It's hard finding a career that combines two of your passions.
But Whangārei's Brock Longworth may have found his dream job, which combines his loves of engineering and the sea.
Less than a year after leaving school, the 18-year-old has completed the six-month Junior Officer Common Training (JOCT) with the Royal New Zealand Navy and will now start a four-year Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (with honours) degree to become a marine engineer.
The degree is through the Salary (Tangaroa) Scheme, in which junior officers are paid to study on a "year for a year" return of service basis.
Midshipman Longworth said he was always fascinated by the ocean and loved spending time in and around it, and also loved physics and calculus.