In 2020 I was fortunate to travel to the Antarctic Peninsula with the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust as part of the Inspiring Explorer’s Expedition. The expedition was led by Marcus Waters, the Trust’s General Manager Partnerships and Commercial, and ably supported by Olympic kayaker Mike Dawson as kayaking mentor. The team included five ‘Inspiring Explorers’ selected from nationwide applications (of which I was one), two students from Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate and their Deputy Principal under an ongoing partnership, and three official supporters of the Trust.
In collaboration with the Antarctic Heritage Trust, over the following two years I completed a series of compositions inspired by Antarctic themes. These works have been performed around Aotearoa, as well as in Australia and Canada. Learn more about the compositions!
Over the course of our time in Antarctica (and in quarantine at the Ushuaia port…we arrived back from Antarctica to find the world in lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic!), I was responsible for writing our expedition journal and interviewing team members. The journal and interviews enabled us to share our adventures with New Zealand communities while we were down in Antarctica, and reflect on our experiences during our quarantine. You can read the journal and reflections at the links below.
Ihlara McIndoe. 