Prime Minister and James Blake speeches

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Prime Minister:

It's a great pleasure this morning to be here with Sir Peter Blake's son, James, to announce an exciting new initiative that brings together the Sir Peter Blake Trust and Antarctica New Zealand.

The partnership, which is to be called the Antarctic Youth Ambassador programme, has been set up to provide young New Zealanders with an amazing opportunity to be involved with a range of environmental projects undertaken by Antarctica New Zealand.

In many ways the relationship between the Sir Peter Blake Trust and Antarctica New Zealand is a very natural one. Sir Peter was, of course, a great expeditioner who had an immense passion for Antarctica. In 2001, Sir Peter led an expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula, where he traveled further south than any sailing vessel before him. At that time Sir Peter had been appointed as a special envoy of the United Nations Environment Programme and took on a role as an ambassador for the Antarctic environment.

Sir Peter also strongly identified and admired the early Antarctic explorers such as Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, and had great respect for Sir Edmund Hillary, who pioneered New Zealand's permanent presence in Antarctica at Scott Base.

Since Sir Edmund established Scott Base 50 years ago, the New Zealand Antarctic Programme has established a leadership role in Antarctic environmental management, and today a principal aim of the programme is to ensure that the continent remains as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science.

Therefore I believe it is fitting that, in Sir Peter's honour, the two organisations have sought to provide opportunities for young New Zealanders to further his Antarctic passion and his love of the natural environment, and to contribute to managing and preserving this amazing continent.

So I am delighted to launch the Antarctic Youth Ambassador scheme. I'm sure that those who benefit from it will have an experience that they will never forget.

James' response:

It's a great thrill for me to be here with the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, to help launch the Antarctic Youth Ambassador scheme in Dad's honour. Dad talked a lot about Antarctica and how important it is to the whole world.

When he was sailing in Antarctica in 2001, Dad wrote in his journal: "Antarctica is vital to our environment. This is not just a land of ice and snow. This continent regulates weather patterns, climates, ocean currents, and many other vital factors that are imperative for our future good health. The more that people understand what fits where and why, the better off we will all be. The more that everyone learns to appreciate the environment in all its forms the better off our children, and their children, will be."

I feel really fortunate to have been given the opportunity to see all this at first hand. It's a real honour to be able to launch this new scheme that will give others my age the chance to experience the Antarctic environment for themselves, to help manage and preserve it, and to pass on their experience to others.

The 2008 applications close on Monday 30th of June at 5pm.