It's the adventure of a lifetime and Tauranga Girls' College student Sonya Anderson is ready to embark on the five day voyage aboard the Spirit of Adventure.

The 15-year-old is one of 30 physically challenged young people between the age of 16 and 20 who will take part in the unique Inspiration Voyage early next year. She turns 16 tomorrow.

Sonya Anderson will be setting sail early next year on the Spirit of Adventure.

The ‘trainees' will be involved with navigating and sailing the ship and working as a team to meet their goals in one of New Zealand's most well-known sailing programmes.

Sonya was born with a hearing disability but her mother Karen says Sonya hasn't let that stop her from living her life.

'She belongs to a youth group and a member of the rangers, she just loves all sports and dancing,” says Karen.

Earlier this year Sonya had surgery on her worsening hearing. She now has a surgically implanted electronic cochlear implant, which provides sound to the hearing impaired. It will improve her hearing over time, says Karen.

'Her hearing will get turned on more and more over three years, she will have massive improvement in her hearing,” says Karen.

'Sonya's language has always been good, but we noticed it was slightly off, what we find now is her speaking voice is getting clearer and clearer, we have noticed an improvement already.”

Sonya will be setting sail on Tuesday, January 28 from Auckland with the other youths selected from around the country.

'Sonya has been on a boat a couple of times, she's very keen and excited.”

The Spirit of Adventure website says the programme provides trainees with the opportunity to face challenges outside their usual boundaries, gain confidence and achieve things that may have previously been impossible.

'On every one of these voyages, we see so many trainees overcome their fears and doubts. The challenges are different for everyone; for some it is climbing the mast, for others jumping in for the morning swim instead of climbing down the ladder, for others it is simply living in a group situation,” says the website.

'The noticeable impact these five days have on the lives of each trainee is radiated through their attitudes, their behaviours and the friendships they have made.

The 109foot three-masted barquentine Spirit of New Zealand runs 340 days of the year at sea and can reach up to 14knots wind propelled.

In the last 40 years more than 60,000 young people have taken part in the programmes provided by Spirit of Adventure, with around 1200 participants per year.