- Update: Found! One of the travellers Kerry was recognised in the pictures. He says he still has the wool jersey with the tiki on the front, which his mum had made. It's in a frame now. He says he and the other guys still keep in touch regularly.
You know the saying 'every picture tells a story,' but sometimes it's only the first few chapters and you're left desperate to know how it ended.
That's the deal for Canadian Keith McLaren. In 1970 he snapped a photo of a bunch of Kiwis he met on his travels.
An adventure that took them together through Egypt and beyond.
In the photo, five young New Zealand blokes are sitting nonchalantly on a stone pillar fence, decked out in boots and turned up jeans.
There is one very distinct striped jumper with a large tiki on the front.
More than five decades later, Keith is keen to track these guys down.
"I was taking a Russian passenger liner from Athens to Beirut and I didn't realise the ship stopped off in Alexandria, Egypt. On board were these five New Zealanders," McLaren told Checkpoint.
"They were traveling down to South Africa. We were talking on the ferry and they told me 'why don't you stay on? Come with us for a while and then you can catch this boat when it comes around again'.
A photo of the unidentified Kiwi travellers in 1970. Photo: Supplied / Keith McLaren
"By the time it came around again, we were far up the Nile and gone. And boy did we have a lot of adventures along the way.
"We went through Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya. They took off from Kenya and went down to South Africa and I never saw them again."
One of McLaren's photos of the group shows a bunch of fashionable lads. He said there's not much he remembers as it was more than 50 years ago, but he had their names written in old letters to his parents. There was Craig, Kerry, Dick, Mike and Ray.
A photo of the five (from left) unidentified Kiwi travellers in 1970. The man on the right was an American traveller. Photo: Supplied / Keith McLaren
- Do you recognise these guys? Get in touch - checkpoint@rnz.co.nz
"And that's all I know. I don't know their last names. I just know they came from New Zealand. They were a lot of fun. They were a pretty tight group of guys. They were well-prepared for what we're about to get into. I wasn't.
"I was traveling from Canada, I think I still had a sheepskin coat which I think I mailed home from Egypt. I had a, you know a sleeping bag that was good for 40-below. Didn't do me a lot of use in Africa, but they had tents and everything."
A photo of the unidentified Kiwi travellers in 1970. Photo: Supplied / Keith McLaren
"It was good to be with them. Especially when we hit Cairo the first time, because I'd never been in a city like that. There was five or 6 million people there and it is just massive.
"I really didn't have that much travel experience. So it was like safety and numbers to be with these guys. Just getting onto buses with your backpack and everything you could watch each other."
Keith McLaren in 1970. Photo: Supplied / Keith McLaren
McLaren said he had not thought about the Kiwis for a long time, but his family wanted him to write down some memories of his earlier years.
"So I started writing a story about this long trip that I did. And started looking at the notes, the diaries and saw these guys' pictures.
"And for a bit of a laugh I said I wonder if these guys are still around and if there was any way of contacting them."
McLaren's daughter got the photo of the Kiwis with a bit of a description and started sharing it online.
And if the guys are found, McLaren would be happy to say hi and share some of pictures. He would love to come to New Zealand, but with the current pandemic, he's not so sure.
"When I was traveling, I ran into New Zealanders probably more than I did anybody. It was always refreshing to run across these guys and gals."
