Central Hawke's Bay gets its ice skates on for summer treat

Tikokino School pupils try out the thrills and spills of the ice rink at Coronation Park, Waipawa. Photo/Warren Buckland

Hundreds of Central Hawke's Bay school kids and adults enjoyed the thrills, spills and the novelty of ice skating as summer drew to an official close last week.

In a first for Central Hawke's Bay, the Ice Skate Tour was set up inside the gym at Coronation Park in Waipawa for six days as a fundraiser for Waipawa School.

From Tuesday to Friday, an average of 160 pupils a day enjoyed ice skating lessons on the 10m by 16m artificial ice rink.

The rink was open to the public from 3pm to 8pm each day, and was also the main drawcard at two Community Days held at the park on Saturday and Sunday.

Robin de Geoij from the Ice Skate Tour said over four years the family-owned business had travelled to more than 120 places around New Zealand.

"It's something a lot of people have never seen or done before. And it's one of the few things that kids can do with their parents."

User numbers on the visit to CHB had been "fantastic", he said. "We're really stoked."

The artificial ice was a product from his home country, The Netherlands, which Mr de Geoij said had 97 per cent of the gliding capability of real ice.

"The easiest thing to compare it to is like the plastic chopping board in your kitchen at home."

Though it wasn't cold, it was still hard and slippery.

Year 8 Tikokino School student Taryn Derbidge said skating was lot of fun, but it did hurt when she fell over.

"Especially when you fall over, like, 100 times!" she grinned.

Pip Burne, from Whanau and Friends of Waipawa School, said the ice rink had been an "amazing success".

"I think the novelty of having something like the rink in CHB has really been the appeal," she said.

Ms Burne said there were plenty of return skaters who visited the rink "time and time again", and the two Community Days were an amazing success with a large numbers of visitors coming from all over Hawke's Bay.

Funds raised would go towards education outside the classroom, she said.