Globe trotters make Bay stop

An Argentinean family travelling the world in their 1928 Graham Paige vintage car have made a pit stop in Tauranga.
The family have spent much of the past nine years driving around the world in the car, crossing between countries onboard ships.

The Zapp family with their 1928 Graham Paige, which they are driving around the world. Picture courtesy of Tauranga’s Maurice O’Reilly.

Herman Zapp, his wife Candelaria and their four children stopped in Tauranga for a few hours on Tuesday, having lunch with locals Maurice O’Reilly and his wife at their Tauranga home.
They arrived in New Zealand with their car via ship after spending five months travelling across Australia.
About nine years ago, they set off from their home in Buenos Aires and travelled up the west coast of South America, down the Amazon River, up to Panama, Mexico and into the USA.
They drove across the US, where their first child was born in Oregon and second child on Vancouver Island.
The Zapp family are now on the Asian and Pacific leg of their dream to drive across the globe.
They will depart Christchurch for Indonesia on ship when they have finished exploring New Zealand.
“Their thinking is that you only get one shot at life and they are not going to do it the normal way,” says Maurice.
“The future is totally unknown to them because they might change their mind tomorrow.”
The Zapp children, aged between seven months and nine years old, are educated along the journey through correspondence and Maurice says the children are excelling in their subjects.
“They get top marks in geography,” says Maurice.
The Zapp’s journey is funded by the proceeds of a book the couple have written ‘Spark Your Dream’.