Trip of a lifetime for Teuru

She’s one gutsy young woman to have undertaken such an extensive overseas trip on her own after her traveling companion, a friend from England, was forced to return home part way into a world tour.
Eighteen year old Teuru Passfield of Matavera set out from Rarotonga in July 2009 for London where she and her friend from England were to purchase their round the world tickets for a trip of a lifetime.
To finance her trip Teuru had worked 3-4 nights a week after school. After she left college, she worked full time at a day job and also a night job. On top of those two jobs she also worked at a Saturday job.
One set back she had was that at the start of 2009, her wallet was taken and somehow her bank card was used by someone unknown to draw money from her bank account.
To save money, she planned to travel on budget flights and stay in youth hostels.
The trip to meet up with her friend in England, took her through New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia. On arriving in London, she spent to night at the airport then traveled to Cornwall and the small city of Truro where her friend lived. She spent four weeks in Cornwall and then spent two weeks in Blackpool staying with an Aunt. She spent a day in Liverpool and a day in Manchester. She also visited the Lake District and Nottingham.
The main part of her trip began when she and her friend set off for Paris, crossing the Channel by ferry. After four days in Paris they went to Amsterdam by overnight bus and spent 5 days there. Traveling by overnight bus meant saving on a hostel fee.
From Amsterdam they traveled to Berlin and spent a week there before going on to Frankfurt for two days.
After Frankfurt they went on to Italy and spent a month there visiting Venice, Palma (for two weeks), Florence, Rome and Naples. It was in Italy that her friend had to end her journey and return home to England. For Teuru it meant having to make some big decisions about whether to carry on alone or give up. She decided to carry on alone but cancelled her round the world ticket and shortened her trip to take in just Europe and Thailand where her mother was working. The original plan was to take in America, Asia and Australia.
Teuru went on to Athens for a week then on to the Greek Island of Mykonos where she spent 2 weeks with a NZ Maori woman and her Greek husband.
After Greece she went to Turkey where she spent 9 days visiting several towns ending up Istanbul for 2 nights.
Next, she visited Portugal and spent a week in the north working on a family friend’s permaculture garden.
Following this she went to Spain and spent a week in Barcelona.
From Spain she flew to Thailand to spend three weeks with her mother in Bangkok.
She then went to NZ to spend Christmas with family in Auckland. After this she went to Australia’s Gold Coast and spent three months with family. Then she spent time with her father in Fiji before traveling to NZ and back to Rarotonga. In all she was away for 10 months.
Teuru admits that traveling alone was difficult at times especially when she was lost in big cities. For most of the time she felt quite safe and there were only two incidents of concern.
The first was when she was in Greece. She was stalked all day by an Egyptian man who followed her everywhere. He even propositioned her.
In Turkey she found the men really forward and they made comments. One man who worked at the hotel she was staying at propositioned her with marriage.
Generally, being on her own, she found it easier to make friends and meet people. Obtaining cash was not a problem as there were ATM machines everywhere. For accommodation, she selected those youth hostels rated highly by other travelers, and with the lowest prices, to stay at.
Due to her travel plans being disrupted by her friend having to return home and her round the world ticket being cancelled, the costs mounted up and she estimates she spent about $10,000 on flights, transport, accommodation and food. With better organization she says she could have made savings.
Despite the changes to her travel plans, it has not put her off traveling again. Teuru would like to do another major overseas trip, this time to South America but would go with a companion. She would also travel to Europe again as next time she knows what to expect.
For the time being, she’s back home and faced with the reality of having to re-build her finances. She now has a full time job and is contemplating going to University next year to do Education.
She wants to take up teaching.

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