Three mountain bikes struggle through soggy clay as they go up and down the mounds of a brand new bike track.
Riders Tyler Smith, Michael Fahy and Sam Cranstone pedal frantically towards each jump, getting impressive air and sticking every landing.
The 12-year-old Huntley School pupils are loving it, reapingthe rewards of all the hard work they put in to making their own tracks over the years.
In 2015, Huntley School had an orchard area full of pine trees that had to be taken out due to their age, leaving what principal Sam Edwards called a blank canvas.
Not long after the removal of the trees, Cranstone was outside thinking the area looked desolate and decided to form the Huntley School mountain bike committee.
"It started out with five of us building a track over time and now that it's finished, people have come pouring in," Cranstone says.
Principal Sam Edwards watches as Sam Cranstone, Tyler Smith and Michael Fahy ride over three new jumps at Huntley School. Photo / Bevan Conley
"I love the feeling of being on a bike and in the fresh air. I could spend all day out there riding."
The original track was laid out by old boy Bill Wakely and the committee applied for tools to maintain it from the Parents and Friends of Huntley School (PFH).
They received tools such as wheelbarrows and shovels, eventually using them to start creating their own tracks around the area ... but they were not exactly up to standard.
The committee is now a club as decided by the remaining members after Fraser Caseley and Jonathon Jamieson departed Huntley School as Year 9 pupils.
The club thanked them for coming back to lend a hand when they could on a new track that they had begun working on.
Despite the boys' enthusiasm to create a challenging large scale track, they could get only so far, but luckily for them, plenty of people were willing to help out.
One of them was Paul Wright of PW Wright Contracting in Marton.
"Paul is a current parent who is passionate about the school. He came in with his digger and bulldozer free of charge and spent evenings clearing the area out," Edwards said.
"We needed like 300 cube of clay. He said we were sitting on a lot of it so he came out and excavated it all for us which kept the costs right down."
The Cheatleys of Velo Ronnie's Bicycle Store work with Huntley School on their cycling programme and mentioned Rotorua-based Empire Of Dirt who created the track.
Huntley School's new bike track was made by Rotorua-based company Empire Of Dirt and cost $9000. Photo / Bevan Conley
It cost $9000 which was supplied by the Parents and Friends of Huntley School (PFH) after the mountain bike club wrote to them.
"We're big believers in students making choices themselves and being responsible. They drove this and they're passionate about it," Edwards said.
"We encourage our kids to get outside, be active and be risk-takers. There are some big jumps over the mountain bike track, but we don't wrap them in cotton wool."
Up to 80 per cent of the school's pupils are now racing around the track during break times and trying out all the new jumps, including the revamped "Huntley drop".
Fahy said he felt happy and proud of the club's efforts.
"Tyler and I race motocross so we're adrenaline junkies basically. We love pushing our limits. We're out there every lunch and break," he said.
"When we leave the school and then come back, we'll know that we helped build these jumps. We chucked in the effort and it turned out really well."
