Spirit of Adventure's old hands respond

Lunch time during the Spirit of Adventure's maiden voyage in 1974. Photo / NZ Herald

In time for the Spirit of Adventure organisation's 40th anniversary, past voyagers have come forward in response to a campaign to find alumni whose records were lost in a flood.

A story in the Herald on Sunday last month featured an archive photo of the boys (pictured) who went on the first voyage in 1974, and now two of them have got in touch with the Spirit of Adventure Trust.

Trust chief executive Dean Lawrence said Terry Wouldes and Matt Holland from that first trip had made contact since the story ran.

Lawrence said about 500 alumni had registered with the Spirit of Adventure trust since the lost alumni campaign started at the beginning of November.

He said there were between 60,000 to 75,000 past voyagers and he was hoping the trust would hear from more of them in time for the celebrations.

"If we could get well over half of the records on our database, we'd be over the moon."