For an exhilarating 4WD ride through farmland, rivers, past waterfalls, you must visit Makoura Lodge. Go for the safari option if you’d like an expert driver to take you places you wouldn’t dare, or if you’re up for taking the wheel yourself, that’s also an option. The track is professionally designed as a 4WD training facility to offer every tricky scenario you can think of encountering – so there’s mud, river-crossings, steep sections and bumps galore.

Featuring some of the best single track in the lower North Island, the 30 km of mixed trails at Arapuke will satisfy every rider from amateur to pro – and they even have a shuttle to take you up to the top for some epic downhill flow. They’ve got a huge amount of reforestation happening, and new trails are being created all the time. The park is free to use, but the local mountain bike club appreciates donations for maintaining the park and building new trails.

With no boat required, this wakeboarding park tows riders on a wakeboard around a freshwater lake, via a cable. Go for the sheer experience of learning to cruise along the water on a board, or up the adrenalin and try out some of the obstacles and jumps. You can also try out Stand Up Paddleboarding, or the brand-new floating inflatable aqua park obstacle course with 4m-high towers.

Learning to kitesurf as a teen has so many benefits: it improves coordination, balance, concentration, reactions and core muscles, it’s social, and it’s very cool. Foxton Beach is magic for kitesurfing, with 22km of hard sand beach with small surf, and the largest flatwater estuary in the lower North Island. It’s the ideal place to get started, and Wind Warriors offers lessons for powerkiting, kitesurfing, kite landboarding, kite bugging and Stand Up Paddleboarding, with qualified instructors.

Get onto some go-karts and race with some serious speed around an indoor raceway in Palmerston North – most teens will agree this high-octane activity is the perfect way to spend an hour. The staff do a very good safety briefing, and you’ll be happy with the very reasonable prices.

Head to Mangaweka for some laid back rafting action with Awastone. For the more cautious, the Papa Gorge or Sandstone Gorge trips, lasting an hour or two, are a great introduction to rafting in a beautiful area with lots of rapids, rock fossil areas and swimming pools. For something a bit different head to the whitecliff boulders by raft – and cement them as adventurers for life! There are also specialist sit-on-top kayak lessons available, with guides providing gear and instruction before taking paddlers out on the rapids.

If you’re after some spectator sport, make sure to check out the jampacked calendar of Robertson Holden International Speedway events.