Cajun Stringer (15), Brett Perriam (15) and Tyler Varcoe (16) along with one other Maniototo teenager and police support, joined 16 other teens from throughout the country at the army base for five days this month.
The three agreed it had given them a confidence boost and changed them in some small way - Cajun now does chores around his house and is not so scared of heights, "me and Brett are not lazy now," Tyler said, while Brett said he was "more respectful now".
They were identified by the Maniototo Area School and police as teenagers who could gain significant benefits from the course.
Central Otago youth aid officer Senior Constable Jacqui Lambeth, who organised the trip, said it was about giving them a positive experience with police, "because over the last nine months the dealings they have had with police have all been around death".
"The Maniototo is a community which has had some tragic events over the past nine months, with the sudden deaths of four young people in the area. This is an opportunity for us to put something positive back into that community and give local teenagers an opportunity, which will we hope reap lifelong benefits."
As it was a military camp, the teenagers were expected to live as they would if they were in the army.
"We woke up at 6am and had to be up in like two seconds," Tyler said.
They had to march everywhere, do chores and take part in team and confidence-building exercises in which they had to crawl under barbed wire, over rocks, through mud, jump over fences and off ledges - all as if they were under fire.
Tyler said the big lesson they learned on the course was "back-chatting has serious consequences".
The punishment was 10 push-ups on the first day, 20 on the second day, 30 on the third day and so on.
By the end of the five days, they had all done 200-300 push-ups each.
However, the risk of punishment brought out some Kiwi ingenuity in them, too. They were not allowed to leave the barracks without footwear and had to wear jandals in the showers. So, when Cajun discovered his jandals were broken, he tied them to his toes.
Senior Constable Steve Burke and Snr Const Lambeth accompanied the teenagers on the course and said though bad weather made their stay harder, "the participants added it to the list of things that they were obliged to develop a strategy to cope with, and they coped very well indeed.
"The change in the course attendees from the beginning of the week to the end, in both their performance and attitudes, was remarkable and inspiring."
Their parents and school principal David Hunter agreed the course was great for the teenagers.
"It was brilliant ... I would recommend it to all kids - it should be compulsory for all kids.
"With the [bad] year that the kids have had, it was a good chance for them to do something different," Tyler's mother, Linda Varcoe, said.
The camp was run by the New Zealand Defence Force's youth development unit with support from Blue Light, a youth-oriented charity that works with police.
It has a six-month follow-up period, during which local police will stay in touch to offer ongoing support.
