Hap happy to end world quest

RUSSELL PALMER

Hap Cameron – who has returned from Africa after completing his goal of working on every continent in the world before the age of 30 – is getting ready to write a book about his adventures.

He celebrated his 30th birthday on 11/11/11 watching the sun rise from Africa's highest point at the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Then, just before coming home, he was robbed by a man posing as a musician.

He got home safely, though, and having grown up in Richmond, he said it was always good to be back home in Nelson.

"Nelson is one of the best places in the world from my travels, and lucky we are to call it home."

Mr Cameron said he would be spending this year writing a book and helping documentary maker Richard Sidey finish a film about his job in Africa with the Bicycles for Humanity charity.

The charity packs a shipping container with old bikes donated from the Western world, and ships it to Africa.

On arrival, the container is converted into a bike shop and the charity works to train locals in bicycle repair and running a small business.

"A bike is like a poor man's truck because they're used for everything," said Mr Cameron.

"You can cover five times the amount of distance and carry four times as much, and the kids, instead of having to walk for an hour to get to school, they can just cycle."

Setting up the bike shop had its own challenges, because working in Africa was a challenge in itself with a different way of doing things.

"We had to drill something into the work bench and no-one has a drill so we had to get a carpenter and he had to kind of chisel a hole into this workbench, so something that would take only a couple of minutes in New Zealand ended up taking a lot longer."

He said the whole process of getting the right tools, combined with a relaxed attitude, made it hard to get things done.

"It's their life, they get up in the morning and have to go get firewood to cook with," he said.

"One of the guys working at the bike shop was bringing half a cup of sugar to work and that was his lunch, he just mixed it with some water."

He spent roughly three months from July working with the charity in Katima Mulilo, Namibia, and then about two months before his 30th birthday cycling "basically the length of New Zealand" through southern Africa.

He said despite not having cycled much before, it was an amazing way to travel, and when it got dark he would set up his tent by the side of the road or at the closest village.

"Sometimes they would invite me to come and eat with them and stay the night, and these are people who have next to nothing."

If you were travelling on your own it was always hard to know who to trust, he said, "but you have to trust someone if you're travelling on your own in Africa or you just don't get anywhere".

Then, shortly before returning to New Zealand, he had most of his belongings stolen by conmen.

The day before, he had enjoyed the sights of Tanzania's largest city, Dar es Salaam, with a generous local man who showed him the sights.

He said that after nine years of good travelling experiences he had got a bit over-confident, and the next day turned out to be the day of his worst luck. He was approached by a young man who said he was a musician, and as Mr Cameron was looking for local music for the documentary, they went to get some copies of a CD with the man's friend.

"But suddenly we're pulling into a dirt road and a big man was getting in too, and alarm bells were going off in my head.

"He hops in and the windows go up and the doors lock, and my mate William says, `I'm going to kill you'."

They took his debit card and most of his belongings, including his pocket knife given to him for his 12th birthday, rings, his watch and his laptop.

Thankfully, the footage for the documentary had been backed up.

Despite the difficulty of being left with next to no money and then having to catch his flight three days later, Mr Cameron made it home.

The intercontinental traveller said he had worked at least 25 jobs in 30 countries, from volunteering on an oil rig to working at an orphanage in Mexico.

Now that he's back, he says the journey has been his goal for the past nine years and has taken up "pretty much my whole life" for the past four years at least.

He is busy writing his book, to be published in November, and will meet film-maker Sidey to put the documentary together.

"I just want to share my story to help my fellow Kiwis, especially young people," he said.

"There's so many opportunities here [in New Zealand], especially [after] coming from Africa – there's just no opportunity there."

He said there should be a trailer for the documentary in March and it will be available in June.

To hear the rest of his story, check hapworkingtheworld and bicycles-for-humanity.org.

- © Fairfax NZ News