The Star: July 15, 2021

The Star Thursday July 15 2021
18
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
‘It was my favourite country of my entire journey’
INTO ASIA: Phaup-Stephens educating the village children
in Laos about her journey, and with the NZ Army troops in
Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
• From page 17
A police escort took her the
last 200km out of Iran. She had
reached an international kidnap
zone and drug area.
She shared Pakistan with the
Black Caps.
In a small village, Phaup-Stephens,
wearing a New Zealand
cap, was pushed to the front of a
room filled with people in front
of a tiny TV screen to watch the
match between her home team
and Pakistan. Everyone believed
Phaup-Stephens when she joked
Daniel Vittori was her cousin.
The easiest visa for Phaup-
Stephens to get was for Afghanistan.
She looked up the
NZ Army website, found their
location in Bamiyan and sent an
email asking if she could call in
to say hello to the troops.
She rocked up at the base with
Tankini.
“The look on the guards faces’
were priceless.”
Taken under the lieutenantcolonel’s
wing – who had a
daughter Phaup-Stephens’ age
– she got to meet Afghanistan’s
Governor-General and Fawzia
Koofi, Afghanistan’s first female
member of parliament.
She met a mother with 30
children and visited a national
park modelled on a Department
of Conservation park.
“It was my favourite country
of my whole entire journey,” she
said.
“It was nothing like I had ever
thought it would be. It was nothing
like the media portrayed. The
people were so welcoming.”
From India, she travelled
through Nepal.
“I got really fit but struggled
with hills, but if it got too hard,
I just got off and pushed, I was
ripped,” she said.
Her staple diet during the
journey consisted of rice and
bananas, and Coke if she could
afford it.
Unable to cycle through Tibet,
she considered taking a plane.
“But at that point, someone
said to me, “Kiwi birds don’t fly.”’
That cemented her determination
to continue her journey
overland, and she booked a place
on a train going on the Tibet-
Qinghai railway, which took her
into China, 10 months into her
journey.
The line passed through Tanggula
Pass, which is 5072m above
sea level and is the world’s highest
point on a railway.
From Laos, she went to
Thailand, Singapore and then to
Indonesia where she was stuck
for a year.
She spent months emailing
yacht clubs, harbour masters and
boat owners trying to hitch a
ride to Australia, while working
in a dive shop and as an au pair.
Phaup-Stephens travelled to
East Timor for Anzac Day on a
ferry “like one of those ones you
see on TV sinking all the time.”
Crewing a superyacht, owned
by an Australian billionaire
eventually took her to Australia.
“It should have taken 12 days
to get there but it took 24,” said
Phaup-Stephens.
“It was horrific. We were so
close to running out of food and
fuel.”
Most of the trip was pirate
watch.
Phaup-Stephens arrived in
Australia with $84 to her name.
She got a waitressing job in
Yeppoon for three months, then
cycled and sailed down the coast.
The final jump was another
mission. Luckily, Marmite NZ
was running a competition at the
time. They were turning 100 and
were going to bring 100 Kiwis
home.
Phaup-Stephens was one of the
winners, but refused the plane
ticket home so they swapped it
for some money, which she spent
on a cargo ship, hopping off in
Tauranga on December 15, 2010.
She made it back home to
Christchurch, via train, just in
time for Christmas – 20 months
after she started.
Her old boss saw her on the
news during her “30 seconds of
fame,” and she had her old printing
job back within 24 hours.
Phaup-Stephens also joined the
Army Reserves after the February
22, 2011 earthquake.
Back at work, her colleagues
helped her track down McLeod
whom she had lost touch with
after leaving New Zealand.
“I was a wee bit surprised
when I got Kylie’s call but I
thought it would be good to
catch up,” said McLeod.
He had seen Phaup-Stephens’
adventures on TV.
“I thought it was a pretty out
there and daring thing to do,
and it was interesting to hear all
her stories,” he said.
Over Easter this year, they got
engaged.
“The Highlanders unexpectedly
thrashed the Crusaders, and
it’s been a long-standing bet that
if that happens, we would get
married,” Phaup-Stephens said.
McLeod was born in Oamaru
and is a “staunch Highlanders
supporter” said Phaup-Stephens,
while she is loyal to the Crusaders.
“We were sitting on the couch
when they won and Sandy said,
well, will you marry me?
“I thought, well here we go, I
finally did it,” said McLeod.
Phaup-Stephens said she was
so shocked she ignored him and
McLeod had to ask again.
“I was mostly just shocked
the Crusaders had actually lost,
but of course I said yes,” Phaup-
Stephens said.
Their daughter, Paige, turned
seven last Tuesday.
When the proposal happened,
Phaup-Stephens said Paige was
so excited, she was running
around the lounge saying,
“Mum’s going to have the same
last name as me!”
Paige has been “a life-changer,”
said Phaup-Stephens.
And even though she would be
terrified, she hopes one day Paige
will venture out on her own big
adventures just like her mum.
Tankini is now retired in the
garden shed.
Her family go camping around
the South Island for holidays.
Although Phaup-Stephens still
prefers freedom camping, she
compromises with McLeod who
prefers caravanning and the luxuries
of power and running water.
“When we go road tripping,
my man still laughs at me
because I am so bad with directions,”
Phaup-Stephens said.
“But I’m always the sort of
person that prefers left over right
or to flip a coin for which way
I’ll go.”
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