Queenstown-born and raised Carmen Doran told the Queenstown Times this week she and brother Marc and friend Brent Clements had left behind the autobahns of Europe and were taking their small-engined Renault Kangoo along the rugged Tadjik-Afghan border.
Team Good Bye Pork Pie, and about 350 other teams, left Goodwood racing circuit, near Portsmouth, in the United Kingdom, on July 24.
The Dorans and Mr Clements are tackling the gruelling 2010 Mongol Rally, an unsupported 20,000km journey across 15 countries to the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, in a deliberately unsuitable one-litre car, all in aid of the Christina Nobel Children's Foundation.
"We can now say that the rally has begun," Ms Doran said.
"With the main motorway roads now deteriorating to dirt tracks quite often, the back country Skippers and Macetown experience is coming into play.
"Have been in convoy since Turkey with Team Yetibird Spotters, in their Fiat Cinquecento, At Her Majesty's Pleasure, in their Perodua Nippa [and] 100% Fishing, in their Suzuki Swift, though that is now beyond repair and we are trying to buy a new car for them in Dunshambe."
Team Good Bye Pork Pie discovered how handy cable ties and duct tape can be when a "big bang" signalled the demise of their car's rear right torsion beam earlier this month.
Duct tape was replaced with shoe sole to keep the Kangoo on the road and over the Iran-Turkey border.
"Dodgy border people got bored with negotiations, so we left with passports and car paperwork without paying bribe," Ms Doran posted on the team's website.
"Five hours getting car fixed, Iranian mechanics worked their magic. Had a great day and met lots of lovely, lovely people."
The team reported they had smiled and waved to Iranians as they drove and had camped on hillsides and laybys.
The landscape was "stunning" through Iran to Turkmenistan.
They experienced their hottest day so far travelling through the desert, and roads in poor condition between the cities of Ashgabat and Mary.
The team has met an 11-year-old Turkmenistan girl who wants to study at Oxford University and discovered petrol is only available on the black market, thanks to a fuel shortage in Uzbekistan.
The trio also reported they spotted New Zealand Anchor butter on sale in a supermarket in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
