DUKE OF EDINBURGH SILVER AWARD
The Duke of Edinburgh Award is a programme where you complete a set of skills, physical recreation and voluntary service along with an adventurous journey.
Last year on the 12th of March, I completed the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award.
I have now completed the Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award. This is what I achieved through doing the award:
Skills:
For my skill development, I chose to do Marine Education as I needed the qualifications to sail offshore.
I gained my Maritime VHF Operators Certificate, Offshore Medic Certificate (along with my First Aid Certificate) and my NZ Coast Guard Day Skipper Certificate.
All of these skills were practiced with plenty of NZ coastal sailing and also on Spirit of Adventure. They were necessary for my recent offshore passage from NZ to Fiji are used in my current sailing adventures and I can rely on my learning. We have a pretty decent offshore medical kit and I haven’t had to use the bone injection gun yet to put an IV drip in, but it is good to know I can! There is a great crossover between marine qualifications and aviation. It turns out lots of sailors are pilots (or vice versa)!
Physical Recreation:
For my physical recreation I chose running. I had to train and practice my technique for the Auckland 11km Traverse held on the 1st of November 2020. I completed the event with my assessor Ceciila Crooks who ran the half marathon. Cece was my buddy at Tolcarne (St Hilda’s Dunedin Boarding House) and is a super-talented swimmer and triathlete., so I was lucky to have involved and for her to come up and join me.
This led me to continue training for the Round the Bays Event (an 8.4km run) which I convinced some of my friends to do. However, Auckland went into a lockdown the night before and the Round the Bays event got cancelled for 2021.
Voluntary Service:
For my voluntary service I volunteered at the 35th America’s Cup which was held in Auckland from December 2020 to March 2021. Over the course of this time, I volunteered a total of 62.5 hours during the Auckland World Series, the Prada Cup and the Americas Cup events.
Through this experience, I volunteered doing a variety of different jobs including working at the Prada Media Centre, scanning into the Prada Centres (I even scanned in Richie McCaw!). I also worked at the information kiosk. Volunteering was a great way of learning things about the America’s Cup itself and meeting new people, along with helping support Emirates Team New Zealand. The atmosphere on race days was incredible!
Adventurous Journey:
For my adventurous journey, I went on a Spirit of New Zealand Voyage - Voyage #805. I was sponsored by the Hyundai New Zealand Pinnacle Programme as part of their Stage One programme which I am currently completing.
On my voyage we sailed the Tall Ship to Great Barrier Island. Climbing up the mast to release the sails, swimming with dolphins, paddling to shore to go on a tramp, going on the yard swing and meeting 37 other teenagers were some of the highlights of my voyage.
I highly recommend this experience to anyone - the experience was up there with the best 10 days of my life so far. I was so inspired, I applied and got accepted to be a Leading Hand on future voyages. To date I have done one Day Sail on the 22nd of November 2020, which counted for 4 hours of my Silver Voluntary Service. I am looking to do more voyages, when I am back in New Zealand, to share my knowledge of sailing and to give back to the Spirit of Adventure Trust.
I am very grateful to the Hyundai New Zealand Pinnacle Programme for sponsoring me to go on the journey - it was a life changer! My video below gives a taste of what it was like. If you are at all interested - go for it!
Now…onto my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award!