At this time of year teenagers are living their best life, embracing festivals and taking photos on the beachside.
For rising Kiwi motorsport star Liam Lawson, it's also been a summer of firsts, with the F3 driver banking in as much Kiwi holidaying as possible before taking on his biggest year yet.
Lawson has attended his first festival and even flew a plane since returning from F2 testing in Bahrain.
While some of it was a bit scary, Lawson told 1 NEWS it was totally worth it.
“It's important to really enjoy myself at home because it’s probably going to be the last time for a while that I’m actually going to be home.”
The 18-year-old is bound for Europe again next month, where he's in for an action-packed year.
Lawson has been picked alongside two-season F1 driver Alex Albon for the prestigious German Touring Car series – a series, he admits, hasn’t always been on his radar.
“That’s the thing — I don’t know anything about it because it's not something I’ve looked into.
“It's a huge championship and it's like the F1 of GT — it is massive and its arguably 10 times bigger than F2, but in terms of my progression I’d much rather do F2.”
An F2 call-up might not be too far off, though, with the Pukekohe driver expected to be racing in the series when the season starts in late March.
It’ll be a juggle managing both competitions but Lawson said it’s a schedule he can manage.
“You can take so much from every single car you drive, so me doing this, even if it's not so much what I take from the car, but the racing can be extremely competitive.”
And if all goes to plan, he’ll notch another first experience in a few summers' time – Formula One.
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