Kylie Wakelin. Photo / Sarah Ivey Expand

Kylie Wakelin. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Adventurer Kylie Wakelin yesterday started her unexpected ski journey to the South Pole, towing an 80kg sled loaded with food, fuel and equipment.

Wakelin, 36, is part of a team of eight women who expect to take 40 days - skiing for six to 10 hours a day - to travel more than 800km to the pole and mark the 60th anniversary of the Commonwealth.

She stepped in as New Zealand's representative in early October, after the expedition's British leader, Felicity Aston, dropped a New Zealand Army doctor, Major Charmaine Tate, 33, who had trained with the international team in Norway and New Zealand.

"The team dynamics weren't quite right so I decided to change the personnel before the team got anywhere near the ice," Ms Aston said.

The change was made after a training camp in the Pisa Range near Wanaka during September.

Ms Aston said a "runner-up" from New Zealand was no longer able to join the team "and so we found a new team member by referring back to the shortlist of New Zealand applicants.

The shortlist was drawn up from 200 applications.

Major Tate, who is from Auckland, had previously spent two weeks in Norway where the rest of the team were learning how to ski and survive in the cold.

She could not be contacted for comment yesterday.

Ms Wakelin will be one of the more experienced members of the group.

She has spent the past 16 years running the Glacier Explorers boat trips in the small lake at the foot of the Tasman Glacier.

She is from Twizel, and said her previous experience was "a lifetime of kicking about" in ski-touring and mountaineering expeditions to Norway, Greenland, Alaska, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, and working one season for the British Antarctic Survey on the frozen continent.

The expedition also includes women from Brunei, Cyprus, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Singapore and Britain.

Ms Aston said she chose New Zealand over Australia because of its link with Antarctica.

"New Zealanders think of it as their next-door neighbour, which is why it's so surprising that there hasn't been a New Zealand woman who has skied to the South Pole," she said.

- NZPA