Luna The Silver Mazda BT-50

The One Pack Wanderers are back and this time they’re tackling Australia in a new Mazda.

It’s 2021. You’ve decided to travel the world. An adventure of a lifetime. High on your list is discovering Australia so you head down under, eager to explore the world’s oldest continent.

You arrive in Perth on the west coast. Stretched out in front of you lies almost 1.9 billion acres of land. You quickly realise you need a suitable vehicle to explore the planet’s sixth-largest country, so you go car shopping. And the perfect set of wheels? A Mazda3, of course.

Just ask Tia and Cheveyo. They are the adventurous duo behind One Pack Wanderers, the world-famous travellers who video-record and share their global adventures via their popular YouTube channel. They know first-hand the capabilities of a 2005 Mazda3 sedan, especially in the world’s most rugged and beautiful terrain.

A year ago, the intrepid pair drove their Winning Blue Mazda3, which they nicknamed Blueberry, throughout Australia in a dream trip that explored the best of down under.  

They started with a 3,500-kilometre drive to Melbourne and then decided to complete ‘The Big Lap’, a 15,000-kilometre circumnavigation of Australia. It was a big request for any car, but not for Blueberry.

Their dependable Mazda3 happily motored all the way up to Brisbane via Sydney and then on to Cairns in far north Queensland, around 3,000 kilometres north from the Victorian capital.

The pair headed west to Darwin and then south-west to Fitzroy Crossing, where they discovered flooding rains had made it impassable. As the only major route back to their starting point in Perth, they had one option.

As Cheveyo said at the time, “The only available detour back to Perth that was doable with Blueberry had us cutting through the centre of the continent.

“The Australians call it the world’s longest shortcut and it would add more than a thousand miles to our trip.”

Little Blueberry headed back north. It was then a long drive down the centre of Australia to Adelaide before turning heading west back to Perth.

With little more than regular tyre pressure checks, fluid checks, refuelling and a few oil and filter changes, Blueberry covered more than 28,000 adventurous and reliable kilometres with Tia and Cheveyo.

As Cheveyo said, “She never missed a beat.”

The couple completed their travels back in Perth before heading to their next country. Blueberry found a new home with a local family.

But the duo’s incomplete Big Lap remained unfinished business so they recently headed back to Perth for their second attempt.

Joining them this time is a new Mazda: a 2024 BT-50 XTR-LE. Mazda Australia has chipped in to support their latest Aussie travels with this Ingot Silver Metallic dual cab 4x4, which the couple has named Luna.

The driving ease from 450 Nm of torque and a combined-cycle fuel consumption of 8.0-litres per 100 kilometres (according to ADR 81/02) makes the BT-50 XTR-LE the ideal wheels for this dynamic duo’s vast Australian travels.

Upon receiving the keys to Luna the BT-50, the couple remarked: “We have a gorgeous, brand-new ute. This is beyond our wildest dreams, and it’s going to enable us to see parts of this amazing country that were previously locked off to us.”

Already well into their epic second Australian road trip, Luna is proving to be just as coveted as Blueberry, opening a new world of opportunity for the couple with its ability to tackle water crossings thanks to an impressive wading depth of 800mm, master corrugations with ease owing to the high-riding stance and rugged suspension setup, and take Tia and Cheveyo to a host of off-road locations that Blueberry wouldn’t have been able to reach.

Follow One Pack Wanderers’ latest Australian adventures with Luna the BT-50 here.