Waterpark headed for Karapiro
Organisers of a floating adventure park hope they’ve finally cracked on to a safe and effective formula for its debut at Lake Karapiro.
Waterworld Inflatable Waterpark is heeding local calls for more family-orientated events on the lake, which is largely used for sports and club events.
It involves a trampoline, slides, a bridge, and various other obstacles on what is effectively a buoyant orientation course. Held in Tauranga over the last two summers, and in Auckland in Easter of this year, the event had some teething problems.
But Waterworld Ltd owner Kel Travers said those concerns about safety and long queues have been ironed out, and a happy medium has been reached.
‘‘We limit it to about 60 people per session,’’ Travers said.
‘‘The water park capacity is over 100, but we’ve brought the capacity down to try and manage it around 60.’’
Each session on the waterpark lasts an hour, and people generally get to spend about 45 to 50 minutes of play time in, following safety briefings. Travers said a queue will usually build up at ‘the blob’, the waterpark’s most popular feature.
Only two people will be allowed on the blob at any one time, in the name of safety.
At Lake Pupuke in Auckland, Travers said there were weeds in the shallows near to the edge of the lake, but the organisers mitigated the threat to safety.
‘‘Health and safety is my number one priority with this thing – we’ve got kids in the water,’’ he said. ‘‘Where we were at Sylvan Park, there was weed at the entrance, but it goes deep quite quick and the weed disappears at a depth of about three metres.
‘‘So we actually used our components to make a walkway from the land out to the water park. That was about 20 metres or so. People were able to walk over the water to get to the water park, and when they were there the depth was about seven to 10 metres. There was no weed.’’
After hearing of it, Cambridge resident Sebastien Lemercier contacted Travers with the suggestion he bring it to Lake Karapiro.
Mighty River Domain manager and Waipa¯ district deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk was soon on board and getting in behind the event.
‘‘We found a slot in between the rowing regatta that’s about to happen and then the scout jamboree over new years,’’ Travers said.
Travers said tickets to the waterpark at Karapiro from December 17-29 were selling well.