The Spirit of Adventure

The Spirit of Adventure is sailing ship which takes school students on voyages off the New Zealand coast throughout the year. It's kind of like a outdoor education centre on the ocean and with thousands of students setting sail every year, it has become a rite of passage for many Kiwis. The usual gig is a ten day voyage where 40 youngsters between 15-19 set sail on the high seas and learn loads about sailing and a heap more about themselves. You sign up for it by yourself so ten days at sea with thirty nine strangers is a tough challenge. 

Anyway, there are times in the year where, due to school exams, it is impossible to fill all the berths. The Trust decided to offer introductory 5-day voyages during these times to school groups in order to promote the work of Spirit and every two years, my school gets to send ten kids. And one staff member...

It was an amazing experience. At times, I found it really tough (like when I had to swing from a trapeze then jump off the side of ship into freezing water in the middle of winter) but I'm so pleased to be able to say I've done "The Spirit". I can barely remember all the stuff we did but I'll try and fill you in. 

I drove the kids up to Auckland in the school minivan on the Sunday. For country kids, this was an adventure in itself, some of them having never been to Auckland. Here we are at the top of Mount Eden on the Sunday night. 

We stayed on the ship on the Sunday night where we met the staff and students of the other three schools, in addition to the Captain, First Mate and all the other volunteers who were running the ship (and activities) for the week. Here's the ship in port at Prince's Wharf:

We set sail on the Monday morning in the most hideous weather. Sadly, it was so windy that we couldn't really go far becuase the Captain was concerned that all the kids would be spueing by 10am, so we had to sit it out for a couple of days around the back of Waiheke Island where we could get some shelter from the storm. In the meantime the kids and I were getting stuck into life at sea and learning some of the terminology involved. It was amazing to hear that the origin of so many words and phrases are from the sea and I was loving filling my wee brain with lots of "Ship to Shore" facts! The girls were loving the activities.The weather finally abated and we were able to row-the-boat-a-shore for some land based activities during the day as well as getting the sails up and enjoy the sea spray!

Me, in my bed, shattered!

Sails Up! (Note the numbers of layers - it was freezing)

Me on the "Yard Swing" - a trapeze hanging from the first cross beam.
I was terrified and the water was freezing. 

After taking the sails down, someone has to tie them away.
I'm on the far right and the ship was rolling quite a bit!

It was a special feeling sailing up the Waitemata Harbour at the end of our trip. The memories of Iain and I's time in Auckland, the experience of the voyage and the knowledge that my Dad had sailed to New Zealand in the 60s combined to give one of those spine tingling moments as we cruised under the harbour bridge. 

The boys from one of the schools rounded the whole week off by performing their school's Haka as we were docking at the harbour in downtown Auckland. It was awesome to watch these young boys rocking out a quick Haka in pubic with so much pride in their heart. Unforgettable.