A run up Mount Ngongotaha would probably be enough exercise in one day for some people but for the 24 graduates of the Cactus programme it was only the start of their Longest Day.
Cactus stands for Combined Adolescent Challenge Training Unit and Support and has been running in Rotorua through the Rotorua police since 2011. This was the eighth course overall and the fifth for Western Heights High School.
The Longest Day was all about transposing the skills they have learned around hard work, discipline, goal-setting, leadership, motivation and teamwork into an eight hour, intensive physical test.
Students ran to the top of Mt Ngongotaha starting from the school on Old Quarry Rd. At the summit they had a team photo and then ran down the Jubilee Track to Paradise Valley Rd where they got on a bus to the New Zealand Fire Training Centre for an exercise. An exercise in the Whakarewarewa Forest followed, including walking with strainer posts and a medical exercise.
On Tarawera Rd they picked up logs, which they carried along Te Ngae Rd to the back of the police station on Hinemaru St. From there they ran to Fenton's Bar on Fenton St for their final activity of pulling a fire truck to the Village Green.
"The kids worked really hard," said Rotorua police Sergeant Mike Membery.
"Some were more physically able than others but they all supported each other and got each other through. The highlight for me was to see the change in them from when they started to when they finished. It will take time for some of it to kick in but it will change their thinking towards school and what they can achieve."