Wai Splash Pool in Dannevirke has bumper school holiday

Tawhiti King-Harrison shows his balancing skills to Riana Beale and Alianah Harrison.

It may have been a little quieter on Friday afternoon than during the rest of the week at Dannevirke's Wai Splash Pool but that did not worry manager Philomena Beale because the previous two weeks of the holiday programme "had been awesome".

The children's programme from 10am until 5pm each day had attracted on average 50 children per day to come and splash around, climb on the floatables and generally have a great time. Unfortunately the huge inflatable toy developed a leak but the others were popular.

Over in the little pool families were having a great time on Friday afternoon.

A $3 charge for everyone was a major factor in attracting the patronage according to Philomena. She said it was affordable for the whole family and sometimes three generations were in the pool.

The adult aqua group had also been popular attracting up to 20 swimmers between 9am and 10am. Philomena says tutor Api Churchouse had been wonderful stimulating and encouraging her group to come along.

The trick now for Wai Splash is to keep generating cashflow as the wage subsidy is due to end soon.

With that in mind the $3 charge for everyone has been extended for the hours of 11am-3pm from July 20 to August 16.

Wai Splash is also offering a shortened version of the 100km Challenge, being halved to 50km. The challenge is to complete 50km in the pool in seven weeks between July 27 and September 13. Contestants can walk or swim or both and if you are in the aqua class the distances also count. There is a maximum of 2km per day.

Swim School has started again with the commencement of term three and runs the full school term. It runs from Monday–Thursday 3.30pm-7pm for serious swimmers and Thursday-Saturday 9am-noon for babies and preschoolers.