Ten overweight Wakatipu youngsters are being offered a free exercise and nutrition-focused programme. 

Queenstown Events Centre’s Alpine Health & Fitness is putting on a 10-week programme next month called Step Up, which it and local skifield operator NZSki are subsidising. 

Step Up targets 11 to 16-year-olds, Alpine Health & Fitness manager Richie Heap (right) says. 

“We want to be able to offer this to the 10 kids and families that need this the most,” Heap says. 

There’ll be three sessions a week – a group one with a nutrition or fitness focus, one-on-one personal training, and a group-based session based around an activity like kayaking or rock climbing. 

“It’s about empowering the youth to make sensible and healthy life choices and changing their current pathways to ill health.”