New centre going swimmingly

Tauranga's $16 million aquatic and leisure centre could be open by Labour Weekend.
Contractor Mainzeal Construction is finishing the inside of the new Tauranga BayWave centre and it expects to complete the job within two months.
Mainzeal's Bay of Plenty manager, Terry Murphy, said the three pools have passed their initial tests and commissioning of Tauranga's latest recreational facility will continue over the next six to eight weeks.
Mr Murphy said Labour Weekend seemed a good time to open one of the largest aquatic centres in the country. Council project manager John Scott said that timing seemed logical but first staff needed to be trained.
Mainzeal has built six aquatic centres in the country over the past decade and Mr Murphy is happy with the way the facility has panned out. "We had a minor leak in the wave pool but we fixed that straight away. All the pools have been tiled and water tested - and they are fine," he said.
Under the stringent testing, the pools are filled with water and left for three days. The pools can lose 3ml of water over that period - but Tauranga's came under that.
BayWave, which had a $4 million funding injection from Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust, has a modern look with its dark grey, horizontally placed corrugated iron exterior walls. Inside, the aquatic building, measuring 90m long and 40m wide, has plenty of room and is totally functional.
Looking down from the mezzanine floor of the spacious fitness and wellbeing centre, the wave pool is ready to spring into action. It is surrounded by a spa pool seating 12 people on the left and a children's fun pool on the right. Underneath the weightlifting room of the fitness centre on the southern side is the learners' pool with its false floor at a 1.2 m depth.
A hole has already been dug and the floor can be lowered in the future to encourage more deep-water activities such as underwater hockey.
Behind the wave pool, which doubles as a four-lane lap pool, a totally enclosed 70m long hydroslide is also ready to go.
Next to the hydroslide is the most important feature of all - the 10-lane, 25m square competition swimming pool where 350 people can sit alongside on the six level bleachers and cheer the winners on.
If BayWave proves particularly popular, the pool can be extended through the glassed southern wall to 50m in length - that would cut in to the carpark that caters for just over 200 vehicles including room for six buses at a time.
Mr Murphy said technicians from Scotland will arrive at the end of August to set up the wave pool machinery and then commission it. "It's not going to be a wave that people can surf on. It's a swell that kids can bounce around on their boards," said Mr Murphy. "If you got the machine working at full tilt the waves would be rushing out of the building."
Mr Murphy said the centre will be a valuable addition to the city's leisure facilities. It will appeal to the tourist as much as the local community.
"There will be nothing like this in the city. People will also be attracted by the gymnasium. You can sit there on a bike and watch people below swimming."