Dara Simkin and Catherine Fleming, two friends from Florida, USA, will take on Tassie in the fourth leg of the 13,000km, year-long, around-Australia Van-Tastic Adventure, hitting Devonport on December 23 (after taking the ferry across the Bass Strait).
Taking the baton in Melbourne from Briton, Tim Akroyd, who completed the Victoria leg and posted a host of quirky videos, Dara and Catherine will drive Geoff, the Van-Tastic van on a six-week adventure through the Apple Isle, dropping him off in Melbourne on January 27.
The girls won their free, six-week adventure on the basis of their application video – it’s their task to showcase Tasmania through their blogs and videos, which will be posted on the Van-Tastic Adventures website.
Tourism Tasmania, Van-Tastic and the Tasmanian tourism industry have teamed up to provide Dara and Catherine with a swag of adventures to report on during their trip. Although it’s Australia’s smallest state, the girls will have their hands full kayaking on the gorgeous Freycinet Peninsula; mountain-biking Mt Wellington; hang-gliding over Launceston’s Cataract Gorge; cruising the magnificent East Coast and Gordon River; camping in the pristine Tarkine; rafting the rapids of the Franklin River; discovering the state’s convict heritage at the Port Arthur Historic Site; sampling Australia’s premium beers at Boags and Cascade; exploring some of the famous walking trails, such as Cradle Mountain, and a dozen other adventures, including coming face-to-face with a Tasmanian Devil. Along the way, the girls will be enjoying the hospitality of the Cradle Mountain Chateau, Strahan Village and the Art Hostel to name just a few.
They’ll be in Hobart in time for the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race – one of the world’s great ocean races, the Hobart Summer Festival, from December 26 to 30 and MONA FOMA (January 8-24)– the ground breaking urban arts festival curated by Brian Ritchie (formerly of the Violent Femmes). New Year’s will be welcomed in partying at the Falls Festival (December 29 to January 1).
Applications are still open for the final two legs of the Van-Tastic Adventure, a competition designed for enthusiastic and adventurous travellers who are willing to tackle – and capture on video – one leg of an Australia-wide road trip.
The winning teams of one or two travellers will be flown from wherever they live to Australia and will spend six weeks driving across the country in Geoff the Van-Tastic van, which is fuelled up and kitted out with camping equipment and all the technology to enable them to capture their adventure on video and in blogs.
Applications for the Van-Tastic Northern Territory leg close on January 17, 2010. The last leg, Western Australia, closes for applications on February 28. The Van-Tastic Adventure finishes in Perth in June, 2010. At the end of the adventure, the viewing public will vote for the best video produced during the year-long, 13,000 kilometre adventure – and the winning team will take home $10,000 cash.
To apply for the remaining legs, and to see how the first teams fared on their holiday of a lifetime, visit: http://vantastic.worldnomads.com
After six weeks, many adventures and several thousand kilometres, Tim Akroyd – British film-maker, blogger and winner of the WorldNomads.com Van-Tastic Adventure Victoria leg – will roll into Melbourne’s Federation Square in Geoff, the Van-Tastic van, on December 15.
Fed Square marks the end of the third leg of the seven-leg, around Australia Van-Tastic Adventure challenge, which started in Brisbane in August and will end in Perth in June, 2010. International teams of travellers will drive each of the seven legs, recording their adventures in blogs and videos in a bid to win the grand prize of $10,000.
Tim’s series of quirky and clever videos show him jumping (in a blond wig) from a plane at 10,000 feet over the Yarra Valley; fumbling his attempt at being an Aussie Bloke; sharing a beer with the stars at the Neighbours Trivia Night; exploring some of Victoria’s lesser-known tourist attractions such as the ‘miraculous’ Pond of Life – and even taking Geoff (a garishly-painted Toyota Hi-Ace Hi-Top van, fully decked out as a camper) for a couple of hilarious hot laps around Phillip Island.
The van will be parked outside the Transport Hotel on the Swanston Street Forecourt of Federation Square (see map attachment). A highlights video will be shown on the big Fed Square screen between 9.30 and 10.30 am on Tuesday,
December 15. Tim will be available for interviews and photo opportunities.
Tourism Victoria , Van-Tastic and the Victorian tourism industry teamed up to provide Tim with a host of adventures that took him and Geoff, his colourful Van-Tastic chariot, from Sydney to the Great Ocean Road, from Melbourne to Phillip Island and the Bellarine and Mornington Peninsulas’ (where he swam with dolphins and sea horses, respectively), through Wilsons Promontory and Gippsland before paragliding in Victoria’s high country. Having fallen in love with Apollo Bay along the Great Ocean Road he then took a loop back for one last surf before the last minute dash back to Melbourne.
For the past five years, Tim has been making ‘Snowfix’, the world’s most popular skiing and snow-boarding podcast, as well as a TV ski show that screens across Europe on the Extreme Sports Channel.
Tim will hand the Van-Tastic baton to two American girls, Dara Simkin and Catherine Fleming, who’ll take Geoff through Tasmania on the next leg.
Applications are still open for the final two legs of the Van-Tastic Adventure, a competition designed for enthusiastic and adventurous travellers who are willing to tackle – and capture on video – one leg of an Australia-wide road trip.
The winning teams of one or two travellers will be flown from wherever they live to Australia and will spend six weeks driving across the country in Geoff the Van-Tastic van, which is fuelled up and kitted out with camping equipment and all the technology to enable them to capture their adventure on video and in blogs.
Applications for the Van-Tastic Northern Territory leg close on January 17, 2010. The last leg, Western Australia, closes for applications on February 28. The Van-Tastic Adventure finishes in Perth in June, 2010. At the end of the adventure, the viewing public will vote for the best video produced during the year-long, 13,000 kilometre adventure – and the winning team will take home $10,000 cash.
To apply for the remaining legs, and to see how the first teams fared on their holiday of a lifetime, visit: http://vantastic.worldnomads.com
Calling all hungry travellers in Melbourne.
Come down to Federation Square and meet Tim, the winner of Van-Tastic Victoria, check out his videos up on the big screen, enjoy a snag on us (that’s Aussie for free BBQ) and take a tour of Geoff the Van from 9.30am to 10.30am on Tuesday 15 December.
Where: Meet us in front of Transport Bar on the Swanston Street forecourt of Federation Square.
When: 9.30am to 10.30am Tuesday 15 December
WorldNomads.com Van-Tastic Adventure Announces Winners of South Australia Leg
World travellers, Steve Beyatte and Victoria Brewood will take on South Australia as the winners of the next leg of the WorldNomads.com Van-Tastic around-Australia Adventure.
American, Steve and Briton, Victoria, met on New Years Eve in Portugal and have been travelling the world ever since. They’ll pick up Geoff, the Van-Tastic Adventures van, in Melbourne on February 3 and drop him off in Adelaide six weeks later, on March 17. Their task? To ‘road test’ the best of South Australia’s holiday and adventure offerings – and share their adventures with the world via blogs and videos on the Van-Tastic Adventures website.
Theirs will be the fifth of seven legs of the Adventure, which started in Queensland and will see seven teams of travellers drive Geoff more than 13,000 kilometers through every state and territory of Australia. Steve and Victoria won their free, six-week adventure on the basis of their application video.
The South Australian Tourism Commission, Van-Tastic and the South Australian tourism industry have teamed up to provide Steve and Victoria with a host of adventures to report on during their trip. They’ll be wine-tasting in SA’s wonderful wine regions; heading deep into the Outback on a walking safari in the Flinders Ranges and trying their luck, mining for opals at Coober Pedy. They’ll be in Adelaide for the Fringe Comedy festival – second in size only to Edinburgh’s Fringe festival – when the entire city becomes the butt of its own jokes.
There are plenty of wildlife encounters lined up: swimming with wild tuna and sea lions at Port Lincoln; getting up close and cuddly with koalas on Kangaroo Island and – if they’re up for it – diving with the ocean’s most fearsome predator, the Great White shark.
Says Steve, “Excited? Excited doesn’t even touch the surface of what we are! Everyone says South Australia is the ‘real’ Australia so we’re stoked to be spending six weeks getting to know it. Throw in the whole activity-packed Aussie road trip and a shot at making a kick-ass web series and we’re blown away.
“But diving with the sharks… That one’s going to be a real challenge on the nerves!”
Applications are still open for the final two legs of the Van-Tastic Adventure, a competition designed for enthusiastic and adventurous travellers who are willing to tackle – and capture on video – one leg of an Australia-wide road trip.
The winning teams of one or two travellers will be flown from wherever they live to Australia and will spend six weeks driving across the country in Geoff the Van-Tastic van, which is fuelled up and kitted out with camping equipment and all the technology to enable them to capture their adventure on video and in blogs.
Applications for the Van-Tastic Northern Territory leg close on January 17, 2010. The last leg, Western Australia, closes for applications on February 28. The Van-Tastic Adventure finishes in Perth in June, 2010. At the end of the adventure, the viewing public will vote for the best video produced during the year-long, 13,000 kilometre adventure – and the winning team will take home $10,000 cash.
To apply for the remaining legs, and to see how the first teams fared on their holiday of a lifetime, visit: http://vantastic.worldnomads.com
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Congratulations to Victoria and Steve who have been selected as our Van-Tastic SA Ambassadors. Check out their winning video.
Victoria is a fun-loving English gal and Steve is a adventurous American. They met New Years Eve last year in Portugal and have been travelling together ever since. She is a broadcast journalism graduate and he is a techy web designer and together they think they have just the right chemistry to make an excellent Van-Tastic team. According to Victoria they are “up for absolutely anything” and not afraid to make a fool of themselves… Sounds like our kinda couple!
Desparate to avoid the dreary 9-5, they bought a one way ticket to Bali where they embarked on a working holiday trip of a lifetime and now they are ready for OZ.
They just can’t wait to experience the great South Australian outback, see the wildlife on Kangaroo Island and guzzle some of those Barossa great reds. The question is will they pluck up the nerve to dive with the great whites?
We are still looking for 2 teams for Northern Territory and Western Australia. Send in your video for the Van-Tastic Northern Territory roadtrip by January 17th 2010.
