For some parents, the idea of orchestrating a family holiday to a Pacific Island resort (even the kind with countless activities and kids clubs) is exhausting at best and daunting at worst.
The idea that a couple would take their 10-year-old, 8-year-old and small toddler on a three-year cycle trip around the world, camping and homeschooling along the way, seems a little crazy.
Yet Nicola and Andrew Hughes, two outdoor education teachers from Tasmania, insist they’re just like any regular family. They’ve simply swapped a house for some bikes and a school classroom for the big wide world.
The trip had been “rumbling away” for a few years, Andrew said over the phone during a pit stop in Kawakawa Bay on day 88 of the adventure.
Since arriving 88 days ago, they’ve travelled 1,880km (about 20 to 40km per day), with only a tandem and triplet bike and a few panniers stuffed with camping gear, food, school work and filming equipment.
In 2019, they dipped their toes with a 12-month, 14,000km cycle trip around Australia when their daughter Hope was five years old and son Wilfy was three.
The trip was a success but the pandemic halted any immediate plans, so the family rented out their home, moved to a remote aboriginal school in Cape York and taught there during the pandemic.
By 2024, their new baby Jeannie was 18 months old and happy to sit in baby bike seat, meaning the Hughes could begin their first leg in Aotearoa.
Cycling through New Zealand
Landing in Dunedin, they cycled from Lake Waihola, along the Clutha Gold Trail and through to the Roxburgh Gorge and Lake Dunstan trails. After crossing to the West Coast they cycled north to the Wilderness Trail and the Kawatiri Trail before hopping on the Picton ferry to Wellington.
As their May 21 flight out of Auckland approached, the family took a fellow cyclist up on his offer to drive them from Wellington to Taumaranui, where they hit the Timber Trail, onto the Hauraki Rail Trail and along the Coast Road towards Beachlands.
Many cyclists tackling these trails are motivated by the thought of a hotel with hot showers and warm beds at the end of the day but Andrew said the tents strapped to their bikes were the Hughes’ typical lodgings for the night.
Half the time they pitch a tent and the rest of the time they camp at caravan parks with facilities, stay in Department of Conservation cabins or are welcomed into people’s homes.
“Probably a quarter of the time we’ve been at people’s places, which has been a great way to get a better understanding of how New Zealand works from inside people’s homes and hearing their stories,” Andrew said.
Now, they’re heading back to Auckland to host a free talk about their adventure at the Pioneer Women’s Hall on May 19 before boarding a flight to South America on Tuesday.
Over the next 12 months, the family aim to trace the Andes along the west coast of South America to Patagonia, while 2025 and 2026 are set aside to cycle across Europe, Central Asia and Southeast Asia, if all goes according to plan.
“We need to keep everyone strong and motivated to keep on doing it,” he said. “It’s by no means a certain thing.”
What it’s like at ‘School of the Bike’
While their itinerary sounds like an epic vacation, Nicola and Andrew say the main reason is education, for their children and those who wish to engage with their adventure via a website they’ve created or in-person visits.
“It’s an adventure learning project. So not only do we communicate online with any school that wants to follow through videos and classroom updates,” Nicola explained.
“As we go along, if there’s a school close by to our route, we often contact them, pretty last minute, and just see if they’re interested in a visit.”
So far, the response has been warm and welcoming in Aotearoa, particularly in smaller rural schools including Cromwell Early Learning Centre, Barrytown and Hikutaia School.
“It’s so lovely going and getting them excited about adventure and the world beyond the small communities we can live in,” Nicola said.
This response isn’t surprising to the couple, who regularly saw how nature could engage seemingly disinterested children and teach critical life skills such as problem-solving or resilience in their jobs.
“They’ve got a lot of questions about how the world works and when you can pose those questions and help them answer them while they’re watching along in real-time, it’s pretty powerful,” Andrew said.
‘School of the Bike’ as the Hughes call it, involves a combination of sit-down homework and verbal lessons each day. While cycling through forests in a new country lends itself to lessons on geography and biology, physics or history, Andrew said the primary focus is classic school subjects.
“The learning areas that we really care about are English and maths so that they can get back into a mainstream school eventually,” he said. “The rest of it, we’ve decided to treat as learning on the road opportunities.”
For those tempted to think of the children as a group of perfectly mannered wunderkinder, Andrew added they still had their typical ups and downs.
“They have their moments where they argue, they have their moments when they’re lovely to each other,” he said. However, one thing has always been super clear within the family; if someone didn’t want to adventure anymore, they’d go home.
“They know that, at any point, they can tell us that ‘we really miss our friends and we’re really sick of this mum and dad’ and that’s fine, then we’ll head back,” he said.
By regularly checking in, Andrew said he and Nicola could be certain they weren’t dragging the family along, while the children have some agency over their lives.
However, Nicola said the trip did remind them how easy it is to underestimate children’s tenacity.
“We really don’t give our kids enough credit for what they are capable of and what they’re adaptable to,’ she said, recalling a time in the Sound Island when they hit their “first big rainy days” and tough hills.
“I was super surprised that because we put the raincoats on and the overalls on and they were probably as happy as they’d been that week,” Andrew said. “They were leading the motivation for the day”.
Going broke to become rich
Many families save for months to afford just a week or two away, so how have the Hughes managed to fund a 3-year round-the-world trip?
“You’ve got to be willing to go broke,” Andrew said with a laugh, although he wasn’t entirely joking. The family had saved a little while working in North Queensland during the pandemic and renting their house and had continued to rent it but said they had to mortgage a bit more to afford the trip.
Accepting they would return home from the three-year trip totally broke was simply part of the deal, Andrew said, but they didn’t seem to mind. “We’ll be rich in experiences,” Nicola explained.
For people eager to adventure with their young children but nervous at the prospect, Nicola had good news; making the decision was likely harder than the challenges they’d encounter.
“I think the hardest part is just making the commitment and stepping outside the door,” she said, adding that you don’t need to have everything figured out before beginning.
“You learn what you need to know along the way and it’s being brave enough to take those first steps,” she added.
And if it all goes pear-shaped? Know you can always pack it up and try something else.
“You can always try something and stop, it doesn’t have to be three years and it certainly doesn’t have to be an epic thing,” Andrew said.
“It has to be something you’re willing to have a go at, but you’re also willing for it not to work and be ok with that too.”
