执着日本人澳大利亚遭罪:被GPS成功导入海里

Three Japanese tourists holidaying in Australia came unstuck when their satnav told them they could drive from the mainland to an island – failing to mention the 15 kilometres of water and mud in between.

As they drove their hired car from Moreton Bay in Queensland to nearby North Stradbroke Island they started to notice the firm gravel surface they were driving on giving way to the renowned bay mangrove mud.

However, confident their satnav would direct them to a road soon, they decided to plough on, managing to travel around 500 metres before their Hyundai Getz was up to its axles in mud. To make matters worse the tide started to come in and soon forced them to seek help and abandon the vehicle.

Just four hours later the car was stranded in two metres of water – to the great amusement of onlookers on the shore and passengers on passing boats and ferries.

Yuzu Noda, 21, said she was listening to the GPS and "it told us we could drive down there. It kept saying it would navigate us to a road. We got stuck…there's lots of mud." She and her travel companions Tomonari Saeki, 22, and Keita Osada, 21, instead had to ditch their plans for a day trip to the island and headed back to the Gold Coast of a lift from the RACQ tow truck driver who was called to the stranded car.

No such luck for the hired car though – after assessing the situation no attempt was made to recover it. The students from Tokyo who are due to return home tomorrow, said the experience would not put them off returning to Australia for another visit. "We want to come back to Australia again. Everyone is very nice, even today," Ms Yuzu said.

Remaining upbeat, Mr Tomonari joked that the car may have got stuck because it was built in Korea. "Maybe if it was Japanese it would be okay," he said.He added: "It has rained every day on our six day holiday. Hopefully next time we come back it will be sunny." The car was covered by insurance, but the tourists will have to pay up about $1500 in excess charges.