Sixty years ago, 36 wide-eyed Outward Bound students arrived via boat to Anakiwa for the very first time, all of them were smartly dressed young men, ready for a challenge.
Eleven years after that, Outward Bound welcomed the first female students to Anakiwa followed by the inaugural course for physically disabled New Zealanders in 1978.
All of these students came to Anakiwa to learn tenacity, to harness their resilience and while they may not have known it at the time, they were helping lay the building blocks of what has become an enduring legacy, helping transform the lives of thousands of New Zealanders.
Over the decades, 70,000 students spanning several generations have made the pilgrimage to Anakiwa’s outdoor classroom - most emerging with greater resilience and on a path to transformation. The school has evolved to meet the changing needs of rangatahi in 2022.
While the commitment to giving New Zealanders a life-changing experience is steadfast, the courses have been adapted for people with physical disabilities, rooms have been converted for prayer, meals now cater for students with Halal and gluten-free preferences, partnerships with iwi including Ngāi Tahu connect students on a hikoi from Anakiwa to Aoraki, and with the Human Rights Commission Outward Bound has designed a course for students to explore their cultural and social identity.
What hasn’t changed in sixty years is every student has the opportunity to learn in the outdoors while unlocking their potential.
To commemorate 60 years at Outward Bound, we invited alumni to return to Anakiwa for a day of reconnection and celebration. Over 150 alumni and supporters made the journey back to Tōtaranui on September 24. The day was loaded with nostalgia-inducing activities, a solo-themed lunch (complete with flapjack, of course), and lots of story-sharing, reminiscing and reconnecting with Anakiwa.
Celebrations were topped off with a ceremonial birthday cake cutting by Course 1 alumni Forrest McDougall and Marg Robinson, a member of our first female course in 1973.
Watch a video recap of this special celebration here >>
While the organisation looks back on 60 years, some New Zealand families will look back over that period and be able to count multiple generations who have taken part in the life-changing experience over the decades.
One of those families is the Carpenter-King whānau for whom Outward Bound is more than a rite of passage.
Every day for two years, while running the COVID-19 testing and critical medical supplies part of the New Zealand Government COVID-19 response, Darryl Carpenter was compelled to reflect on his time as an Outward Bound instructor in the 1990s.
“The role was a huge undertaking for me, done under incredibly tight timeframes with no margin of error.”
Darryl’s job involved building a high-performing team, meeting deadlines, working six to seven days a week for months on end, enabling individual and collective brilliance to shine, anticipating and heading off potential and real mistakes - and the occasional disaster.
“When we did get it wrong, picking up the pieces, quickly learning and then just getting on and doing things better the next time were skills grounded in my time at Outward Bound. The parallel between leading a cornerstone of the COVID-19 response and a watch at Outward Bound was absolute."
Darryl’s wife, Leonie King was 21 when at Outward Bound in 1988 she fell outside her comfort zone. Growing up in Hamilton, Leonie was shy and quiet and had never heard of Outward Bound until she saw a poster in the local library advertising the outdoor school.
“I saved hard for the fees as I was turned down by my employer for a scholarship. When I arrived in Anakiwa, everything was new to me, apart from tramping. The activities and the social setting were different - and making friends from a much bigger circle was new,” she said.
Leonie credits Outward Bound for showing her a wider circle of friends, returning home and feeling confident to make new friends, all go-getters, as a turning point in her life.
“It disrupted everything I knew in a good way. If not for Outward Bound, I would have had a different life path.”
Two years later Leonie supported Darryl, then her boyfriend, to follow his dream to be an Outward Bound instructor. The couple moved to Anakiwa, and while Darryl instructed, Leonie commuted to Wellington for her job. Living in the staff village for three years cemented lifelong friendships for Leonie and Darryl, who formed close bonds with other school instructors and whānau.
“Outward Bound has become such a big part of who I am,” says Leonie.
“It was where I gained the confidence to chase dreams and live out my potential. I refer to the mantra ‘live every day to the fullest.’ Darryl and I have raised our children this way.”
"I believe true learning only occurs on the edge of our comfort zone.”
“At Outward Bound, I was constantly looking for or creating the teachable moments. That point where everything is in place, primed and ready for the individual and team to take that next significant step in opportunity, personal development and change.
When taken, there’s a moment that transforms a person’s life journey, and they and the world they live within will be a much better place because of that decision. I believe true learning only occurs on the edge of our comfort zone.”
Leonie and Darryl’s three children have spent their childhood and adult lives in the great outdoors, and the couple attributes their first experiences in Anakiwa as the start of their whānau’s shared love of the natural world.
The couple has passed the baton seven times to others in the whānau. Leonie’s brother, Robert attended in 1993. Darryl’s mother, Sheila and his late father, Bob, completed separate Outward Bound courses after their son became an instructor. A park bench to the right of the Anakiwa jetty is in memory of Bob and his love for Outward Bound and Anakiwa.
The eldest children, Ben and Brooke, completed their Classic courses when they each turned 21. While on his course, Ben recalls intensely watching the instructors learn and apply the leadership skills that would become part of his everyday life.
Darryl and Leonie’s youngest son, Luke, is turning 21 next year and will be the last of the Carpenter kids to make the pilgrimage to Anakiwa for their rite of passage.
For Leonie, her commitment to Outward Bound runs deeper than ever before. This year Leonie began working for the organisation as the manager of Outward Bound’s Adapted course programmes.
Leonie and Darryl’s professional lives are underpinned by their experiences formed at Outward Bound.
Says Darryl, “In the COVID response, I was constantly looking to draw that out of the team. By being a better leader myself, looking for the teachable moments, and enabling, supporting and challenging people to be the best they could be, the collective whole was always going to be so much better and more than the individual parts. That is what got us through COVID. This is also the magic that still occurs at Outward Bound for each individual student and each watch."
“The magic of Anakiwa and the Outward Bound process is as relevant today as it was in my time.” - Darryl Carpenter
Above: Leonie (front row, third from left) on her Outward Bound course. Below: Darryl (standing far left) instructing in Anakiwa, 1991.
Above: Ben Carpenter (standing, third from left). Below: Brooke Carpenter (front row, third from right).
