Students endure pain of Longest Day

Pain, anguish, determination - all present in just the first few hours of the tough Longest Day event.

The third instalment of the police-led Cactus programme finished in an eight-hour endurance event on Saturday featuring an array of mental and physical challenges.

We started with a run up Mount Ngongotaha at about 5.30am - again, but for the first time during the programme we went all the way to the top.

Some judged we ran close to 30km during the day and I wouldn't doubt it.

The students carried equipment - and sometimes each other - up the mountain before moving on to the second challenge at Blue Lake.

A team exercise featuring makeshift rafts concluded with everyone splashing about in the freezing lake.

The students, exhausted and cold, still had a long way to go yet. We arrived at our next destination about 9.45am - the Fire Training Centre.

This was dead-set one of the hardest things I've ever done as we carried compressed air packs weighing maybe 20kg, with all the other heat-absorbing gear, through a furnace-like building used to train firefighters.

The heat in the blacked-out room was above 60C and we had to crawl through a tight obstacle course, which lasted about 10 minutes.

Never again.

And so, if the day wasn't hard enough already, the harsh run began.

For about three hours, we trekked through the forest and down Te Ngae Rd carrying logs and other weighty props to test endurance.

On arriving in town about 2pm, with pain and even a few tears, the students picked up the ropes for the final challenge - the fire engine pull.

A rowdy reception of family and supporters encouraged the team down Fenton Street before hugs and applause met the students at the finish line.

Congratulations to the 2012 Western Heights High School Cactus participants who have achieved well above their own expectations.