In 1951, during a working holiday in Sweden, I met a New Zealander at the hostel where I was living. Six months later we were married in Amsterdam and decided to hitch-hike to New Zealand.

I had spent my early childhood under German occupation and experienced the trauma of war and starvation and the thought of moving to the other side of the world greatly appealed to me.

We left Amsterdam on the first of March hitch-hiked through Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Syria and Irak to the Persian Gulf. We travelled by day and found a cheap hotel or hostel to spend the night. Sometimes we were invited home by strangers who gave us a lift. In Bahrein, we found a Norwegian tanker bound for Fremantle whose captain was prepared to take us.

We crossed the Indian Ocean during monsoon time and I was seasick for three weeks!

We arrived in Fremantle and spent two days in Perth, then travelled by train to Sydney and from there by flying boat to Auckland, where we arrived on a beautiful winters morning. It had taken us 5 months, we had travelled 40.000 KM, had many adventures and now we were ready to settle down and have a family.

Little did I know then that 30 years later I would be living here in Perth with my family..........Toni