My dad backpacked around Australia and New Zealand in his youth. 40 years later, I followed in his footsteps.

When my dad was 24, he did a 6-month backpacking trip around Australia and New Zealand. This was 1981. He had just graduated from college and wanted to see the world. 

I’ve grown up hearing my dad’s stories from his time abroad — about working on a dairy farm, about hitchhiking around, about the strangers who became family. Even from a young age, I always dreamed of doing my own backpacking trip abroad. 

So when I was 24, I decided to follow in his footsteps. In July 2023, I embarked on an 8-month trip to Australia and New Zealand, inspired in part by his trip all those years ago. 

I made my own trip unique, and I wasn’t planning on following his itinerary so closely. But I did go to many of the same spots that he did. I worked on a dairy farm in New Zealand, backpacked in a few national parks, and road-tripped up the east coast of Australia. 

Before I left for my trip, my dad gave me an album of his old film photos from his trip. I thought it would be a fun surprise to recreate some of his old pictures — from 1981 to 2023. 

Here are some of the experiences my dad and I shared, 40 years apart. 

Working on a dairy farm in New Zealand 

My dad spent most of his time in New Zealand working on a small dairy farm in the North Island, about an hour north of Auckland. 

He lived there for 2 months with the family who owned the farm. My dad had been hired as a helping hand after one of the family’s sons got kicked by a cow and couldn’t work for a few weeks. 

According to my dad’s stories, he abided by a pretty strict schedule. He had to wake up before 5 am and head out to the milk shed, where he would milk the cows for about 2-3 hours. 

I know he had a rather love-hate relationship with the concept of waking up so early to milk cows for a living. But he’s always talked about the whole experience with a lot of fondness and nostalgia. He really fell in love with the farm. 

So when I spent 2 months traveling around New Zealand, I was secretly hoping to find a dairy farm that I could work on too. 

I ended up spending 2 weeks living at a dairy farm on the North Island about 1.5 hours south of Auckland. I connected with my hosts using the Workaway platform, which is how I did most of my traveling around Australia and New Zealand. 

My dairy farm job didn’t technically involve milking the cows every day. I mostly helped the farmers take care of their 100-hectare property — replacing old fences, weeding, and other maintenance jobs that would keep their cows happy and healthy. 

But I did get to milk the cows one evening, and I loved it. I think most of my excitement came from the knowledge that I was connecting with my dad’s trip in such an authentic way. 

All of a sudden, the stories I’d heard throughout my childhood had come to life — and now I was the one living them. 

Backpacking in Tongariro National Park 

When I went to New Zealand, I knew I wanted to do a few backcountry treks. I was enamored with New Zealand’s natural landscapes. 

The first hike I picked out was the Tongariro Northern Circuit on the North Island. This 4-day trek circles an active volcano and finishes at the base of Mt. Ruapehu. 

In a lovely twist of fate, I rediscovered one of my dad’s old photos a few weeks before I went to Tongariro. In it, he’s attempting to hitchhike to… Mt. Ruapehu! 

I didn’t even know it when I planned my trip, but my dad also hiked this exact same trek back in the day. 

When I told him I would be hiking in Tongariro National Park, he told me more stories of his time. He fondly recalled the huts along the way where he spent the night (the same huts I camped at) and the views over the mountains (the same mountains I hiked around). 

Traveling around New Zealand’s South Island

After spending most of his time on the North Island, my dad moved south. He hitchhiked around the South Island for a few weeks. 

He also spent several days backpacking around Mt. Cook, staying in backcountry huts along the way. 

This was nearing the end of his New Zealand travels. Recently, I read more of his reflections about his time traveling around the South Island:

“I spent 6 weeks traveling around the country after [the dairy farm]. I mainly hitchhiked and worked my way straight down the North Island, and through the South Island to the southern tip. Various stops and detours along the way, including a couple of very memorable backpacking trips through Mt. Cook in South Island, and Tongariro National Park in the north. 

My journey took me to most of the major cities, including Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. The countryside was beautiful, the people were friendly, and the cities were very safe… All in all, it seemed like stepping back in time in some ways, more of an ‘innocent’ feel to the country. It felt a bit more cut off from the world and its problems.” 

I also spent about a month traveling around the South Island after I had finished up my dairy farm work. 

I shared a lot of the same observations as my dad. New Zealand’s countryside is picturesque, the people are incredibly friendly and hospitable, and I felt safe the whole time. Even with any changes the country has gone through in the last 40 years, it seems like NZ’s core identity hasn’t really shifted. 

And while I didn’t do the same backpacking trip as my dad on Mt. Cook, I did go there for a day hike. It was absolutely gorgeous. 

Staying at a homestay in Fiji 

When my dad decided to go to Fiji after New Zealand, he went with very few plans. Or actually, no plan. I believe his vague idea was to show up on the mainland, hitchhike into a village, and ask if he could stay somewhere. 

He ended up spending a week with a Fijian family who very kindly welcomed him into their home. They fed him, housed him, and introduced him to kava, the traditional drink. He made really wonderful connections and loved the whole experience. 

When he told me this, I immediately found it a bit odd — not to mention presumptuous! But he assured me that foreign families opening up their homes to random travelers was commonplace back in the day. 

Even today, Fiji still has a bit of a reputation as a place where you can go without a plan. When I was traveling, I met a few backpackers who had shown up in Fiji with no pre-planned accommodation. Fiji is full of incredibly kind and easy-going people, so relying on the kindness of strangers is pretty common. 

And while part of me wanted to be this spontaneous (and to live up to my dad’s adventurous stories), I’m a planner at heart. I knew I could probably find a homestay ahead of time that would still give me the local experience I was hoping for. 

I also wanted to make sure that I was supporting locals in the tourism industry as best I could. Staying in a homestay, instead of some foreign-owned resort, seemed like the perfect way to do this. Plus, it was way more budget-friendly.

I researched until I found Sunrise Lagoon homestay, a family-owned homestay on one of the Yasawa Islands. It was the perfect fit. 

We had delicious home-cooked meals every day, drank kava, visited the local elementary school, and stayed in a little room right on the beach. Jo, Lice, and Lia were amazing hosts! 

Road-tripping up the east coast of Australia 

Even with all of my dad’s adventures — the dairy farm job, backpacking around New Zealand, staying with a family in Fiji — the stories that piqued my interest the most as a kid were his tales of road-tripping up the east coast of Australia. 

I heard about the friends he made, the nights spent strumming guitar by a campfire, the beautiful beaches, and the time he got stung by a jellyfish (luckily not one of the deadly ones). 

He met a young German guy soon after he arrived in Australia. They quickly became friends and ended up driving up the coast together. Funnily enough, the first friend I made in Australia was also a German guy (hi Johann!). 

My great Australian road trip took 2 forms — I traveled by trains and buses between Sydney and Brisbane, and then I got a free campervan in Brisbane and drove it up to Cairns. Overall, I spent about 3 months traveling up the coast. 

Did Australia live up to my great expectations? Yes, over and over again. I fell in love with the country even more than New Zealand. 

The weather was perfect. The beaches were plentiful and each more beautiful than the last. The wildlife was totally different than anything I’d ever seen before (Koalas! Kangaroos! Wombats!) and the people were always smiling. 

I called my dad several times to compare notes on Australia. We shared the same opinion of Queensland (it’s the Florida of Australia), the same distaste for weak Australian IPAs, the same love of Australian slang like “she’ll be right.” 

Luckily, I skipped out on the “getting stung by a jellyfish” portion of the trip. 

Reflections, and a new bond

My dad and I have always had a lot in common, but this trip brought us together in new ways. 

It felt like a sacred journey in some respects: walking the same paths he walked at my age, reading some of the old journals he kept from his trip, and learning more about myself while learning about him. 

My dad came to visit while I was in New Zealand, and together we went to the dairy farm he used to work on, all those years ago. I got to meet the family he lived with — they still live there, but the cows are gone and the dairy farm has now been turned into a Hydro-Excavation business. 

We toured the area of the farm where the milk shed used to be, where he spent so many of his mornings for 2 months. He showed me where his little cottage was, although it was no longer there. And I got to see the pond where he infamously drove the farm’s 3-wheel ATV into the water one morning. 

It was very special being there with him. 

It made me wonder — when he was 24, did he ever think he would one day be visiting this old farm with his 24-year-old daughter, who would be doing the same thing? And what about me? Will this trip be something that I pass down to future generations in my life? 

Shared trips can bond people — even if the trip isn’t even taken together. 

My dad and I now have stories from the same places, 40 years apart. We each have a connection to new lands and cultures that became familiar to us over time. It’s like the more I connected with Australia and New Zealand, the more I connected with my dad. 

His life story inspired me to take this trip, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I will always be grateful to him for setting this kind of example for me. 

Happy birthday, Dad. 

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