OLD COLLEGIANS’ FEATURE
Working Holidays
For these two young Old Collegians, the Kiwi bach couldn’ t have been further from their minds- Kirsty Beckett reports.
While many of us seek rest and recreation with a chance to recover from the vicissitudes of the daily grind, there are always some who take on challenges of a more intrepid kind. Such as it was with Old Collegians Charlie WILKINSON( Greenbank, 2005-09) taking on the remote, icy and more monochromatic Antarctica and James BECKETT( Major, 2001-05), opting for a change of lifestyle in colourful Tanzania.
Taking the polar plunge
Charlie’ s adventurous learning experience came about through being chosen as one of two Antarctic Youth Ambassadors by the Sir Peter Blake Trust. Travelling as the Engineering Ambassador, Charlie spent six weeks in Antarctica working with Antarctica New Zealand.
The award, set up in 2007 to remember Sir Peter’ s environmental endeavours in the region, enables young people to contribute to the environmental and heritage work being done there. By building capability and understanding of the Antarctic environment, the programme is investing in its future.
Charlie comes from a strong sailing background and Sir Peter had always been a role model so he was keen to apply.“ I have always been fascinated by Antarctica and adventure so thought this would be a great experience.”
Living at Scott Base and the Ross Island area, Charlie did six day working weeks under the supervision of Johno Leitch, the Asset Management Team leader. His main task was to develop an automated report generation system that would produce a daily summary of the efficiency and environmental effects of Scott Base. This report triggers another programme( macro) that would display the information as a growing graph for comparison and interpretation. Now reviewed daily, this information serves to improve Scott Base’ s efficiency.
With three years towards a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with Honours at Canterbury behind him, practical experience doesn’ t get much better than this.
The opportunity to visit the places where great explorers like Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton set out on their explorations made it particularly rewarding.
Charlie says:“ It was 24-hour sunlight when I was down there and the air was very dry. Temperatures ranged from a warm-2 0 down to-30 0. It is an amazing place; very difficult to put into words. The landscape is so vast and is the closest thing to being on another planet. I only saw the colours white, black and blue for six weeks. The scale is the most difficult aspect to get used to, since there is nothing to compare the landscape to. Taller than Mt Cook, Mt Erebus is always looming over Ross Island.”
Memories from the trip include the opening of the ski field, the polar plunge, an attempt to climb Black Island and Icestock over at McMurdo Station( American Base), the PM’ s visit to present some Shackleton’ s whiskey back to the Antarctic Heritage Trust and field training where he learnt survival skills. He was also lucky enough to get a helicopter trip up to Cape Evans where Scott’ s Terra Nova hut is located and have a tour inside. A very uncomfortable 10-hour trip home on a modified New York Air Guard Hercules was an unforgettable end!
36 AUTUMN 2013 • KING’ S COURIER