Metro Sports Facility - Taiwhanga Rehia

Five very fancy hydroslides have been announced as the drawcard to the Metro Sports Facility - Taiwhanga Rehia, which is under construction in Christchurch. Amongst the city's earthquake losses were several large swimming pool complexes, including the popular hydroslides at QEII Park. Development agency Otakaro intend to more than make up for it with this massive complex which is overtaking an entire old industrial city block.

In line with their other projects, Otakaro hark back to Ngai Tahu with the design process, this time likening the hydroslide to tuna (silver bellied eels) in a catch basket. Sports are the main objective of this facility, along with drawing people back to the city. It will cater for swimming, diving and other water sports, basketball, netball and volleyball, at the recreational level as well as for high performance athletes.

So big is the complex that contractors first put down 8000 piles to ready the site for five years of building, and an earthquake safe future.

NZPlaces could use a construction photo of this place.

Image Credit: Google Earth