Dare to take the challenge
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Welcome to the New Zealand Cadet Forces, Where Challenge Meets Adventure

The New Zealand Cadet Forces (NZCF) is a youth organisation like no other. Designed for teens ready to take on something exciting, real, and unforgettable. Whether you're keen to take to the skies, explore the outdoors, or get out on the water, there's a place for you in the Navy Cadets, Army Cadets or the Air Cadets.

Led by passionate volunteers and supported by the New Zealand Defence Force, the NZCF gives you the chance to develop leadership, confidence, and lifelong friendships through epic camps, unique training, and hands-on experiences that go way beyond the classroom.

This isn’t just a club. This is Cadets. Dare to take the challenge!

New Zealand’s oldest youth organisation

The Cadet Forces is a non-profit organisation for the youth of New Zealand which has existed continually since 1864, and in its present form in a partnership with the New Zealand Defence Force and locally appointed community organisations since 1971.

What We Do

NZ Cadets Corp

Life Skills

You’ll gain real-world skills like leadership, teamwork, confidence, and resilience. From first aid to navigation, communication to responsibility. Everything you learn here sets you up for success, wherever life takes you.

NZ Cadets Corp

Building young leaders

Growing confident, capable young leaders through hands-on training, responsibility, and challenges, cadets learn to lead with confidence, make decisions under pressure, and inspire others, skills that last a lifetime.

NZ Cadets Corp

Personal development

Cadets is more than uniforms and drill, it's about discovering who you are and what you're capable of. Through personal challenges, new experiences, and a tiered training programme, you’ll build confidence, resilience, and a strong sense of self. Grow with every step.

Learn more

Leadership. Adventure. Opportunity.

The NZCF is a voluntary, uniformed youth organisation for 13 to 19-year-olds, offering military style leadership, personal development, and adventure-based training. Through our three branches- Navy Cadets, Army Cadets, and Air Cadets—we deliver a nationally coordinated, hands-on training programme unlike anything else in New Zealand. Cadets take part in exciting activities that build confidence, resilience, and teamwork, with access to local, regional, and national-level courses that offer further challenges and recognised qualifications.

Whether you're looking to lead, fly, sail, hike, or just push yourself to new heights, being a cadet is where it begins.