Neither Topher nor I had any 4x4 experience, mechanical background or overlanding history. And with our departure date set for only one month away, we knew we would have to learn on the fly.
This quick departure turnaround also allowed us to keep the entire expedition on the down-low, with our friends and family back home in New Zealand having near to no knowledge of our 3-year world tour. Our aim was to announce the expedition on day one, from the most northern point in the Americas.
We flew from Auckland to Vancouver, and finally met our third companion on the expedition, Gunther, a 2015 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. After one week he was packed, kitted out with little more than a roof rack, and ready to go! We turned ourselves north and began the drive to Deadhorse, Alaska, our expedition starting point.
After 10 days, we reached the end of the road, the distant mining town of Deadhorse. 700 miles earlier we had crossed over the arctic circle, now deep within the northern slope. Here temperatures were sitting between -15 and -30C.
Gunther was parked outside, and we were happily perched within a cafeteria servicing the oil drillers in the area. With no cellular signal, this became our Wifihub to announce the expedition to all of our friends and family back home.
With nervous excitement, and completely out of our comfort zones, we launched Expedition Earth at 8pm on April the 8th 2018. Our website was uploaded, Instagram launched, Facebook status posted, timer began and Garmin GPS live tracker turned on. Our message was clear, 'Follow the expedition as we head south, starting NOW', accompanied by our live tracker GPS link.
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