By SIMON COLLINS
Gina Hoeft has applied to go to Antarctica this summer to prove to her family that she can withstand the cold.
The 16-year-old Otara student is one of 35 graduates of Project K's youth mentoring programme to apply for a new pilot scheme to send four young people on
the ultimate wilderness experience - 10 days on the Antarctic ice.
The scheme was launched at Albany yesterday by Prime Minister Helen Clark.
Gina Hoeft, who spoke at the launch, had never spent a night in the bush until 2002 during a 17-day Project K adventure which involved kayaking on Lake Rotoiti, climbing Mt Tarawera and walking a bush trail blindfolded.
"I had hardly left home," she said. "I've lived in Otara all my life."
After the adventure, her group from Otahuhu College learned dances with entertainer Mika Haka, gave a concert in the Otahuhu Town Hall, and were allocated mentors for a year to work on their personal goals.
Gina said the whole experience made her more self-confident.
"I never used to meet people. I was really shy," she said. "Now I have pretty much opened up and found that it's not so hard."
Antarctica would be "more of a challenge for me".
"I'm a very warm person, I really hate being cold," she said. "My family don't believe I would handle cold conditions."
Project K executive trustee Jo-anne Wilkinson, who founded the organisation with partner Graeme Dingle in 1994, will accompany the four successful Project K graduates on their trip to Antarctica in January.
Project K
Antarctica New Zealand
