Two Bay of Plenty couples are driving from China to Europe in their 4WDs. Tauranga's Maurice O'Reilly says they typically get the response 'better you than me” when they tell people about their trip.
Maurice, his wife Anne and Martin and Jeanette Knudsen from Te Puna, are travelling the journey together, each couple driving in a separate 4WD.

The vehicles were shipped from New Zealand to the Chinese port of Shenzhen two months ago.
They are spending the next three months driving from China, through Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, hoping to finish in Poland by early June.
'After 18 months of preparation, it's a bit of an anticlimax,” says Maurice.
Maurice and Anne have done similar trips before, travelling in a vehicle from London to Cape Town and from Singapore to Europe.
'This part of the world is going to be different from anywhere else we've travelled because of the political situation.”
The group is being forced to travel with a guide for the entire month as they journey through China.
'They want to keep tabs on us. They are even stipulating what hotels we can stay in,” says Jeanette.
Despite this, she says the trip is an adventure.
'An opportunity like this only comes around once in a lifetime.”