16 women, 3 chauffeur-driven Kombi vans, one Girls Road Trip Edition of the Getting Lost Game and absolutely no idea where we were going or what we were doing!
16 women, 3 chauffeur-driven Kombi vans, one Girls Road Trip Edition of the Getting Lost Game and absolutely no idea where we were going or what we were doing!
It’s an idea that had been kicking around in our heads for ages. What if we organised a massive Girls Road trip? It had been kicking around for ages because, well, it was hard…. What would we travel in? Who would come? How would we find them? When did we all have time? Could we afford it? You know, the usual procrastinating things that stop you doing the things you talk about.
And then in November we decided to build a life size Kombi van for a trade show out of cardboard (honestly, we do stranger things every day here at Getting Lost so have stopped even thinking that sentence is strange).
That led us to thinking how fun it would be to go on a road trip in some Kombi vans. Which led us to finding Kombined Experiences - an Auckland based company with 3 beautifully restored, chauffeur driven Kombi Vans. Which led us to finding out what day in Summer they were free. Which led us to the most important thing - who to invite to fill 3 Kombi vans….
Van 1 was easy. It had to be the Matakana Girls. With friendships spanning decades, this group of women in their 60’s also included my Mum and Aunty. They were the catalyst for the Girls Road Trip Edition. A keen group of road trippers who loved a long weekend, some good wine and a laugh - they wanted a Getting Lost Game that would lead them on the perfect girls road trip. And so the Girls Road Trip Edition was born.
Van 2…. Well that had to have me, Jo and Alice - the core Getting Lost team. No way were we missing out. For those of you who don’t know - Jo is our Operations Director and also my sister. We’ve been working together pretty much since we started Getting Lost. Alice is our cousin (yes, we like to hire family!) and joined us a year and a half ago to help out with orders - we grew so much that she now runs our office and manages all our key retail accounts! We figured as this was the family van already we should add in a few more so we loaded it up with the rest of our cousins too.
Van 3…. That was trickier. So we opened it up to public entry on our Facebook Page. We were inundated with entries from women all around New Zealand and Australia. So many epic stories of enduring friendship, decades of road trips and women who uplift each other. And the pictures - so many great pictures!! After a lot of procrastination (and the eventual help of a selection criteria) we narrowed it down to 12 finalists. More debating and our final team was chosen - a toy shop owner from Christchurch and her friends (including another toy shop owner from Auckland).
So we were ready - 16 women from all around New Zealand (sorry Australia - but we’re planning a road trip there this year!) ready to adventure. Absolutely no idea where we were going. We decided to try and capture all of this and turn it in to an ad for Getting Lost so we hired a videographer from Perspectives (my dream photography and videography crew). Our brief to him - just capture it all as it happens - no filters - just document the day.
No pressure right? I’ve just invested my years advertising budget in hiring 3 Kombi Vans and a videographer and I have absolutely no idea what we are doing or where we are going. Again, pretty normal day in the life of Getting Lost….
We kicked off at Getting Lost HQ with some bubbles. From the laughs and noise at 11am from the 16 women (a lot of whom had never met each other before that morning) my nerves fell away.
We started with the dress each other at an op shop card. Why? Because it’s the one that everyone loves and it kind of sets the tone for the day. You can play the Getting Lost Game any way you want but I’d seriously recommend a bit of strategic cheating and putting this card up front.
From there we went totally rouge and let the cards dictate our course. Our direction was decided by the longest friendship in the car (22 years - so we travelled 22 kms north), the number of sisters belonging to the women in the car (which had us turning right after 13 roads), and the number of significant exes belonging to the women in the car. We had walkie talkies to talk between the vans so as we trundled down the motorway in 1960’s kombi’s we could keep in touch.
Along the way we had activity cards which saw us going down slides (remember some of us are dressed in evening gowns).
We stopped at a beach - practiced our slow motion dances and raced through the waves (again - remember the evening gowns).
We stopped roadside and made daisy chains.
We followed a red car and ended up at New World where one of the girls in the cars 16 year old son worked. So in we all piled - 16 women, all dressed in crazy op shop outfits. I can’t say he was totally overjoyed to see us but it was definitely hilarious!
We laughed so much it was crazy!! And at the end of the day we pulled the stop for a drink card and found ourselves at a deserted pub. They were rather surprised to see 16 women appear - again, some of whom where in evening gowns - but cranked the music, got the wine flowing and the food on the way.
Yeah, we went a bit boujee with the Kombi vans but honestly, the Girls Road Trip Edition is so much fun no matter what car you play it in - or how many women you have playing with you.