Many locals would say that this is the best swimming pool facility in the Wellington region, especially those that like water slides, and best of all, unlike many pools, there’s no extra charge for the slide!

There’s a separate pool for lane swimming but the main leisure pool is where most families spend their time. It starts as being ankle deep but gradually gets deeper (to 1.6m), so keep an extra close eye on small kids who are likely to wander, as they could get out of their depth. There’s a small tunnel slide in the shallow section, which younger kids especially enjoy. A wave machine operates when there’s sufficient demand. Generally that’s at the weekends and during the school holidays every 30-45 minutes (with an alarm sounding just before it starts so you can grab younger kids or go to where it’s shallower, and not be affected by the waves). Off this leisure pool is a lazy river. The leisure pool is heated to 30 degrees.

There is a completely separate small toddler pool (depth 0.4m and heated to 35 degrees) next to the main leisure pool. This has a small spout of water in the centre and coming out of a statue of a walrus to one side. You have to get out of the leisure pool to enter the toddler pool, so it wouldn’t be advisable to try to actively supervise kids in both pools at the same time.

The hydroslide has a height restriction of 1.3m if going down alone. No height restriction for kids accompanied by an adult. It’s quite fast and a decent length and included in the cost of general swimming admission.

There is a family change area and lockers available for hire to put your belongings in ($1 for 3 hours use).

There’s a café onsite but this doesn’t look out onto the swimming pool area and service can be slow.

TOP TIP: if you’re on the look out for another activity in the area and the weather’s OK, there’s a skate park just outside the arena. If there weather isn’t so great, you could head next door to the Pataka Museum (there’s a kids room which is good for preschoolers) and the library which has interesting things like a fish tank as well as lots of books to read!