A TEEN who threw a “message in a bottle” from a ferry was shocked to get a reply from more than 10,000 miles away.
Amelie Smith, 13, wrote a note and wrapped it in tape with the words “Open Me” on it while returning from holiday in the Isle of Wight.
Steve BellAmelie Smith threw a ‘message in a bottle’ from a ferry on the way to the Isle of Wight and was shocked when she received a reply from Australia months later[/caption]
She included a TikTok link, return address and phone number, and signed off: “Please contact me. From Amelie.”
Incredibly, she received a letter 511 days later from Yamba, New South Wales, Australia.
It was signed by “Kuwala Berre”, who returned her original note and wrote: “Your letter has arrived on the shores of eastern Australia.”
They enclosed a £10 book token. Amelie’s dad Gareth, of Banstead, Surrey, said: “Sending a reply is an amazing thing to do and incredibly kind.”
Dad-of-two Gareth, 42, said of being mailed the letter: “It was a total shock to get a reply.
“She threw it overboard on our Easter holiday and that’s the last we thought of it.
“We were staying in a little cottage and she wrote the note a day or two before we left. I didn’t know anything about it until we were on the ferry.
“She used to bury things in the sand in Devon but didn’t have any luck with getting a response.
“I thought an Australian tourist could have picked it up and just had a bit of fun, especially because of the name Kuwala Berre, but it’s marked as coming from there.”
But the stunt almost backfired when mum Emma Holmes, 40, “got the hump” over Amelie throwing plastic into the sea.
Gareth joked: “Her mother was a bit annoyed that Amelie was littering in the sea but I guess it was picked up eventually.
“Sending a reply is an amazing thing to do and it’s incredibly kind of whoever did it.
“But it’s a shame we have no way of getting back in touch with the person who found it to thank them for sending a letter.
“We could have ended up with an Aussie pen pal.”
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