Wāhine Toa Wilderness Series

The Wāhine-Toa Wilderness Series consists of three camps over consecutive weekends. First weekend is in Early October 2022, with 2 weekends of adventure to follow

1. 'Wonder-Wāhine' Weekend of building foundations, personally and as a group with bush and rock!
2. 'Wild Wāhine' Genuine kiwi backcountry exploration of our sub-alpine backyard!
3. 'White Water Wāhine' Water based weekend with a focus on white water safety skills!

All will be held within the whenua around the Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre in North Canterbury.

The fun and action packed weekends are targeted towards creating opportunities for exploration and empowerment within our communities of young women, through the cultivation of technical outdoors skills & safety awareness in a supportive atmosphere. The sequenced progression of challenges through bush, rock, remote backcountry and whitewater environments, are each interwoven with elements of environmental connectedness, Kaupapa Māori, peer leadership, self-empowerment, wellbeing and community mindedness; to encourage a well-rounded relationship with self, others and nature.

Our Wāhine-Toa will have the chance to...

• Enjoy and explore, the beautiful surrounds of their natural NZ backyard.
• Safely challenge themselves physically, mentally & emotionally in an uplifting social space where they can also extend or share existing skills & knowledge.
• Extend/share their understanding of te ao Māori in a respectful growth space.
• Meet other like-minded ladies who share the same appetite for adventure.

Collaborative zoom sessions will also follow each weekend; to dive into topics such as mātauranga Māori, sustainability in action or the group's other topics of interest further. These sessions also serve to consolidate the sense of support, community and mentorship that ultimately is the foundation of this programme.

Underneath this, lies further value of outdoor experiences & facilitation; in the way it opens unexpected doors for lateral growth, as well as physical development. The authentic nature of these experiences & the group environment, provides the opportunity for those involved to build resilience, an embracing attitude towards uncertainty, a greater appreciation of beauty, communication & problem-solving skills, empathy, self-confidence, connectedness to self, others and the environment, and a sense of agency in their own lives. These benefits have been increasingly recognised over the last 10 years to improve;

• Mental Well-Being & Quality of Life 
• Employability/Engagement at Work
• Safety, Sustainability and Skill Mastery in the outdoors

Accessibility to these dimensions of growth should be a priority for all, but for our female population there is a clear deficit in opportunities for nature-based experiences of this kind and a need to encourage a dedicated learning space & community, with a culture driven to Connect, Be Active, Keep Learning, Give, and Take Notice.

While co-ed group environments have a different range of benefits, the majority of eco-tourism and outdoor education opportunities already meet those needs. So in this series, where 'connection' is at the core, the learning space will be shared with an all-female community & leadership team to further reinforce the element of altruism, within the adventure experience;

• by involving identifiable, positive role-models who can acknowledge the diversity of experience and approach challenges from a shared perspective.
• Creating a culture embracing the strength born from vulnerability.
• Breaking down socially/self-imposed stigma & limiting beliefs that in some co-ed spaces have been barriers to women pursuing outdoor adventure opportunities.
• and encouraging a social environment that is seen to be free of perceived socially accepted gender roles to encourage women unleash their full potential and express their physicality.

The continuity of the series is also designed to amplify the value of the connections born from the experiences, and to enable a greater depth of programme-personalisation and transfer of outcomes.