Having grown up on a farm, I have been lucky to have
had a high level of exposure to the outdoors, which has led to an
appreciation and passion to protect it.
I completed Gold, Silver and Bronze of the Duke of
Edinburgh's Hillary Award. This award encourages outdoor and
community involvement and the following of personal projects and
interests. In 2007 I attended the Sir Peter Blake Trust Youth
Environment Forum. I turned up as a shy 16 year old, able to
identify environmental issues but lacking confidence. This week of
practical projects and the opportunity to meet with 50 other
like-minded young people gave me the confidence to get involved
publically. On return, I started an environmental committee at my
school and we attempted to deal with some of the issues around
litter and recycling.
Now 20 years of age, I am in my third year of
studies towards a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with Honours
at the University of Canterbury. I am intending to work in the
field of energy engineering.
Since attending the Forum, I have been a follower of
the Sir Peter Blake Trust and learnt about the Youth Antarctic
Ambassador programme. Antarctica is a place I have always dreamt of
visiting, inspired by the famous expeditions including Sir Peter
Blake's, Scott's, Amundsen's and Shackleton's.
It is a century since Scott embarked on the British
Antarctic Expedition, and the Antarctic Heritage Trust will be
completing the restoration of Scott's Terra Nova hut this year.
Being able to contribute to the restoration and preservation of the
heritage sites on Ross Island is an honour, and visiting the
continent will allow me to be a part of the preservation of
Antarctica's history. In doing so, I will gain a first hand,
in-depth understanding of the explorers, their expeditions and the
global geographic and scientific significance of
Antarctica.
Upon my return I will be sharing my experiences and
look forward to the opportunity to inspire others to become
passionate about the outdoors, Antarctica, sustainability and
conservation.
The Project
John flew to Antarctica on
27th October, 2011 with the
Antarctic Heritage Trust team and will spend the summer carrying
out restoration work on Sir Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod hut at Cape
Royds and Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova hut at Cape Evans as
part of the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration
Project.
The Antarctic Heritage Trust's Ross Sea Heritage
Restoration Project is a long-term, cold climate heritage project
to conserve four expedition sites and over 15,000 associated
artefacts. The project presents many technical challenges including
katabatic winds, high relative humidity, temperature change, salt
damage and light levels.
The physical conservation of the sites began during the
summer of 2003/04 and since 2006 the Trust has been working year
round in Antarctica. Work to secure Sir Ernest
Shackleton's base and the 5,000+ artefact collection
is all but complete and work is now focused on saving the base
associated with Captain Scott's 1911
attempt for the South Pole. The other two sites being
conserved as part of the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project are
Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition base at Hut Point and
Carsten Borchgrevink's expedition base at Cape
Adare.