Adam was awarded the scholarship to support a week-long trek on the demanding Five Passes route in the Mount Aspiring National Park.
Below is Adam's full Assembly speech:
Alongside schoolmate Roam, and accompanied by their fathers Mathew and Brendan, the group covered around 100km and nearly 3,000m of vertical ascent across some of New Zealand’s most rugged alpine terrain. A serious challenge and an outstanding achievement.
Over the summer holidays I went on a week long expedition into the Olivine WIlderness Area which is part of Mount Aspiring National Park. At the end of last year, I was fortunate to be awarded a $1000 FMC Youth Expedition Scholarship. This scholarship is open nationally to everyone under the age of 30, and 7 scholarships including mine were awarded for 2026. The FMC are the Federated Mountain Clubs of NZ which is an organisation representing 100 outdoor clubs as well as individual members, and they work towards the protection of conservation lands as well as encouraging kiwis to venture into our backcountry.
The Youth Expedition scholarship is aimed at encouraging and facilitating young people to lead and organise more challenging and adventurous multi-day expeditions into the NZ wilderness.
My expedition was to travel through the Olivine Wilderness Area using an off track route called the Five Passes. A Wilderness Area is part of the National park where there are no tracks, bridges, huts and no helicopters or other vehicles are allowed. During our week, we travelled approximately 100km and climbed over 5 alpine passes with about 3000m of vertical climbing. The terrain we travelled was pretty rough, and ranged from dense forested valleys, scrambling through river beds with boulders the size of a bus, and crossing alpine passes with downclimbing snow slopes with ice axes and crampons. Overall the trip was an amazing experience, we were lucky to have great weather, amazing scenery, and I experienced many firsts and had plenty of challenges to overcome. We have an amazing mountainous backyard, and I encourage you all to look for opportunities to explore it.
One of the things I learnt from this expedition was that to make something big happen requires motivation and effort well in advance. One of the main reasons I was lucky enough to be awarded the scholarship and that the trip was ultimately successful, was the time put into early planning and organising last year.
My challenge to you is not just to find an opportunity but to actually make it happen. Seek opportunities early during the year and then give it 100% to make your goal an actuality. Plan ahead, research what is required and train, practice, and seek out advice. Be prepared to put some time and effort early on and don't leave it to the last minute.
If any of you are interested in undertaking and seeking out opportunities like this, talking to Mr Kotkamp or Ms Smith about the tramping club and outdoor pursuit activities would be a great start, and for any questions specific to this scholarship and more about what I did feel free to come and talk to me too.
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