Seeing the world from an all-terrain wheelchair

What would you do if one of your friends had an incurable degenerative disease?

For four friends of Danish 22-year-old Jacob Riis-Nielsen, the answer was simple: take him on a trip around the world.

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Mr Riis-Nielsen has Machado-Joseph disease, an inherited neurodegenerative disorder that leads to paralysis.

But that hasn't stopped him from climbing mountains or travelling, with a bit of help from his friends.

They call themselves "De 5 pa tur," or "The 5 travellers": Amalie Ronde Dicksen, Katrine Bechsgaard Nielsen, Jeppe Ravn Nielsen (no relation), and Arne Bargsgaard Mathiasen.

They met at a school which anyone can attend, but with a special focus on people with physical disabilities.

Their four-and-a-half month journey has taken them from crowd-surfing at jungle parties in Thailand, to meeting Komodo dragons in Indonesia, and now their final stop in New Zealand.

Mr Riis-Nielsen has a special off-road wheelchair that means there are few things he cannot do - on a previous trip, his friends carried him up the highest mountain in Norway.

But that doesn't mean there aren't challenges. Mr Ravn Nielsen said bathing Mr Riis-Nielsen in backpacker hostel bathrooms has required some ingenuity, and getting around in countries like Indonesia has sometimes proved difficult.

Now in New Zealand, Mr Riis-Nielsen has already completed a sky dive, and is looking forward to doing a section of the Abel Tasman Track and whale watching in Kaikoura.