Wild and wonderful soft play
New centre set up by couple
CHILDREN can go wild and enjoy wonderful fun as Gosport’s newest soft play centre has opened its doors.
Wild Wonderland, in Wingate Road, opened last month and has already received rave reviews from parents.
The business is the brainchild of Jessie Metelko and her husband Mark, who is a serving Royal Marine based at HMS Collingwood in Fareham.
The married couple, who have a one-year-old daughter called Margot, said they were inspired to set up the centre after seeing similar centres in Jessie’s home town in Australia.
Jessie, who moved to the UK in 2015 after meeting Mark while she was working as a dancer, already ran Jessie Lee Dance & Cheerleading Academy, in Fort Brockhurst Industrial Estate, and was looking for a way to expand her business but also to use the space where her members train in the daytime.
Jessie, 26, said: ‘We thought that we could do something in the daytime and the soft play looked like fun.
‘Lockdown gave us a bit of time to review our goals and this is what we came up with.’
Wild Wonderland opened
on September 23. The centre, which is open six days a week, caters for children up to nine years old.
It has a variety of colourful play equipment, a multistorey play frame, slides, toddler area, crawlers area, air tracks and a full sized
gymnastics sprung floor.
It also features a cafe which sells hot meals as well as cakes and coffees.
Jessie said it was hard work getting the place ready – but that it’s all been worth it to see the satisfied customers.
She said: ‘We got people in
to help us gut the place.
‘There was lots of dust everywhere.
‘It was like building a whole new house from scratch. Plus we were juggling childcare for Margot too.
‘There were a lot of 2am finishes and 5am starts.
‘We had a lot of support from Mark’s parents, who live nearby, which was great as my family are all in Australia and because of Covid they could not come over and help.
‘But it has been worth it, we are loving having a focus during the daytime.’
She added: ‘ Everyone has commented on how great it is as they can see their children playing and having fun wherever they are in the centre.’
Child entry starts at £2, rising to £6.50 depending on age, with adults £1. For more go to wildwonderland.co.uk