After initial lack of hydroslide activity I can now say that I have been to the best water park that the world has to offer. And another one too. First up, and pictured, is the the Moana Pool in Dunedin. Features two slides: Fast and Slow. The slow one is pretty pedestrian and the fast one is a bit faster. And here endeth the review of that pool cos I need to get on and tell you about the QEII complex in Christchurch.
If the Stoke Newington Pool had been built like this then it would be the envy of every borough throughout the UK, instead of not even registering in the grand scheme of Olympic facilities that was knocking around at the time. I shall try to list its plus points in one breath just to try to get through them: full size competition pool, diving pool with 2x3m, 5m, 7m and 10m platforms, toddler pool, wave pool, fast flowing river section, 2x 3m wide whirlpool things (very vigorous swirling water, lot of fun), faux stone pillars, beachy sunset murals, bubble pools, fountains.
And I haven't even started on the hydroslides. Five of them, ranging from Collosus and Titan, large winding tubes that can be slid straight down, or ridden down on inflatable donuts. Then The Cruise, a faster ride, donuts not permitted and a couple of black segments of the slide make it a bit scary. For the true connoisseur there are The Body Bullet and The Terror Tube.
Both are a narrower gauge than the others, no sitting up and enjoying the ride, its lie down, keep your arms in and you'll be at the bottom pretty soon. The Body Bullet is a straight forward, tightening corkscrew. The G's increase, your gritted teeth get progressively more spray from your feet's wake before the relief of the final splashdown. The ride is timed and you can easily take 20% off your time by reducing friction by riding purely on shoulder blades and one ankle.
The Terror Tube could be renamed The Anarchy Artery. You are subjected to loud music and flashing lights the whole way down. Big on disorientation, low on terror. There's no suspense as you have no idea what is about to happen. The Terror of worrying that your about to smash your face on the next corner is countered by the thought that you probably won't.
If I could, I would take every brick of this place back to Stokey to show them what a great swimming pool looks like. Even on a quiet tuesday evening, the competition pool had serious looking racers in it. There were kids honing their very impressive diving skills from the 5m and 7m boards. The fake Roman bath paint job and sunset murals were a bit cheesy, but they made the place light-hearted. And most important of all: we just about had the slides to ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment