Sustaining adventure in New Zealand outdoor education: Perspectives from renowned New Zealand outdoor adventurers on the contested cultural understanding of adventure

New Zealand is renowned as a place of adventure. This representation is enhanced by individuals who have gained world recognition in outdoor leisure pursuits. These adventurers ability to sustain their adventure identities has considerable impact on their lives but also on the sustainability and validity of adventure as an educational avenue. Guided by the ideas of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this paper examines and interprets renowned New Zealand adventurers’perspectives of adventure. Analysis of autobiographic adventure texts, memoirs, web pages, externally authored articles in print media and where possible individual interviews focuses on the context, traits, skills and values associated with adventure experience. The adventure narratives in these accounts are predominantly an individual experience focused on personal challenge, control and decision making. The adventure identities are presented as or portray themselves as role models of an adventure experience that is critical to social development and human sustainability. They all share a positive perspective of the educational benefits of adventure experience, but have divergent ideas on what should be understood as adventure. Their ‘true’ adventure is in conflict with the popular representations, such as bungy jumping thrill, reality TV stunts or survival epics.