My mother, Dee Humphries, who has died aged 88, was an inspirational science teacher whose love of travel brought her to the UK from her homeland in New Zealand, and who maintained her wanderlust well into old age.

She was born in Dunedin to Constance Bryant (nee Shannon), and then adopted at the age of two weeks by Cyril Sharp, who worked for the New Zealand General Post Office, and his wife, Rene (nee Butcher). Raised in Waimate, she attended Waimate high school before graduating with a science degree from Otago University in 1955, followed by teacher training. Her first teaching job came in 1957 at Christchurch Technical College. She combined this with working part-time as a costume maker for the theatre director and crime writer Ngaio Marsh, a job that inspired her passion for theatre.

In 1959 she embarked on what was supposed to be a short trip, via Asia, to the UK, but which took her away from New Zealand for the rest of her life. She settled in London in Earls Court, taking up a teaching position at the Elliott school in Putney and taught evening classes in Notting Hill.

However, the desire to see more of the world soon re-emerged, and she left London for Turkey, where she taught at the Darüssafaka school for orphaned boys in Istanbul. It was there that she met Michael Humphries, a Briton and fellow teacher at the school, who turned out to be a kindred spirit. They married in 1962 in Istanbul and travelled at every opportunity, visiting Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Iran, often searching out ancient ruins in their 2CV car.

In 1963 Michael and Dee returned to settle in Wimbledon in south-west London, where they continued to teach and travel while bringing up three children. Dee was soon appointed head of department at Pelham middle school, and then Park House middle school, both in Wimbledon, and eventually became a science teaching inspector for the London borough of Merton. Every school holiday was spent travelling across Europe, to Turkey and beyond.

Michael died in 1991. At the age of 66 Dee signed up with Voluntary Service Overseas, becoming one of their oldest volunteers. She volunteered to work in Eritrea and set up the science teacher training programme there. Living in the small village of Tsada Christian, outside the capital, Asmara, she cycled all over the surrounding area, making quite an impression and many friends.

After three years in Eritrea she returned to Wimbledon and continued to wave the flag for VSO by giving talks. She was a governor at Rutlish school in Merton, a trustee of the charity Prisoners Abroad, and a member of the Patient Quality Health Forum at St George’s hospital in Tooting. At home she loved jewellery-making, batik, pottery and sewing, and theatre was an almost weekly event.

Dee also continued to travel into old age, including to Iran, Libya, China, Tibet, Thailand and Costa Rica, before severe arthritis and dementia restricted her movements. Her favourite saying was: “I must box on.”

She is survived by her three children, me, Lynne and Mark, and four grandchildren.