Caleb Fraser, the University of Canterbury student, selected as Christchurch’s representative on the Antarctic Cities Youth Expedition, unexpectedly went from a vacation soaking up the Bali sun, straight to Chile and on to Antarctica, due to a change in the expedition dates. Caleb joined youth representatives from each of the other four Antarctic gateway cities (Hobart, Cape Town, Ushuaia and Punta Arenas) and the expedition leader in Punta Arenas, enroute to King George Island on the Antarctic Peninsula, for a once in a lifetime experience. While in Antarctica the expeditioners founded the Antarctic Youth Coalition. The coalition aims to build a network of passionate young custodians across the five Antarctic gateway cities, advocating for Antarctica’s future by running international events, developing multilingual Antarctic educational material and creating a sense of custodianship in our cities.