When Fairmont Hamilton employee Sheridan Cann was named as Employee of the Year he chose to go on a trip of a lifetime to Kenya.

Imagine being nominated as the best employee for just doing your job, and then being offered to visit a place that you had only dreamed about one day visiting.

Well this is the story of Sheridan Cann, who is a long service employee, at the Fairmont Hamilton.

Up until winning the position of best employee, Mr. Cann was a regular viewer of The National Geographic channel, so when he won, a safari in Kenya was an obvious choice.

Being nominated, he said, "took him off his feet at the time."

Mr. Cann was also twice nominated for the Visitor Industry Partnership (VIP) Awards.

"They approach you out of the blue and no one knows who is going to get anything and all of a sudden your name is called and goosebumps come all over you," he said of his win.

"Once I new what the prize was, it even blew me further. Also my wife was here and she was quite disappointed because she had just gotten up to go to use the restroom and when she found out, she was speechless."

Mr. Cann has been employed for 43 years, back in the days when the Fairmont Hamilton Princess was simply, the Hamilton Princess.

Asked if it was his first post out of high school, he said: "No I had two other jobs before this.

"I didn't plan to stay here for this long, but at the time I was encouraged to come here because my mother worked here at the time, and the job I was doing wasn't paying that well."

On entering the hotel, he began as a houseman and he said: "Every time I made attempts to leave, I was encouraged to take on another position," he said.

He began in housekeeping as a houseman, and then as head houseman. The hotel later needed someone skilled at shampooing carpets, they hired him, sent him on a course in Florida, and he did that for a spell.

After which, Mr. Cann said he became the assistant to the executive housekeeper and supervisor of the male staff.

But within this time, the engineering department was always encouraging him to join, so after the hotel closed and reopened in 1984, he went back to work as a trainee carpenter.

He then learnt his trade from three older carpenters, said Mr. Cann.

"I picked up from all of them, carpentry is creative and once you know the basics, the rest is up to you."

Mr. Cann now saves the hotel thousands of dollars, by making use of the skills that he gained in that establishment. He built a new front desk from scratch and the chief engineer reported a savings of over $8,000. He has also made cedar nameplates that are designed and tailor-made for his colleagues.

"I like to do a little something creative and whenever you get the time to do something like that, I do it."

On a day to day, Mr. Cann says that it often goes beyond carpentry, explaining that they cross train each other.

"I have been a locksmith, fit doors, and the key locks - I taught myself how to pull them apart and put them back together."

Sometimes he is called upon to open a guest's suitcase, and a host of other duties.

Mr. Cann has also repaired the huge cedar front doors, which he explained are nine-foot-ten-feet and two-and-a-quarter inches thick.

When asked whether he has an assistant, he said no, but he and Kellianne Smith, the hotel's human resources director, said they were interested in someone who had an interest in learning the trade.

"For him to walk out the door with 43 years of experience, he is just taking so much with him," said Ms Smith.

"If there is a young person who is interested in learning carpentry under one of the best."

Of his trip to Kenya, he said: "I went on every safari that I could go on!

"It has always been a dream of mine and my wife, Claudette, has always said, 'oh I have to watch all of the animals again or National Geographic again?

"So you know I had always looked at all of that stuff and I always wanted to go and see it, so when I saw that the option was there, I knew I wasn't going to even look at anything else.

"We have been married for 30-odd years and we went to Mexico on our honeymoon, so I had been to those places."

They were made to feel almost like royalty on their trip he said.

"From the greeting that we got when we first arrived at The Norfolk Hotel, in Nairobi - they made you feel like VIP," he said.

"No, no, Mr. Cann, we've got that, because I'm used to grabbing stuff. My expectations were far exceeded."

They then left The Norfolk and went on a two hour drive to the Aberdare National Park and from there you are taken to The Ark Reserve.

"The Aberdare is just a stop off point and in the distance you can see The Ark and it looks like Noah's ark," he said.

"It is out in the middle of nowhere. I mean you are driving through the bush for hours going into the jungle.

"Once you go through the catwalk they lock the gates and you can't come out. But there is a big clearing in the front gates, and they sprinkle salt in the sand and the animals come there all day, trying to get the salt out of the sand.

"It is a marsh there for drinking water, but they put the salt there to attract them."

However it was not a place where you stayed for a long period, as living conditions were at a minimum.

"The rooms are just big enough for a bed," he said.

"And at night they have a faint buzzer that indicates that an animal has shown up - there was one night and a rhino showed up with a baby."

The best way to describe The Ark was to imagine a cruise ship.

"The way it is designed ¿ is if you go to the lower rear deck there is a little bunker, which has stones in front of it," said Mr. Cann.

"Most people come and stay for two nights and that gives you more than a full day on safari."

They then went up to the Aberdare Mountains where he saw water buffalo and baboons.

"We went to see the waterfalls, where they say that Queen Elizabeth had gone up a Princess and came down as a Queen because her father died.

"They have a little area that they built for her and we went there and saw the falls.

"That was one of the most memorable moments, because when were going there an elephant came out of the trees and starting heading for us. I looked at the guide and thought he's not worried, so he must know what he is doing. And then I asked if they carried guns, and they said no, and I said, 'wait a minute now?'

"I mean the road is narrow and he was wagging his trunk and coming right at the jeep. He started the engine up and started revving it up and it shooed him away."

On the return journey, they also took great shots of a leopard sitting on the side of the road.

They also went to the Nanyuki Mount Kenya Safari Club Reserve, which he described as being similar to the Elbow Beach with the main hotel and cottage colony.

"But it is in the middle of nowhere," he said.

"It is a huge property surrounded by an electric fence to keep the animals out, but as soon as you get outside you see the hyenas and baboons."

After that they went to the Maasai Mara National Reserve at the Fairmont Mara Safari Club.

"That was on the other half of the Serengeti and each tent is facing the river and right below there the animals converge, but they can't come up the side that we were on because of how steep it is.

"The first night was a bit of a challenge, because there is an animal called the (tree) hyrax and it looks like a beaver without a tail. But it makes such a shrieking noise in the trees.

"They gave us one of the best rooms, so the tent we had was on a concrete base with a shower and room and they put a tent right over it, so nothing can come up from the bottom. There was no lock and key.

"After the first night you get used to it."

It was amazed him that it was the animals that were in a sense more free that him, as they were in a cage on wheels, whilst the animals just roamed freely.

"I can compare it to fishing, as when you go out there, there is nothing but open land as far as they eye could see.

"They knew where to find different animals and we came across a pride of lions and you could almost reach out and touch one or to see a cheetah that just made a kill.

"And then the vultures eating a carcass and the hyenas crunching away on something that was left over.

"They are allowed to be as wild as they are, as some points are 300 miles across."

The Maasai, he said, are often seen walking alone in what he classed as the middle of nowhere.

"They carry a little sword and they know the animals and how they act," he explained.

"They wear a lot of red and beads. The homes are made of dung and they are built by the women and they don't smell."

Another thing that he saw had nothing to do with wildlife.

"I was standing right on the equator for my birthday, which was on September 11," he said.

"It was amazing because of the magnetic fields the water flows in different directions from the south to the north."

They also went the Carnivore Restaurant, which is an open-air meat specialty restaurant. They have every type of meat imaginable, including four choices of wild game, ostrich and crocodile, which is roasted on traditional Maasai swords over a huge, visually spectacular charcoal pit that dominates the entrance of the restaurant.

"The only other thing that I did eat was ostrich meatballs," he said.

"All night long they come around with legs of lamb, loins of pork, and when you are full you have to lie the flag down.

"It is almost like a giant Swizzle Inn."

Mr. Cann said it was a wonderful fortnight.

"You don't turn on TV and see someone at war with someone, and it wasn't until we came back to The Norfolk that we thought, what's happening around the world.

"I think that anyone who likes that environment - it will be a great trip."