Famous New Zealand women who made travel history

New Zealand's history is full of women who have defied expectations and set adventurous records on the world stage. Photo / Malcolm Pullman, Helen Thayer, Herald

“Be careful”. This was the message I heard countless times in the weeks leading up to a two-month solo Europe trip. A favourite refrain among older people (typically men) it was often wrapped into a lecture about safety that looked like concern but felt soured by sexism; not because travellers shouldn’t be careful but because my male friends never appeared to warrant the same reminder. This was in 2016.

One can only imagine the response (or outright disapproval) women decades before me would have received in response to their dreams of travel and adventure. Yet, flick through the history books and you’ll find female trailblazers who defied the status quo and dared to go where no woman (or sometimes, man) had ever gone before.

We celebrate them, as we mark the 130th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand.

Jean Batten - 1934 - Fearless Flyer

Jean Batten with her cat Buddy. Photo / Herald

Reading the story of Jean Batten, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were reading the plot of an epic Hollywood film. Born in Rotorua in 1909, Batten was raised in Auckland, where she developed a love for flying. At the time, long-distance, recording-breaking flights were gaining the world’s attention, and Batten was intrigued. So, in 1929, at 20 years old, Batten’s mother took them on holiday to Sydney so she could fly with famous Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith.

The following year, Batten sailed to England to study at the London Aeroplane Club. By December, she had her “A” licence and a plan to break the women’s record for flying solo from England to Australia. The only catch? She didn’t have enough money to fund her trip or a commercial pilot’s licence. Fortunately, Fred Truman, a young Kiwi pilot in love with Batten, was all too happy to lend her £500. Unfortunately, Batten had no plans to become a housewife, so took the money and ghosted the poor lad.

After two attempts at flying between England and Australia, Batten secured the record in 1934, over 15 days. High on the thrill of adventure, she went on to set several records during the 1930s.

She became the first woman to fly solo return from England to Australia (1933), fly from England to South America and fly solo over the South Atlantic Ocean. However, her crowning achievement was becoming the first person to fly solo from England to Aotearoa in 1936, a record that stood for 44 years.

Eventually, Batten stepped out of the public eye. Instead of marrying, she spent her final decades travelling with her mother, then solo, around the world before passing away in Spain aged 73.

Pamela Young – 1969 - Antarctic Adventurer

Pamela Young was a pioneering researcher. Photo / Herald archive

Antarctica is a tricky place to visit but in the 1960s it was near impossible for a woman. At the time, only a handful of researchers travelled to the icy continent and since both the US Navy, and the National Science Foundation (which co-ordinated research projects), refused to send women, it was mainly men who got to go.

Then, Pamela Young stormed on to the scene and became, not only the first Kiwi woman to work in Antarctica, but one of the first women in the world to visit the South Pole. Snagging a job as a field assistant, Young spent 10 weeks working alongside her biologist husband, Euwan, at Cape Bird. This wasn’t as simple as hopping on an expedition with the lads, as having a woman in the ranks meant adding female facilities and getting a Kiwi clothing manufacturer to custom-design female gear. Then, in November 1969, during her time on Scott Base, Young had the chance to join a group of six women being flown to the South Pole as a publicity stunt.

Exploring a new destination can be daunting, especially as the only woman and Young faced her fair share of sexism. When her selection was announced in June 1969, she was described as the “First Lady for Scott Base”, and when her group stepped foot on the South Pole, photographs ran in the papers with the headline “Powderpuff Explorers (to) Invade South Pole”.

In her book about the expedition, Penguin Summer: Or a Rare Bird in Antarctica, Young said the South Pole trip had felt like a circus, rather than the awe-inspiring experience described by first male explorers Robert F. Scott and Roald Amundsen. However, Young forged on and her visit marked an era of policy change, as the US Navy removed its ban on women and the NSF began inviting research proposals from women.

Helen Thayer – 1988 - Mountaineering Megastar

Kiwi explorer Helen Thayer with Maasai women. Photo / Helen Thayer

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, Helen Thayer became the first woman in the world to walk to the Magnetic North Pole, solo, at 50 years old. Born in Auckland, Thayer’s hunger for adventure drove her to embark on countless adventures and set a few records along the way.

It all began in 1946 when 9-year-old Thayer climbed Mount Taranaki with her parents and their family friend, Sir Edmund Hillary; a trip that ignited a passion for mountaineering. After representing Aotearoa in the discus at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, Thayer moved to the US in 1965 and dug into her adventuring career. The crowning jewel of which was trekking from Resolute Bay to the Magnetic North Pole in 1988; an adventure no other woman had done solo. It took Thayer and her husky dog, Charlie, 27 days to cross 585km on foot, in brutally challenging conditions, without resupplying.

Kiwi explorer Helen Thayer and dog Charlie. Photo / Helen Thayer

This was just the start for Thayer, who went on to become the first woman to walk the 6440km-long stretch from Morocco to the Nile River, through the Sahara Desert at 57 years old and walk 2575km across the Gobi Desert aged 63. Thayer also became the first non-indigenous woman to kayak 3540km of the Amazon River and spent six months living next to a wolf den in Yukon, above the Arctic Circle, to study the animals’ behaviour.

Still hungry for adventure, Thayer then became the first person to walk solo across California’s Death Valley desert from north to south, aged 80. Unsurprisingly, in 2009, the National Geographic Society named her one of the most important explorers of the 20th century.

Dame Naomi James – 1977 - Solo World Sailer

If you were to guess what kind of woman would become the first to sail solo around the world via Cape Horn (and the second to sail it full stop) you probably wouldn’t choose someone born on a landlocked dairy farm in Hawke’s Bay. Neither would you be likely to choose someone who didn’t learn to swim until she was 23.

Dame Naomi James checks the rigging on her yacht before taking off on a Transatlantic Race. Photo / Getty

And yet, Dame Naomi James sailed out of Dartmouth, England, in September 1977 and did exactly that. One of Aotearoa’s most famous sailors, James learned to sail at age 26 and two years later decided to circumnavigate the world, via Cape Horn, solo. Sure enough, in June 1978, James guided her 53-foot boat back into Dartmouth and became the world’s first, while also becoming the fastest person to sail around the world solo, beating English adventurer Francis Chichester’s 10-year record by two days.

In recognition of James’ feat, the 29-year-old was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1979, making her the youngest New Zealander to receive a damehood at the time. A few years later, in 1990, she was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.

As a somewhat media-shy adventurer, James’ last known address was in a small village near Cork Harbour, Ireland, close to her beloved ocean.

Laura Dekker - 2011 - Young Record-Setter

Laura Dekker was born in New Zealand but raised in the Netherlands Photo / Sarah Ivey

When Laura Dekker steered her 12m sailboat named Guppy into the Caribbean in January 2012, she didn’t just become the youngest woman to sail around the world solo, but the youngest person ever. But, it almost didn’t happen.

Sailing around the globe isn’t easy but Dekker’s biggest hurdle wasn’t the dangerous seas; it was the Dutch state. Born in Whangarei, Dekker had Dutch and New Zealand citizenship from her parents, who were sailors themselves and supported her ambition. However, not everyone was understanding. Aged 13, Dekker was preparing to sail solo from the Netherlands to the UK when a friend’s mother reported her to the police and forced her father to fly over and sail with her. The courts then placed Dekker under a guardianship order and confiscated her boat.

Undeterred, Dekker used all her savings and her New Zealand passport to fly to Saint Martin and buy a 30ft Dufour Arpège, but a worldwide search warrant meant she was flagged by island police upon arrival and returned to the Netherlands. But you can bet that right after winning a legal battle to drop the guardianship in 2010, 14-year-old Dekker set sail. One year and one day later, after covering more than 27,000 nautical miles and gaining media fame for her determination, Dekker sailed into St Martin, a Dutch territory in the Caribbean, and secured the record.

Today, the Dutch-Kiwi hasn’t lost her hunger for the ocean and is now sharing it with other young people. After founding the Laura Dekker World Sailing Foundation, Dekker and her partner Sander Vogelenzang run sailing trips around Europe and the Atlantic, teaching kids aged 8 to 16 years sailing and problem-solving.