What is an Adventure Activity?

The legal definition

The Health and Safety at Work (Adventure Activities) Regulations 2016 define 'adventure activity' in regulation 4(1)(a). The definition has several elements — an operation must meet all of them (and not be excluded) to be an adventure activity requiring registration.

When is an operation an adventure activity?

It IS an adventure activity when:

• It meets all the elements in regulation 4(1)(a), and
• It is not excluded under regulations 4(2)–4(5)

This means the operator must obtain and pass a safety audit and seek registration.

It is NOT an adventure activity when:

• It meets none or only some (but not all) of the elements, or
• It meets all the elements but is excluded under regulations 4(2)–4(5)

Even if your operation is not an adventure activity, you still have duties as a PCBU under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 — including ensuring equipment is fit for purpose and people are aware of risks.

The six elements of the definition

Regulation 4(1)(a) defines an adventure activity as one that meets all of the following:

• Provided to a participant in return for payment
• Land-based or water-based
• Involves the participant being guided, taught how, or assisted to participate
• Main purpose is the recreational or educational experience of the participant
• Designed to deliberately expose a participant to a serious risk to health and safety that must be managed by the provider
• Either:

- Failure of the provider's management systems is likely to result in serious risk; or

- The participant is deliberately exposed to dangerous terrain or dangerous waters

How WorkSafe interprets each element

1. Provided in return for payment

A participant is any person who takes part in an operator's activity and pays them to provide it. Payment can be:

• Made directly or indirectly from participant to operator
• Received directly or through a booking agent
• For profit, charitable, or fundraising purposes
• Included in the price of another activity, good, or service (e.g. an activity in an accommodation package)

2. Land-based or water-based

• Land-based: takes place in, on, or around any land in New Zealand (private or public)
• Water-based: takes place in, on, or around water — including the territorial sea, internal waters, and all rivers and inland waters of New Zealand

3. Guided, taught how, or assisted

• Guided: participants are accompanied, directed, led, advised, trained, controlled, influenced, or supervised
• Taught how: participants are taught skills or activity management specific to the activity
• Assisted: participants are given a level of help that makes the activity possible for them to complete

This element is likely to be met if the participant requires or is given physical assistance, has the operator on hand to provide immediate assistance, or is supervised (including at a distance) with intent to guide, teach, or assist.

Note: Regulation 4(2)(b) excludes activities where equipment or infrastructure is provided but participants are primarily responsible for their own actions.

4. Recreational or educational

• Recreational: done for enjoyment, generally when the participant isn't working (may include competitive activities unless exclusively for professional athletes)
• Educational: done for the purposes of teaching, training, and learning to improve knowledge and develop skills

5. Designed to deliberately expose to serious risk

The activity must be:

• Provided and controlled by an operator (directly or via a worker or contractor)
• Where exposure to serious risk is intentional or chosen, including in actions associated with the activity (such as accessing where it takes place)
• Where the risk is significant or worthy of concern (such as one that could result in a notifiable event) and could adversely affect the participant's health and safety
• Where those risks need to be managed by the operator

6. Dangerous terrain or dangerous waters

Dangerous terrain is land with features that are steep, slippery, or unstable; or land exposed to significant natural hazards. This includes terrain that:

• Requires special equipment, skills, or techniques to traverse safely
• Is exposed to avalanche danger
• Has significant risk of a fall from heights

Dangerous waters are any body of water that is fast-moving, strong, contains obstacles, or is isolated from assistance. Significant hazards include:

• Rapids of Grade 2 and higher
• A current that prevents participants making upstream progress without an engine-powered craft
• Open waters (more than 100m from a safe landing on shore, excluding islands)
• Hazardous combinations of swells and sea-bed or shore
• Low water temperatures

Activities and their likely status

Nearly certain to be subject to the regulations:

Abseiling (outdoors), activities on Whakaari/White Island and Raoul Island, back-country skiing, bridge swinging, bungy jumping, canyon swinging, canyoning, glacier walking, high rope/high wire activities, zip wire (over 2m high), mountaineering, river boarding, rock climbing (outdoors), snow caving, SCUBA (except in a swimming pool), white water rafting.

Might be subject to the regulations depending on circumstances:

Alpine touring, coasteering, freshwater swimming, guided cycling, guided horse trekking, guided mountain biking, guided sea kayaking, kayaking on Grade 1 water, sailing, tramping/guided hiking, via ferrata.

Nearly certain NOT to be subject to the regulations:

Activities in a swimming pool, bush walks on formed tracks, cycling on formed tracks or roads, freshwater fishing, golf, horse riding on formed tracks or roads, jet boating (passenger), paragliding/hang gliding (tandem), recreational four-wheel driving, rock climbing indoors, sailing (supervised club racing), sailing (passenger).

Note: This list is not exhaustive. Use the WorkSafe decision tree (linked below) for your specific situation.

Decision tree tool

WorkSafe provides a decision tree PDF to help you work through whether your operation is an adventure activity. Download the Adventure Activities Decision Tree (PDF) ↗