Spirit of Adventure Trust was set up in 1972 by Lou Fisher who had a vision to empower the youth of New Zealand. The Trust has gained and maintained a reputation in New Zealand as a highly respected youth development organisation providing a unique environment for youth development, where the focus of learning is on team-work, developing skills of communication, self-leadership, self-reliance, self-discipline, self-esteem, resilience, confidence and leadership. Learning to sail a tall ship is only a small part of the programmes offered. They’ve taken tens of thousands of young New Zealanders on voyages of personal discovery on board our tall ship, Spirit of New Zealand. Although theyre described as a sail training organisation, our main objective is to develop positive qualities in our young people. Today, Spirit of New Zealand is believed to be the world’s busiest youth ship, sailing around ten months of the year. Subject to stringent, on-going maintenance surveys, refits and audits, Spirit of New Zealand is expected to be able to continue operating youth voyages until around 2035.
Spirit of Adventure is a Recognised Activity Provider of Adventurous Journey Training, and the Adventurous Journey and Gold Residential sections. Residential: All Spirit of Adventure voyages of more than five-days duration can be counted for the Gold Residential requirements on the understanding that each participant does not know more than one other person on their watch (this restriction does not apply to Adventurous Journeys).
Adventurous Journey: Spirit of Adventure voyages can count towards Adventurous Journey activities. You need to tell your Spirit crew that you are using the trip for your Adventurous Journey section and specify what you want to count it towards. If you are using a voyage for your practice and qualifier then all Training will be provided on the boat, you no longer need to complete bushcraft training.
On the Spirit of Adventure, planning is done daily depending on weather. This concession is made, because until the participants are on the ship it is not possible to plan a voyage, as the mode of transport is unique and the weather cannot be predicted accurately enough to plan a voyage.
Group Sizes: On the Spirit of Adventure there are usually 40 young people as crew and they are divided into four watches of ten people, two port and two starboard. Each watch can be counted as an Award group. The understanding is that not all watch members will be Award participants, but they will be in the age range and sufficiently trained for the undertaking by the Spirit of Adventure leaders on board.
Spirit of Adventure Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award sections that can be counted:
5 day voyages
Can be counted towards:
Bronze Adventurous Journey: Training and Preparation, Practice & Qualifying Journey
OR
Silver Adventurous Journey: Training and Preparation, Practice & Qualifying Journey
OR
Gold Qualifying Journey OR Gold Training and Preparation and Practice Journey
10 day voyages
Can be counted towards:
• Bronze Adventurous Journey and/or Silver Adventurous Journey: Training and Preparation, Practice Journey & Qualifying Journey
OR
• Gold Residential Project and Gold Adventurous Journey: Training and Preparation, Practice Journey, Gold Qualifying Journey
If you are using Spirit of Adventure for both practice and qualifying journeys then training will be provided onboard, no other training is necessary.
Vision | Te Whāinga Matua
Respect the land and you have a home,
Respect the sea and you have sustenance,
Respect the air and you have life,
Respect your neighbour and you have a friend,
Learn from the SPIRIT and you have a future.
Purpose | Te Koronga
To empower young New Zealanders to reach their full potential through the challenge of the sea.