'Do you have a story to tell'

Looking back through the GTI Archives, I came across the following article written by Wendy Painter way back in September 1994, long before the internet became such an important part of every day life for many and made it so much easier to make contact with likeminded people interested in home exchange. The New Zealand Outlook publication had asked the question ‘Do you have a story to tell’, which prompted Wendy to turn her hand to journalism and write to them about her exchange trip which was published in September 1994.

“Celebrating an Anniversary”

“Our journey of a lifetime – and it took nearly a lifetime to make the trip.

In May 1992 we celebrated our 34th Wedding Anniversary, having both retired. I remarked to my husband that our next Anniversary would be a Coral one and I would like some, not of course from a reef, but to pick it up from a beach in Fiji on our way to realise our life’s ambition to see New Zealand. Green Theme International put us in touch with a family in Wellington who wanted to visit relations in the UK.

It was all arranged via letters, photographs and the odd phone call, and finally we departed from Gatwick in September 1993 en-rout to Fiji via Los Angeles. We couldn’t believe how easy it all was. Having previously only been out of the UK once as far as the Canary Islands, this was quite an adventure.

We spent seven weeks in New Zealand living in a lovely wooden house in Wellington (typical of the houses in New Zealand), whilst its owners were in our house in Cornwall. We were met and made very welcome by their parents, whilst our son was welcoming our exchange partners to Cornwall.

While in New Zealand we hired a camper van, another new experience, and travelled as far as 90 Mile Beach, which is quite a long journey from Wellington in North Island. The country was as beautiful as we expected, and the people were so friendly and kind to us. We have nothing but praise for Air New Zealand and the cabin crew.

When we got back to England our family informed us that they would like to emigrate and if the Government approved our application, would we go with them? You bet! So here we go again with Air New Zealand via Fiji of course.”

Shortly after this before she and her family departed permanently for New Zealand, Wendy Painter called in to our office to show me her published article, and photographs etc of their home exchange trip. I have often wondered over the years how they all settled down and whether they ever did an exchange in the reverse direction at a later date?