From the 29 April till 09 May, I was able to be a part of Voyage 842 and traveled on the Spirit of New Zealand. Before this, my experience on a boat was limited to an hour on a ferry. So it was an understatement to say I was nervous about ten days on the Spirit of New Zealand. But the day came and a lot of the nerves went away. One great thing was that everyone was in the same boat (no pun intended), most people had never met each other before and were from different parts of New Zealand. Sure, introductions started awkwardly, but we all became super close. Soon, I had 38 new friends. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this trip. But I beat all my expectations, I would never have expected to do half our activities.

We did team rafting, swimming, a rope swing, a fair bit of climbing, and many more team events. A personal highlight was when we rafted to shore and had a bonfire one night. Though my team struggled with rafting, it was all worth it. It was a fantastic night, we all sat around the fire talking with our new friends and singing riptide. But the fun of that night did not end there, we got to raft back in bioluminescent water. It was amazing. I never thought I would see something like this, and now I can say I have. But that wasn’t the only fun I had. I got to steer the ship, and climb up to the Royal. It was a great 10 days. Sure, there are a few things I can live without. Like the 7:00am morning swim in 19 degree Celsius water or the nausea of very rocky seas. But I would say there isn’t a single moment I regretted. It was an opportunity I may not get to re-experience, but I will remember it for a very long time.

Katie Hills Y12 MWRT