Five days on a tall ship, packed full of adventures.

This year the Spirit of Adventure have changed what used to be called the Year 10 Trophy Voyages, broadening the age range from 14 to 16 years old, and removing most of the competitive aspects, whilst maintaining most of the same activities, plus some new ones.

This year's group were Anya Coombes 10NHKR, Sophie Laird 10WPPK, Paige Layton 10SMNO, Xavier Nakaroti 11NMCA, Kanon Taki 10NGBB, Samuel Tao 10WCRB, Jacob Tschudin 11WWTA, Felix Winsley 10SHTR, Kevin Xu 10NJVC, Miranda Yuan 10WRIC, with Mr Risbridger as the staff member.

The voyages take place on the Spirit of New Zealand, a three masted barquentine that was designed specifically for Youth Development voyages. Along with three other schools with ten students each; Coromandel Area School, Wairarapa College and East Otago High School; and fourteen crew members, we set sail on Wednesday 19th June from Princes Wharf in Auckland, and motored to anchor off Motuihe Island for the night.

The following days were full of fun, activities, new friendships, challenges, chores and the famous 6:30am swim off the side of the ship.

We had plenty of practice tacking the ship and making very little headway in the Tāmaki Strait on the Thursday, sailed to Kawau Island via the nature reserve of Tiritiri Matangi Island on the Friday, had adventures ashore and aloft at Kawau Island on the Saturday, and sailed back to near Auckland in the Sunday. On the Monday we had an eerie passage back to port under motor, through thick fog, and then it was time for the rather tired group of us to return home.

Highlights for the students included learning the teamwork required to get the sails up, as there are no roller-furlers or winches on the ship, and getting to know each other and the other students aboard. Nature lovers appreciated the bird life on Tiritiri Matangi Island. Pōpokotea (whitehead), tīeke (saddleback), tūī, korimako (bellbird), toutouwai (Nth Island robin), kererū, hīhī (stitchbird) and takahē were all spotted. Unfortunately, not all of the students developed their sea legs as well as might have been hoped, and some discomfort was experienced on a couple of our longer sails. However, all students maintained their sense of humour and enjoyment of the experience, once calmness was returned.

All students made good use of the challenges available to them on board. For some, this is physical - forcing yourself to plunge off the side of a perfectly good ship into the somewhat chilly waters of the Hauraki Gulf in winter, or going on the yard swing or climbing the mast. For others it can be social or emotional - learning to talk to people you don't already know and have never seen before, or getting up in front of the whole group performing funny tasks in the evening activity.

Advice for anyone contemplating putting their name forward for future voyages includes:
"It is the most amazing experience. You should go and make sure to make the most of every opportunity"
"I had too much fun to worry about anything"
"The things I enjoyed the most were climbing the mast and swinging off the ship"
"Waking up early was hard, but it was fun once we got in the water"

The only thing missing from the trip? Dolphins, but maybe next time.

We would also like to say a big thank-you to Quinovic Merivale, and Sharon Layton, for sponsoring and organising our Mitre 10 sausage sizzles; and to the Christchurch City Council Youth Development Fund. Both enabled us to reduce costs for the voyage and their support is greatly appreciated.

Applications for next year's voyage (if we are allocated a place) will come out in November. Keep an eye on the student notices.

Any older students contemplating joining a 10 Day Youth Development Voyage are encouraged to check out spiritofadventure.org.nz, or email ric@burnside.school.nz. Voyages for these run throughout the year.

Chris Risbridger