Press Releases

For media partners and general media, this kit includes a detailed outline of the Van-Tastic Adventure, WorldNomads.com profile, Van-Tastic media release, partner profiles and imagery.

Click to download the updated WorldNomdas.com Vantastic Media Kit

Tim Akroyd – British film-maker, blogger and winner of the WorldNomads.com Van-Tastic Adventure in Victoria, Australia – has hit the road, making a bee-line in Geoff, his colourful Van-Tastic chariot, for Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road. And he’s already posted funny first-impression videos of his six-week adventure.

Victoria is the third leg of the Round- Australia Van-Tastic Adventure, which will send teams of travellers from around the world on an adventurous road trip through every state of Australia. Along the way, they’ll blog, snap and video their adventures, in a bid to win them the grand prize of $10,000.

Tourism Victoria, Van-Tastic and the Victorian tourism industry have teamed up to provide Tim with a host of adventures to report on during his trip, which started in Sydney on November 3, and ends in Melbourne on December 15.

Tim has spent his first few days getting used to the Aussie climate (after wintery England) and surfing Johanna Beach on the Great Ocean Road.

“The highlights so far have been catching my biggest wave ever at Johanna Beach – and living to tell about it! I’ve been blown away by the intense colours of the place – greens and blues – the weather’s been perfect and we’ve had awesome sunsets every night,” said Tim of his time so far.

Tim plans to touch down in Melbourne, November 17-19 before heading down the Mornington Peninsula and to Phillip Island for the penguin parade. Then it’s north through Gippsland for some horse-riding; Bulla for mountain-biking; the Grampians and a last dash along the Great Ocean Road to arrive back in Melbourne in time to hand the baton on to the winners of the next Van-Tastic leg: Tasmania.

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.

Throughout his Victorian trip, he’ll be drawing on his film-making expertise, his on-road and off-road adventures – and the local ‘talent’ he meets along the way – to fuel his blogs and fill his video posts on the Van-Tastic website.

The competition is still open for adventurous film-makers to apply for the last three legs of the Van-Tastic Adventure. To see Tim’s posts, apply for the remaining legs, and to see how the first teams fared on their holiday of a lifetime, visit: http://vantastic.worldnomads.com

Sydney, Australia, October 26, 2009 – WorldNomads.com today announced that two American girls from Florida have won the Tasmania leg of the WorldNomads.com Van-Tastic Adventure. This is the first time in the history of the competition that a team of Americans have won the Australian contest.

Dara Simkin and Catherine Fleming, friends from Florida, will be hitting the road for the Van-Tastic Adventures road trip through Tasmania starting on December 19. They’ll take the baton from Tim Akroyd and will drive the Van-Tastic van on a six-week adventure around Tasmania that will end in Melbourne on January 30. Theirs will be the fourth of seven legs of the Adventure, which started in Queensland and will see seven teams of travelers drive Geoff, the van, more than 10,000 miles through every state and territory of Australia.

The girls won their free, six-week adventure on the basis of their YouTube application video. They’ll fly to Melbourne to pick up Geoff and then 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 host of adventures to report on during their trip. Although it’s Australia’s smallest state, the girls will have their hands full covering kayaking on the gorgeous Freycinet Peninsula; mountain-biking Mt Wellington; 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!  They’ll be in Hobart in time for the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race – one of the world’s great ocean races – and the Hobart Summer Festival.

Applications are still open for the Van-Tastic Adventure, a competition designed for enthusiastic and adventurous travelers who are willing to tackle – and capture on video - one leg of an Australia-wide road trip. Three legs are still on offer, where teams of one or two travelers can win a trip to Australia and spend six weeks driving across the country, capturing their adventure on video and in blogs, with a chance to win $10,000 cash and flights from Virgin Blue. Applications for the Van-Tastic South Australia leg close on November 29.

To apply for the remaining legs, and to see how the first teams fared on their trip of a lifetime, visit: http://vantastic.worldnomads.com

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WorldNomads.com provides global travel safety products and services to travelers from over 150 countries around the world. From great value travel insurance, travel safety advice, language guides and free online travel journals, WorldNomads.com provides the tools to keep our clients travelling safely. All clients can donate to a community development project when purchasing travel insurance through the Footprints Charity program. WorldNomads.com is backed by a suite of strong, secure, specialist travel insurance companies. For more information visit http://worldnomads.com.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES:

Kerry Lorimer, Splash Communications, +61 (0) 411 50 329, kerry@splashcomm.com.

Alexia Nestora, Lasso Communications,  +1 303 898 3376, alexia@lassocommunications.com

Editors Note: Follow the VanTastic Adventures around Australia:
Van-Tastic Adventures Facebook Fanpage, World Nomads Group in YouTube, Vantastic Adventures Channel on YouTube and Van-Tastic Twitter

Who needs the best job in the world, when you can have the best holiday? Leading on-line travel insurance company, WorldNomads.com is calling for adventurous travellers to apply for the ultimate Aussie road trip, driving the WorldNomads.com Van-Tastic van across Australia, all expenses paid, with a bunch of adventures and technical gizmos thrown in – plus the chance to win $10,000.

The Van-Tastic Adventure is open to travellers from anywhere in the world – and entry is by a two-minute video, posted on-line. The road trip is divided into seven stages, starting in Cairns, ending in Perth, with one team driving each leg.

WorldNomads.com will fly the seven teams from wherever they live in the world to the starting point of their leg and supply them with fuel and all the technical gear they need to blog, video and podcast their trip along the way. State Tourism Offices and local tour operators in each state have put together a swag of adventures and experiences - from SCUBA diving to sky-diving - for the teams to sample en route. Then it’s up to the team members to have the time of their lives!

“We’ll fly seven teams of up to two people to Australia, and give them the Van-Tastic Van to drive one stage across the country for six weeks. They’ll share their adventure online, making videos, stories, and posting photos, and ultimately creating a mini-video documentary of their trip,” explained Tara Parsons, WorldNomads.com Program Manager.

“The van, supplied by our friends at Travellers Auto Barn, will be loaded with camping gear, video camera, laptop, editing equipment and wireless broadband access, and each team will have free internet access at Global Gossip café. At the end of the Adventure, in July 2010, our on-line community will vote on the best team video, and that team will win $10,000 and two Virgin Blue domestic flights, each to the value of $A500.”

Kiwis, Hamish Cross and Adam Rikys have just completed Stage One, from Cairns to Brisbane and their blogs and video diaries can be seen at http://vantastic.worldnomads.com. Stage Two, from Brisbane to Sydney, set off this week.

Applications are open for the final four stages, to drive through Tasmania, South Australia, the NT and Western Australia, with applications for the final, Western Australia leg closing on February 28, 2010.

To apply, budding filmmakers and charismatic travellers need to visit vantastic.worldnomads.com and prepare a two-minute (or less) video of themselves showing off their filmmaking skills – and their lust for adventure.
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MEDIA ENQUIRIES: Kerry Lorimer, Splash Communications, +61 (0) 411 50 329, kerry@splashcomm.com.
Editors Note: Follow the VanTastic Adventures around Australia:
Van-Tastic Adventures Facebook Fanpage, World Nomads Group in YouTube, Vantastic Adventures Channel on YouTube and Van-Tastic Twitter