Meet Contiki’s New Zealand Young Farmer Local Legend of the Year 2024

Contiki is all about community: the locals you meet on your travels, the people you befriend on the coach and form lifelong friendships with, the Trip Manager taking you under their wing. We’re a close knit family all over the world, and community is something we celebrate even outside of the travel bubble. It’s why we have things like MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® initiatives supporting people across the globe, and others.

One such initiative is the NZ Young Farmer Local Legend of the Year Award, which aims to recognise the contributions of young farmers across New Zealand, and the commitments they make to supporting their local communities.

New Zealand is a vast, beautiful, and rugged place, and agriculture and farming is an incredibly important trade in the country. Contiki is no stranger to farming experiences either, with plenty of farm-to-table dinners for our travellers to feast on, and farming demonstrations (like Real Country) across the globe.

But in 2024, it was Danielle Hovmand who stood out for her outstanding care and dedication towards looking after her community, her family, and the earth at the same time. We’ve spoken to Danielle to learn more about this accolade, why she loves what she does, and what this means to her.

Hi Danielle! Can you tell us how long you’ve been farming for? What does this job and industry mean to you?

“I’ve been farming for about 7 years now. It started as a university holiday job, and soon ended up becoming my career. I started as a farm assistant and worked my way up to 50/50 sharemilker.” (Danielle does not own the farm, but through her work she earns a share of the revenue from milk sales).

“I’ve actually never seen farming as a job, it’s more than that. You learn a lot of resilience, you learn to really respect the land and the animals, and you work through loads of different and sometimes unexpected challenges every day.”

“I love being a part of the agricultural community and, over time, I’ve formed some great connections within the industry.”

What does community mean to you? How important is it?

“Being a part of the agricultural community is a massive part of my life. It’s so important when you are farming that you have people who will show up when things are going wrong, who are there to celebrate the wins and also share in the same struggles.”

“Farming can be isolating and it is so important to build your community as it often determines how well you do in the industry. There’s no competition in farming, when we share and work together to help each other, it often means we can all benefit.”

“I’m very grateful to be a part of my community and love to be able to give back in any way that I can.”

What are the strides you have made to focus on your community and uplift it?

“Being a part of Young Farmers has been my gateway to connecting and being a part of the community. This has allowed me to work with others to run events, fundraising for important groups that support farmers and also to give back to those in need.”

“I love meeting new people and finding out ways in which I can help to support them or provide something that will improve their journey. I strongly recommend to anyone who is new to an area to join your local Young Farmers club, it is such a good way to meet like minded people, network and start to build your own community.”

Are there any parallels you can make between farming and travel? Or the communities within?

“One of the things I love about farming is finding ways to overcome challenges you are faced with every day. It is so rewarding! The same goes for travelling, each day presents new challenges such as language barriers, learning about public transport, working out how to get from one part of the world to another. And you get that same feeling of reward when you figure all these challenges out.”

“It is also about working together to overcome these challenges, just like farming – it’s best not to worry about problems but to find someone who can help you overcome them. We found asking locals for advice or help with directions was the quickest and easiest way to get help. I also travelled with my partner so we also worked together to figure out problems and challenges as we encountered them.”

What does it mean to you to win this Local Legends award?

“It’s very humbling to be recognised by my peers and nominated for this award. The feeling that I get from working in the community is reward enough, so this was the icing on the cake!”

Who do you share this victory with?

“Everything that I have done has been the result of working together with incredible groups of people who are also passionate about helping their community and peers. It has been a pleasure to get to know them and form great friendships. I think all ideas are better achieved when working towards it with a like minded group, so many more ideas and being able to help each other out when everyone puts their heads together.”

What’s something about farming that people may not know about or realise?

“As a farmer you learn to be so many different things, you end up wearing so many hats and sort of touching loads of professions.”

“All in one day you could be fencing, fixing a water leak, driving tractors, calving a cow, milking, administering drugs, feeding calves, completing book work, filing a tax return, fixing a broken implement. You learn such a variety of skills and get that rewarding feeling when you can put them to use to overcome everyday problems.”

What was travelling able to teach you about community and culture? Is there a ‘lesson’ that you’ve brought home with you and plan to adopt into your everyday life?

“I have seen that everyone needs a community of some kind and that everyone’s community looks different. You have to build up the type of community that you want and need.”

“It has also taught me to slow down and be present in the simple tasks of the day, like enjoying an evening walk and pats with the cows on a lovely evening, and taking time away from the farm to spend time with friends and family. Sometimes farming can be fast paced and busy and the need to get everything done is great! But sometimes you need to step away and look at the bigger picture of what is really important in your life.”