to the first (second) day of the conference.

We have then arrived the doors of Meštrović "GreenHouse!", the doors of the first Hive event! You can watch the YouTube Live Stream here.

The place was epic... HOT! 🔥 - literally... just check other posts. I mean, I am suspicious because I struggle with too warm places... like, above 24C and I am suffering... 22-ish is the right spot!

Sounds weird for a Portuguese that had 32C at some midnight nights in the past... but yep. Wife disagrees...

And before you knew it, both @arcange and @roelandp were doing their thing... Starting the magical stuff.

By the end of the day (actually even before that), most of us were actually outside of the "GreenHouse" that Greta would have found "green" 😁 - you can see some resistance... check other's posts and you will see what I mean.

Some examples from @louis88!
HiveFest 2024 - Split - Speaker & Hivians Photos Conference Day 1 in Gallery Meštrović - Part 1
HiveFest 2024 - Split - Speaker & Hivians Photos Conference Day 1 in Gallery Meštrović - Part 2
HiveFest 2024 - Split - Speaker & Hivians Photos Conference Day 1 in Gallery Meštrović - Part 3

I was one of them... sometimes or whenever possible... 😅 - it was HOT 🔥🔥🔥

The first conference day eventually came to an end. The food was OK (in these hot conditions and remotely from a proper kitchen, you can't wish for much more). I have enjoyed particularly the cheese and dried ham things... being Portuguese... the canapés were also great (especially the salmon-based ones, for me).

Drinks-wise, I think it was a good idea to avoid alcohol =) Especially under this heat day! Otherwise everyone would get drunk! The heat would definitely invite it... Maybe a "pool" would have been great? Next time! 😜 Cheaper also...

By the end of the day, we got some local refreshments... The comeback to European beer for me, was really insightful! 😇 - revealing what I have been learning in New Zealand.

Then we got into the Gala dinner... where my journey to come back to people (restarted) and meet you all kept being a great distraction. But at the same time, I couldn't miss the opportunity to deep dive into local residents (NZ). And I had some great chats with @eturnerx on my left (not seen in the above picture), and had the pleasure of having some #crypto talk stuff (like my old days since 2013) with @jza too.

On the same table, we had the Rally mate @ssekulji, to which was really nice to talk to (and another person I don't recall if your co-driver? forgive me for messing up that)! We also had the amazingly supporting and curious @basilmarples (great time with you mate) and @steevc that Man Himself!

The food was really nice and quite fancy! This one was a first to me.

And this one was 😋 delicious!

Overall, it was a very high-end dinner, with proper entertainment and drinks. I have enjoyed...

Soon after this... WAIT A MINUTE... 15 minute read post? Na na na... sorry everyone, we will have to split 🤣 this into two posts. It will either be somewhere between now and the next HPUD or on the next HPUD. Hope you don't hate me for the long suspense! It will be worth it...

You might recall I wanted to give away two ATX hats during #HiveFest in the previous HPUD post, and that was the real honest idea. But then while attending to @hivefest, I realized the benefit would be better distributed among the people that didn't go and still support what I do.

So, after this post curation (also), I will be awarding two (2) of these (above) hats, to two distinct participants of the ATX pools (either and yes if you are on both pools you will have more chances).

Note that if you have two or more accounts in the pools, I will only count 1 address as valid a participant. I don't want for people to game the system, so I will only reveal the method of lottery when I award people.

All you need, is to participate in the pools!

(and you will be eligible... depending on the amounts in, it will slightly give you some extra benefit, but don't worry about it if you just want to participate)

• To add liquidity to ATX:SWAP.HIVE pool
• To add liquidity to ATX:BEER pool

Or you can find each pool with a single link for any action... like 👉 this 🙏

And as usual, any questions... let me know! I will always try to help you...

My 🖐️ motivation!

Have fun, play games, learn, and when possible, teach new things to newcomers, showing them how interesting this place can be.

🤝 Follow me on X

@forkyishere 😈 (@forykw dark side) is a character I created, which emerged from Crimsonclad imagination 🙏 while dwelling over the dark dungeons of Discord chat levels.

Follow for #news about the #HIVE #Blockchain, and other stuff. I sometimes get crazy with what happens around social media. I am following all HIVE users! No promises of behaviour. 😁

In addition, if you are looking for a nice place to either reach out, share or just have a great time, come along to @atexoras.pub gatherings. We welcome everyone on the blockchain.

👉 Vote for Witnesses

(⚡Vote) - Hive-Engine here - voting uses staked WORKERBEE
(⚡Vote) - HIVE here - voting uses staked HIVE

(✍Delegate) - 3Speak Network - You win 0.015% SPK tokens if you delegate LARYNX to other nodes, as opposed to only 0.010% from your powered LARYNX!

@forykw is running 😎 @atexoras.witness on all the above 💪

📰 Public Hive Engine Infrastructure

• Cloudflare Protected
• HE RPC (https://he.atexoras.com:2083)
• HE P2P (https://he.atexoras.com:2053)
• HE History (https://he.atexoras.com:8443)

Any feedback/problems, feel free to contact me! My stuff is being monitored via UpTimeRobot where you can find their current status or just come along to the ATX Discord server.

😎 Looking for some #HIVE merch? (ASK ME) - I did try to setup something but I don't have the time for it anymore (for now). 😘

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