Recently ten Year 10 girls and teacher, Harry Kim, made their way to Princes Wharf to board the Spirit of Adventure for the Trophy Voyage, a competitive voyage against 3 other schools. It was such an incredible trip that we will treasure for the rest of our lives. We made life-long friends on the boat that have now become our family and I know we will always sustain those friendships.

The experience not only gave us new friends from other schools but also brought the Carmel girls together. The trip helped to build our teamwork, communication, and leadership skills through raft racing, beach games, fun activities like mini Olympics, long hikes at Mahurangi, and even chores such as cleaning the deck and doing dishes. The Spirit journey challenged us as every morning we would wake up at 6:30 am to swim around the boat and then putting up sails, climbing the riggings and working on the different sail stations was hard work but very rewarding once we saw the results.

We were even lucky enough to unexpectedly come across a pod of dolphins which we got to swim with twice!

Overall, the Spirit of Adventure was an incredible opportunity and we were all so fortunate to have had this experience, especially since we came away winning the trophy! It is certainly an adventure we will never forget.

Skyler Anderson Year 10