Annie Lorenzen - Kaiako Whaingaroa

At the age of 21 Annie became a white-water raft guide. “Excitement, fun and plenty of challenges! I learnt the art of ‘faking it till you could make it”, an essential skill when stuck on a rock with 7 inexperienced paddlers, in the middle of rapids and your raft full of water wrapped around the rock. All looking to you to get them safely out of the situation. I learnt responsibility and leadership. Problem solving and thinking fast on your feet became second nature, as did the ability to remain calm while under pressure.

“My whole life has been a journey of activity based experiential learning. The skills learned have taken me on some great adventures. In recent years I have worked in environmental education in Raglan with  A Roche. Then I found Papa Taiao teaching youth in outdoor classrooms exploring their world and discovering themselves. Now, I get to work alongside these young people and watch them grow, helping them find new pathways, confidence and self belief. I watch them walk down paths that were never open to them before. I get to enjoy those awesome moments when the light comes on and they see they have what it takes and more to achieve whatever they set out to do.

“I passionately believe that if we help our young people to recognise the skills they have, many of which are not valued in school or in the classroom, they will enjoy many awesome adventures of their own and go places they never thought they would.”