Mr Everitt and his family are filming for the second series of the show, which is about their adventures travelling around Australia in a caravan.

Their tour began in Melbourne on May 24, and continues through various regional locations before finishing at Broken Hill on August 3.

The couple came to Armidale via Nundle and spent four days here before heading to Ballina.

“We generally pick three or four places per town to visit and find a local identity to talk to,” Mr Everitt’s wife Sheree said.

“In Armidale we chose to meet the arrow man Anthony Kelly, who showed us his amazing arrow-catching skills.

“We checked out local old buildings, which were amazing, and Peter did the walk out to the hydro dam - we got some excellent footage.”

Mrs Everitt said her family had enjoyed Armidale, despite the cold temperatures.

“It’s freezing in Armidale,” she said.

“I’m from New Zealand and I’ve lived in Canada but it seems much colder.”

The family shielded themselves from the Armidale elements in a luxury caravan.

“Luckily, caravans tend to be easy to heat,” Mrs Everitt said.

The Great Australian Doorstep holds particular relevance at the moment as many families tighten their belts, according to Mrs Everitt.

“One of our main messages is that families can have an excellent holiday on a low budget,” she said.

“Every third show, we give our audience a rundown of how much everything costs, and it is often surprisingly little.”

Mrs Everitt said the benefits of staying in caravan parks are not purely financial.

“Families with young children are very well suited to caravan parks,” she said.

“When Peter was playing football, the other players stayed in five star accommodation, and we always chose caravan parks.

“People often thought we were having financial problems, but actually, we prefer caravan parks.

“Young children can roam free more, caravan parks tend to have facilities for children, whereas even a five-star hotel tends to be a very confined space - a room, basically, and that tends to result in bored, whinging kids.

“We find that our children are much happier at caravan parks, and so are we.”

The family stayed at Pembroke caravan park, and found that it was well-equipped and hospitable.

* The second series of The Great Australian Doorstep will screen Thursdays from July 16 at 7.30pm, on the How-To channel on Austar. The episode featuring Armidale will screen on August 20.