The Voyage of the Golden Lotus

In 1961/62, Brian Clifford commissioned a 35 foot Chinese junk from a little Hong Kong shipyard. The builder of the boat spoke no English, Brian spoke no Mandarin, but it happened nevertheless. During construction Brian returned to New Zealand to enroll his crew - a brother and two friends, and returned to Hong Kong. The junk ended up being 36 and a half feet long,and was traditional except for a few modifications insisted on for the open seas.
The voyage, by 4 young men, with little experience in small vessels in the open sea, took seven months, and took them from Hong Kong to Singapore, Christmas Island, Indonesia, East Timor, Thursday Island and down Australia's east coast before crossing the Tasman to Northland, New Zealand.
Nicely written, in an easy to read style, with plenty of good black and white photos.