<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>July</strong> <strong>15</strong> <strong>2021</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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. “<strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> final jump was another mission. Luckily, Marmite NZ was running a competition at the time. <strong>The</strong>y 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 <strong>15</strong>, 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. “<strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong>ir 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.” How the Marvel Health Screening Reveals some of the Hidden Causes of Chronic Digestive Disorders At Marvel Health, your healthcare starts with a full-body health screening. Our understanding of healthcare is that we need to discover the underlying cause of diseases before recommending therapy that supports the healing of the body. <strong>The</strong> Marvel Health Screening examines the entire body in detail, including the organs of the digestive system, the stomach, intestines, Liver and Pancreas. It identifies the possible diseases of the Gut and their underlying causes. 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