Little did she know they would cover 12,000 miles, cross four continents and end up calling a city on the other side of the world home.
Inspired by a hunting programme on television, the then 21-year-old and 25-year-old brothers gave in to their "wanderlust", taking just 10 days to "get injections, get packs and get away", Roy Harry-Young (71) said.
They went overland through France, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Pakistan, India, (then) Persia and Ceylon plus Australia.
After working for about three months in Australia, they decided to cross the Tasman to New Zealand.
Intentions to continue their travels through the Pacific Islands, into the United States, through Canada and over to the Baltic region, evaporated when they reached Dunedin.
They fell in love with the city and two young women.
Don met his future wife, Anne Clarkson, while Roy paired up with Dianne Price.
"I fell in love with the place. Of all the places we went, there was something about Dunedin.
"We sort of settled in," Don Harry (75) said.
The men both married and each had three children - two boys and a girl - and now both also have two grandchildren.
Roy and Dianne divorced after 28 years.
He has been married to Sallie Young for 15 years and the couple took the surname Harry-Young.
Mr Harry, who had spent time in the British Army and working on a luxury yacht before the big adventure, settled into a job at Fisher and Paykel Appliances.
He stayed there 24 years before setting up his own company servicing and producing coal ranges.
His brother had worked in shop management before travelling, and now worked in personnel.
Mr Harry-Young had returned to England several times over the years, but said Dunedin "is home".
"It was a great adventure - people said it couldn't be done," Mr Harry said.
Fitting in a "few days here, a few days there", the brothers worked their way over land and sea on buses, trucks, trains and boats, openly, or by stealth, and even attempted to catch camels in the desert.
From chatting with gold smugglers, to eating donkey and facing a cobra in the jungle, they did it all.
Political upheaval in several countries meant it was too difficult and dangerous for anyone to re-enact their trip, they said.
To mark the 50th anniversary of their departure, they had dinner and drinks last night.
