Stranded by coronavirus, New Zealand honeymooners hitch ride from Falkland Islands on Antarctic boat
- The Cliftons, who ended up spending 12 weeks in lockdown with an elderly aunt on the remote islands, are finally home
- Skipper Shane Cottle said he was a bit nervous at first about taking the couple on his vessel, but they turned out to be lovely
Feeonaa Clifton said she had never spent even a single night on a boat before she and her husband Neville embarked on the month-long voyage through some of the world’s most forbidding seas. After weeks spent watching albatrosses and learning how to don survival suits, they were finally able to set foot on land again on Tuesday.
Their adventure began on Leap Day, February 29, when they were married at their Auckland home. They had been together for 25 years and raised three children but Feeonaa, 48, an artist, said they hadn’t believed in the idea of marriage.
“We realised, at some point, we hadn’t actually appreciated or celebrated one another, at least not in front of family and friends,” she said. “It was just something we wanted to do, and the time felt right.”
The plan was to spend two weeks of their honeymoon on the Falkland Islands, where Neville, 59, a communications engineer, was born but left as a young child, and then a month in South America.
