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Adventurous Journey – Boyle River Centre

Adventurous Journey

For the Adventurous Journey section you'll need a sense of adventure and discovery as you go on a team expedition or exploration in our big Kiwi backyard.

You'll have the opportunity to learn more about the wider environment, as well as learn teamwork skills, make real decisions and accept real consequences, and gain self-confidence. You'll probably end up outside your comfort zone at times, but you'll be kept safe with training and supervision. The result will be experiences you'll remember forever—you won't regret a minute of it!

Handbook – Preparation and Training
Adventurous Journey Criteria

There are two types of Adventurous Journey – Expedition and Exploration.

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Expedition

An Expedition is a journey with a purpose.

In an Expedition, the primary focus is on the journeying, where around two thirds of the purposeful effort must be spent journeying.

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Exploration

An Exploration is a purpose with a journey.

In an Exploration, the primary focus is to observe and collect information relevant to the purpose. More time and effort is spent on this, with less time getting from one place to another. The journey aspect is still important, around one third of the purposeful effort should be spent on journeying, depending on local circumstances and the medical or physical restrictions that the participant(s) are living with.


Adventurous Journey,  Auckland 

Ideas

Here’s a List of Ideas that you could do for your Adventurous Journey or use as a starting point to create a programme of your own.

The Mountain Safety Council website and the Department of Conservation (DoC) website are great sites to use for ideas in your area.

The Process

Step 1.
Preparation and Training

All participants must undergo suitable training to have the appropriate skills and knowledge to confidently undertake their journey. This is training on topics such as leadership, trip planning, map reading and survival skills. It's all about keeping you safe in the outdoors – safety of participants is the top priority.

All training must be undertaken with an Approved Provider or through your Award Unit.  There is an option to do your training online, however you can only do the online training once e.g. if you do online training at Bronze level, you must do practical, hands-on training at Silver Level.  This is to ensure you are well trained to survive and thrive in New Zealand's great outdoors.  

Online training – visit here. The Providers listed here have confirmed that they have systems and processes in place and have been subject to a third-party audit.

Step 2.
Practice Journey

Participants must undertake at least one Practice Journey to ensure they can complete their Qualifying Journey safely. The Practice Journey should be as similar to the Qualifying Journey as possible to ensure you are sufficiently prepared.

The length and/or number of practice journeys required will depend upon the ability of the group; this is a decision for the Award Leader or Assessor.  The requirements for each level of the Award are:

Bronze:

1 day and 1 night, with 6 hours of activity per day.

Silver:

Minimum 1  day and 1 night, with 7 hours of activity per day.

Gold:

Minimum 1 day and 1 night, with 8 hours of activity per day.

Step 3.
Qualifying Journey

For the Qualifying Journey, the team is required to be self-sufficient and independent.  The requirements for each level of the Award are:

Bronze:

2 days and 1 night, with a minimum of 6 hours of activity per day.

Silver:

3 days and 2 nights, with a minimum of 7 hours of activity per day.

Gold:

4 days and 3 nights, with a minimum of 8 hours of activity per day.

For ALL levels of the Award

The Adventurous Journey must be undertaken in groups of 4 – 7 young people who must all be involved in the planning and preparation. All Adventurous Journey groups must be supervised by a suitable adult shadow party (determined by the Award Units Safety Management System) at all Award Levels for both Practice and Qualifying Journeys.

Adventurous Journey Supervisor, Assessor and Instructor

The International Handbook for Award Leaders (page 87 – 89) defines four roles in the Adventurous Journey – the Award Leader,  Instructor, Adventurous Journey Supervisor and Adventurous Journey Assessor. In New Zealand these roles are often one and the same (depending on how the Adventurous Journey is being run) with the adult (who might be the Award Leader) that delivers the Adventurous Journey training and who goes on the Adventurous Journey with the group often acting as the Instructor as well as the  Supervisor and Assessor.

The Online Record Book separates the roles of Supervisor and Assessor and the different Adventurous Journey events (Practice and Qualifying) are signed off according to the role description in the Handbook. To help clarify this we suggest that whoever the adult is who is going on the Adventurous Journey as the Assessor, and who will write an assessor’s report for the participant, be listed as both the Supervisor and Assessor in the Online Record Book.

Please note that parents cannot be assessors for their own children. 

Review and Presentation

Once the entire journey is completed the Assessor should meet with the team and debrief. After the debrief, the team should work together on producing their report. All team members should have input into their report, which can be in any format. It should tell the story of their preparation for, and conduct of, the qualifying journey. At an agreed time, the team should present this report to their Assessor who then records completion of the Adventurous Journey section.