My dad migrated to New Zealand from Ireland in August 1996 at age 28. He came to travel the world after taking a year off work, and chose New Zealand because he had already been to Europe and wanted to visit the furthest country from Ireland. While he liked New Zealand's similar landscape to Ireland, he missed his family living so far away. He flew to New Zealand on Air New Zealand and returned home twice, once in 1997 to finish his travels and again in 2002 to see his family.