Millie’s promise to help Tara protect our oceans
On board Sir Peter Blake’s old expedition boat in the Caribbean Sea, Millie Mannering watched pilot whales dancing around the schooner’s bow, and dipped a net into a massive bloom of phytoplankton stirred up by a devastating hurricane. The 19-year-old swam in azure...
Students to voyage to Chatham Rise on board RV Tangaroa
Two talented young New Zealanders are on their way to the Chatham Rise on board NIWA’s Research Vessel Tangaroa as part of a month-long science voyage, after winning a coveted Blake NIWA Ambassadorship. Victoria University student Siobahn O'Connor (21) and Otago...
Sir Peter’s visionary words shape the Trust’s new strategy
In his final log entry onboard Seamaster, anchored in the mouth of the Amazon, Sir Peter Blake wrote what would become prophetic words. “We want to restart people caring for the environment… through adventure, through participation, through education and through...
Watene’s war on kiore, and crusade for kororā
Watene Campbell has given a piece of his heart to a little critter on Wellington’s shoreline, while waging war on a less-lovable varmint. Campbell, a 17-year-old student at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngā Mokopuna in Wellington, makes time in his frenetic schedule for the...
A relentless champion of the underwater world
What does the Hauraki Gulf smell like? How are cats killing Māui dolphins? Why do mother and calf humpback whales congregate in Antarctica’s Ross Sea region? That’s a mere slice of the conundrums Dr Rochelle Constantine, a relentless champion for the marine...
2018 Blake Medallist and Blake Leaders announced
The Hon. Dame Tariana Turia has been awarded the Blake Medal, the premium award for leadership achievement in New Zealand, by the Sir Peter Blake Trust. The Blake Medal is given to acknowledge and celebrate an extraordinary New Zealand leader who has made an...
Engaging more young Kiwi leaders to take on the environment
James Gibson, the Sir Peter Blake Trust’s new CEO, has a passion for environmental leadership – and a personal incentive to conserve New Zealand’s environment, he tells Suzanne McFadden. It is James Gibson’s principal goal to prepare more young Kiwi leaders to tackle...
Inka takes government to task on plastic wrap
As Kiwi teenagers were encouraged to seek solutions and make a difference during an action-packed week at the Sir Peter Blake Trust's 'Youth EnviroLeaders Forum' (YELF), one student immediately put that advice to work, challenging the NZQA. Suzanne McFadden reports....
Anzac’s call for a sustainable future
As a young boy, Anzac Gallate’s head was filled with tropical fish. He poured over “tons of books” with fish swimming across their pages; he had his own home aquarium. “I wanted to be a marine biologist so badly,” he says. Now, at 17, Gallate has discovered fish he...
Illustrious skipper heartbroken by a sea of plastic
Few sailors have circumnavigated the globe as many times as Dee Caffari, but every time she does, another piece of her heart breaks. The British sailor’s achievements at sea are celebrated - the first woman to sail single-handed, non-stop around the world in both...
Birds of a Feather in East Coast and Deep South
Richard Tuhaka’s dive down into the Sub-Antarctic, in search of one of the world’s rarest birds, has given him a kete full of knowledge to pass on to the children of Tolaga Bay. The small town on the East Coast is 1600km from the Auckland Islands in the Southern...
Attending to his own health: Dr Sam Hazledine
Despite his ground-breaking change to the modern day Hippocratic Oath, Blake Leader Dr Sam Hazledine knows he has only made the first incision in an operation to improve the wellbeing of doctors across the globe, Suzanne McFadden reports. He had been a doctor, an...