Living dangerously! MARIA'S NEXT-LEVEL TRAVEL TALES

Writing about Kiwi daredevils has given the author itchy feet

- Fleur Guthrie

She’s sailed down the Nile in a wooden felucca boat, worked as a shepherdess in Israel and sheltered in an Indian wildlife park when nearby riots broke out.

Needless to say, Kiwi author Maria Gill has always been up for an adventure, while being equally fascinated by others who also head out on intrepid journeys.

It’s what has inspired her latest book Epic New Zealand Adventurers, where she tells the true stories of well-known legends such as Sir Edmund Hillary and Jean Batten – but also those who have gone on more unknown and dangerous adventures.

“The youngest explorer in the book is Laura Dekker, who was only 14 years old when she set sail from Holland to navigate the world in her yacht,” says Maria, chatting to the Weekly from her home in Point Wells, north of Auckland.

“But the one who surprised me the most was Helen Thayer, now aged 85, and considered by the National Geographic Society to be one of the most important explorers of the 20th century. Yet most New Zealanders have never heard of her!

“She was the first woman to walk solo to the Magnetic North Pole, aged 50. The first woman to walk across the Sahara and the first woman to walk the Gobi Desert, aged 63. Just amazing.