Calling adventurous Kiwi women

KIWI WANTED: British adventurer Felicity Aston, inset, is looking for a Kiwi to join her team of commonwealth women to ski to the South Pole.

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A British adventurer is looking for a New Zealand woman to join seven other females in a bid to ski to the South Pole, reaching it on New Year's Day 2010.

Thirty-year-old scientist Felicity Aston is leading the Commonwealth Women's Antarctic Expedition which will take women from Cyprus, Ghana, India, Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, Jamaica and Britain to the Pole.

"Only eight women from a Commonwealth of nations that represents more than two billion people around the globe will physically make the journey to the South Pole but many thousands more will join the team in spirit; lending support, willing them forward and following their progress across Antarctica," she says on her website www.commonwealthexpedition.com.

The expedition would not solve global poverty or prevent climate change "but it might alter the way people think, shift attitudes or plant the seed of an idea".

Aston said she would not be looking for the most athletic sportswomen, the most accomplished skiers or the most widely travelled: "I will be looking for women who inspire me, women who are reaching beyond the expectation of others and following their own path."

The women will go through a rigorous training programme so they did not need to be a superhuman athlete.

"All we ask is that you have at least an average level of fitness."

Speaking to the Calcutta Telegraph she said some skiing ability would be an advantage but not essential.

The expedition will take 30 to 50 days.

The women will be split into two groups of four each and flown forward to the edge of Antarctica by aircraft, with one lot beginning the march to the South Pole from the Ross Ice Shelf and the other from the opposite end on the Fichner Ice Shelf.

Since the women will sleep four to a tent, she said she will try to pick personalities not prone to cat fights.

Applications for a New Zealander close on August 15 and can be made online, www.commonwealthexpedition.com.