This is one of the most celebrated celebrity events: Nivea’s yearly parties to welcome the summer. Personalities, media, and stars take a break from their social commitments, writing and acting jobs to have fun under the sun. Anyone who’s been to a Nivea event knows that they have the reputation of pulling out all the stops to ensure that everyone invited has a great time.
Sports Unlimited has been to every Nivea event since they started celebrating summer fun. The event that was held in the paradise-party island of Boracay was outrageously enjoyable, so was the year when Nivea booked the whole Club Noah Island Resort in Palawan so it would be exclusive for all Nivea guests, now that was a grandioso good time. Last year, Nivea jumped on our adventurous and extreme bandwagon and held their summer fun event at the Camsur Watersports Complex where everyone got a taste of cable wakeboarding. It was different and daring and downright fun. Each Nivea event has had everyone saying "WOW!" and we don’t expect anything less than "WOW" on this trip. On this Nivea Refreshingly Fun Under the Sun event, all guests were planed into the largest city in Mindanao, Davao, and from there transported to one of the most popular islands in the Philippines, Pearl Farm.
More than 50 celebrities, personalities and media people were welcomed at the Pearl Farm docks by dancers in colorful costumes accompanied by musicians who played ethnic Mindanao music that put everyone in a festive fun mood right from the get go. Check out this year’s celebrity roster: Pretty faces filled the island, Mylene Dizon, Joyce Jimenez, Bubbles Paraiso, Allesandra Da Rossi, Reema Changco, Say Alonzo to mention a few. A cool event needs cool cats; here are some, Jomari Yllana, Joey and Jeremy Marquez, Jordan Herrera, Antonio Aquitana, JM Rodriguez, Paolo Contis, Boy2 Quizon, Mark Herras. Of course I came with my favorite cool guy, my son Mathew and my partner Marc came with his amazing race sidekick Rovilson and their new buddies from the race, Paula Taylor and Vanessa Chong. The adventurous and competitive couple, Ernie and Jeena Lopez would not pass up an event like this. Put together friends, fame, and a fantastic island for a weekend of fun and games and "Wala!" you have a guaranteed event to remember.
All guests on the first day were assigned to a Nivea team that will compete in various challenges, there were five teams.
The Nivea Visage Pink Team captained by Mylene Dizon,
The Nivea Sun Yellow Team captained by Reema Chanco,
The Nivea for Men Green Team headed by Boy2 Quizon,
The Nivea Body Orange Team headed by Alessandra de Rossi and finally..
The Nivea Baby Blue Team led by Jeena Lopez.
Which celebrity Nivea team will be the champion this year, you can never be sure, but you can be sure that all these teams are in for a lot of play and pleasure in the next couple of days here at the Pearl Farm Resort in Davao, all care of Nivea.
Speaking from experience, what makes the Nivea games more challenging and fun is that nobody has any idea about what the teams will be doing except for the organizers of LenPlus who have been putting together all the Nivea celebrity events since the beginning. This element of surprise has been a Nivea event trademark.
Before the games began we were all briefed by an old Sports Unlimited buddy, Brad Turvey who is this year’s games director.
The first game would require all members of the team that are all tied up together by a garter to search the grounds of the resort for all the letters that spell Nivea. Each letter will contain a clue as to the whereabouts of the next letter. Once the team finds all the letters to spell Nivea, they then have to proceed to Maranaw Beach where they need to do a last task of forming the word Nivea using only their bodies. The key to winning this game is first being able to figure out the clues as to where to find the letters and then more importantly is to do it at the fastest pace possible. The twist to this game is that all members are tied up together, so if any member of the team cannot keep up with a fast pace, that will slow the whole team down.
Our yellow team did not have a good start on this race; we could not get it together. We were having a hard time finding the letters and that was not the last of our problems, our team mate Nadia Montenegro had trouble breathing and needed medical attention, not good. Apparently, we were not the only team that was having a hard time finding the letters around the resort; Joey Marquez’s team was having the same dilemma.
This next race takes us to the water…Teams need to start out from Pearl Farm and the finish line is on Malipano Island. There are many modes of transportation the teams can choose from to get all their members to Malipano Island as fast as possible. There were 5 jet skis so each team could use one but the problem was which watercraft would be attached to get all 10 members to the other island. Because our yellow team arrived on time, we were given the reward of having the banana boat. There were only two banana boats; there were also paddle boats, an inflatable kayak and a regular kayak. Each team took much time to strategize amongst themselves what would be the best way to get all 10 to Malipano the fastest way. After much debate, our team decided we would do two trips, Jet Ski pulling banana boat. We were behind after the first trip, but orange had a spill, the banana boat tipped over and spilled some members in the water.
Jomari, our jet ski driver, being a race car driver drove like a maniac to pick me up with the rest of the guys on the 2nd trip, but the banana boat was tied too closely to the jet ski it was very unstable, and Marc tipped, we picked him back up and made it in time to 2nd place to the island.
The Orange Team had pretty much the same strategy as our yellow team, they also decided to use the banana boat, but the difference in strategies was that they decided to take their whole team in one shot and risk tipping over and having to go back to the starting line. The orange team’s strategy paid off. They decided to go as a whole team and risked the fact of tipping over; they did not and ended up first to Malipano Island with our yellow team coming in second. Moral of the story, sometimes we got to learn to take risks. Noted.
This next game is definitely a first for us and totally unexpected. Basically, the object of the game is to climb for food. Climb as in climb a tree. Clarification, the food is not in the tree, the tags are. The tags have the names of the food. Rules of the game, assign one team member to be the climber and get the tags off the tree. It’s These tags that have the names of the food, the higher you climb, the better food you get and the higher points you score. As you’re assigned tree climber gets the food tags, the rest of the team gets to eat the food that is written in the tag. I know what you’re thinking, how do you assign who is going to struggle to climb the tree? And who Reaps the rewards and eats the food? Answer, the climber’s mindset needs to be “Do it for the team”. This game has that "Survivor” feels to it, don’t you think?
The Filipino loves food, no surprise there. Nivea knowing that fact, served us food like it was going out of style. It was like every meal was "the Last Supper” re-created. Davao is known for its sumptuous seafood and we got a taste of that. Japanese food is big on this island, our pallets got to sample the freshest sashimi you can imagine. It was buffet galore in Pearl Farm all through out this Nivea event no matter what time of day it was. With food like this, the motto for this event could be, "when the going gets rough, the tough teams “go eating!” The food we had here was fit for kings and queens, oh and fit for special Nivea guests. Here’s another fitting motto, "work hard, play hard, then eat hearty.
Nivea is the type of celebrity event that thinks of nothing else but pleasing the guests. When the games were over, there were all sorts of amenities that all guests can enjoy. There was ample time for pleasure, relaxing and playing in the Pearl Farm pool being one of the favorites, a time to catch up with celebrities you don’t get to see everyday, a time to act like a kid again, a time to just chill and not think of anything else but having refreshingly good fun under the sun.
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