Unexpected, unforgettable honeymoon for Kiwi couple aboard San Aotea II

A dream honeymoon to the Falkland Islands and South America turned into a swashbuckling sea adventure for Neville and Feeonaa Clifton when Covid-19 thwarted their plans of returning home.

The stranded Kiwi couple will arrive in Timaru on Saturday following 31 days at sea aboard Sanford long liner, San Aotea II, which retrieved 15 fishermen from another vessel the San Aspiring, after they were left with no other viable way home due to the pandemic.

The sea trip home has been part of an adventurous five-month journey beginning on March 3 after the Cliftons who had been together for 25 years, were married in Auckland on February 29, and left to celebrate their nuptials.

“Our whole trip was going to be a six-week honeymoon to the Falklands, parts of South America and Rapanui after we got married to celebrate being together for 25 years,” Feeonaa said.

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“We hadn’t done much travelling together in all that time so the original plan was to stay for two weeks in the Falklands, and then and carry-on into South America for the remaining month.”

A telecommunications engineer, Neville was born in the Falkland Islands so the pair decided to begin their honeymoon there, and had a second ceremony at the Christ Church Cathedral in Port Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands.

“We carried our wedding outfits all the way there, so we could get dressed up all over again, and celebrate with family and friends,’’ Feeonaa said.

“[At that stage] I hadn’t really thought about how serious and quickly the pandemic might escalate, when we left New Zealand, it just wasn’t on the radar internationally, in anywhere other than China.”

In March, while the couple was still in the Falklands, Covid-19 cases in Europe started to escalate, and the “Chilean/Brazilian Covid-19 responses started to fall apart so LATAM flights were being delayed in and out of Santiago [Chile] and Sao Paulo [Brazil]”.

“I think we had a few days in our second week to decide if we were going to get on the flight on the Saturday to Sao Paulo. In the end all flights were abruptly cancelled as Chile and Brazil shut their borders to all foreign nationals.”

Stuck in the Falkland Island with little hope of finding a flight home, the couple explored sea routes.

“It’s one of those ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ scenarios to catch a boat home. I never would have thought this would happen at all,” Feeonaa said.

“In late March we expected to perhaps be delayed by a month and thought flights may resume, and that we may even get an opportunity to pick up some of our remaining holiday on the way home.

“But then this scenario was looking extremely unlikely after the airline called for 11th hour bankruptcy and gave no news of resuming flights to the Falklands.”

The Cliftons looked at several scenarios including a sea route from Montevideo, Uruguay, and even considered hitching a ride on a military plane through to West Africa then to the United Kingdom to reach home by plane.

Then in the first week of June the Cliftons were thrown a lifeline when New Zealand fishing company Sanford announced a special retrieval mission to bring home crew who were fishing for toothfish in the South Atlantic and were eager to get home to their families.

“When we heard that, family from home helped us approach the fishing company, and it started from there.”

Finally, on July 4, the pair boarded the San Aotea II as guests of skipper Shane Cottle.

They are looking forward to reuniting with their family and friends.

“We’re extremely grateful for all the support they’ve received from family and friends while we’ve been away. It’s made all the difference.”

The Cliftons said New Zealanders have done an ‘’incredible job getting on top of Covid-19’’ and they are proud to be coming back to a safe country.

While the boat is expected to arrive at Timaru’s port on Saturday, the pair would not be allowed to step off the San Aotea II until they had been on the ship for a full 28 days since leaving the Falkland Islands, Covid-19 testing was done and paperwork had been completed.

Feeonaa, an artist and hospitality worker, said while the ocean and sea birds have been stunning and inspiring, the people had been the most memorable part of the trip.

“We’ve been extremely lucky to have had fairly reasonable weather for most of the way, a few stormy and bumpy nights but nothing really on the scale of scary that a fisherman might say is ‘rough’.

“I was sick for a couple of days early on, but found my sea legs pretty soon after that, to my relief. Neville was sick once for about 60 secs after leaving Stanley.”

She said the adventure-filled excursion was “definitely a story to tell fireside with the grandchildren one day”.

The couple is grateful to Sanford and the San Aotea II crew who had been “highly professional and made them feel very welcome on board”. The Cliftons have travelled on the boat free of charge.

“We just want to thank them very much for getting us home. There are no real words to convey the depth of our gratitude.”