A Long Way from Mount Taranaki
It was 8:30pm on Mount Taranaki when the helicopter finally broke through the clouds. Astrid and Bec had been hugging a stranger to keep him warm for hours - an older hiker they'd found gasping for breath at 2,800 metres, summer temperatures dropping below 2 degrees, almost no gear in his pack. Once the paramedic was on the ground, he asked the two women if they could send through the footage they'd quietly photographed of the rescue.
They did. And in a roundabout way, that's where Send It for The Strays really began.
The pair, full-time travellers, professional photographers, and the duo behind Freeroamchicks, had hit the road in New Zealand in January 2025, only to find the so-called dream lifestyle was missing something they hadn't expected to miss, purpose.
"We both had the experience of doing something for the community when at work, a feeling of accomplishment," Astrid says. "Once on the road full time, that feeling was gone. Yes, we were living what many refer as the 'dream', but not for us. We were close but not quite."
After Taranaki, the local search and rescue team invited them to their base and explained how they operated, partly government funded, partly reliant on donations, and chronically short of the kind of imagery Astrid and Bec produced. The pair started offering free photography to charities and grassroots projects across both islands, then continued the practice when they returned to Australia.
A month later, they bought a 1984 HJ47 Land Cruiser over the phone from the Northern Territory. Two strangers picked it up unregistered in Melbourne and parked it in their yard for three months while Astrid and Bec finished travelling. "This could have gone wrong in so many ways, but it didn't," she says. "And these strangers are now some of our very best friends."
"There are lots of issues rescue organisations are facing, and they need money to stop the bleed," she says. "So the first thing we're trying to do is find them that money, so they can keep looking after those dogs."
Astrid wants to give a voice to animals "who rely on us to take responsibility", dogs who never asked to be born and ended up neglected, abused, or abandoned. She wants stronger animal protection laws, better public education, and what she keeps coming back to: more empathy.
"To us it's already a success. We raised more than $1, and if we hadn't started, that dollar would never have reached Happy Tails' bank account."
The pair started with no mechanical knowledge, none, and gave themselves two months to restore the HJ47. It took six. They rebuilt the engine’s top end, swapped the gearbox, restored the roof, rewired the entire vehicle, and installed a full 12-volt touring setup. They worked through Christmas. "It was a massive learning curve. We were knackered, but it got under our skins. We kept going, every single day."
The longer-term plan isn't to stop. The model, taking on paid touring and adventure photography work to subsidise time on cause-driven projects, is the version of life they've been chasing since they left their old jobs.
If there's one thing Astrid hopes a reader walks away with, it isn't about the build, the dogs, or even the trip.
"Be kind. Pay forward. If you can lend a hand, do it. Life gets busy, but that’s no excuse to not look around and offer support where you can. And trust us, great things come to you when you open up to others."