Making a splash

It is the middle of school holidays and Blenheim's aquatic centre is packed.

Water fountains pour sheets of water onto the soaked heads of laughing children below.

Tiny babies splash clumsily among coloured plastic balls in the warm baby pool, encouraged by mothers who enjoy jets of water spraying into their backs.

Spectators sit at tables that create an almost cafe-like setting, overlooked by a lineup of fitness machines on a mezzanine floor above the pool.

In the quiet, small, 25-metre pool, a swimming instructor is showing a youngster how to float, while on the opposite side of the complex, a high glass wall overlooks a 25m 10-lane pool where swimmers of all ages and abilities are doing lengths.

The scene is a far cry from Blenheim's overcrowded, old 25m indoor pool which now sits, refurbished and as good as new, beside the new pools under a cavernous roof. The pressure on the old pool used to be relieved only in summer when the the 50m outdoor pool was open.

Anyone who has not visited Blenheim's new $16.5 million aquatic centre yet will not recognise the place.

This weekend, the Marlborough Lines Stadium 2000 Aquatic and Health & Fitness Centre will officially be opened, starting with Marlborough's Big Splash at 8.30am Saturday.

But already more people are using the pools than ever before, based on casual observations by stadium chief executive Paul Tredinnick.

Pool staff members and longtime swimmers Kirsty Mattison and Liz Peipi agree, and what they see from their spacious new desk at the pool's main entrance gives them great satisfaction.

Both learned to swim in freezing outdoor pools, opening to 16 degrees Celsius water temperatures at the start of the season.

"I would swim a kilometre just to warm up," Kirsty says.

Kirsty was a member of the Blenheim Swimming Club and Liz lived in Greymouth, but both have fond memories of their early swimming days that they hope more children can experience now Blenheim has a bigger pool.

"The best part for me has to be the kids enjoying it. It's really nice to see that and it's lovely to see parents coming down and doing it with them," says Kirsty, the pool's programme manager.

Kirsty has been able to add flipperball and water polo to the pool's existing programmes, but her biggest hope is that more people will learn to swim.

The stadium's fundamental skills programme takes primary school children through a week of water-safety skills, something Kirsty hopes more schools will participate in.

Liz, events manager and lifeguard, is battling health problems but still manages to swim 80 lengths three times a week and she hopes others will be inspired to do the same, especially now the pool is so well equipped for less mobile people.

"I hope Blenheim people support [the pool]. People from other places are just amazed that we have a facility like it."

Kirsty, Liz and their colleagues have been working out of a building site for nearly three years, and had to shift their offices to the other end of the building and back.

They were surrounded by dust and noise, mess and machinery, but say the disruption was minimal considering what was achieved.

The outdoor 50m Olympic Pool opened in 1958 and, though considered state of the art, leaked terribly.

The indoor pool opened in 1986 after a massive volunteer-led community fundraising campaign called Operation Undercover.

Recreation Management Services (RMS) managed the pool, but lost its contract in 1996, which was picked up by former RMS manager Terry Low's Creative Marketing Ltd.

However, well-publicised tensions emerged between Terry and the swimming club.

Former competitive swimmer Philippa Hyndman remembers the battle, which resulted in her having to train in the Bohally Intermediate School pool instead.

She also remembers shivering in the sauna during a swimming camp in the outdoor pool, although it was possibly a more refreshing dip than the indoor pool which was kept at 29C – 2C higher than most other pools.

Kirsty says it was very uncomfortable during swimming training and it cost, reported the Express, $80,000 a year to maintain that temperature.

In 1997, a review and audit of the aquatic centre was commissioned by the Marlborough District Council. The following year, Terry's contract ended and in 1999 the Marlborough Stadium Trust, which was formed in 1998 to fund and develop the new stadium, also took charge of the pool.

The trust soon began to talk about upgrading it, stadium trust chairman Luke van Velthooven says.

"It was dated, it was tired, it required a lot of maintenance, it was underdone with the learn to swim side with a tiny learn to swim pool, which had been a discussion for years, even prior to [the trust].

"We knew it was coming. It was just a matter of when."

"When" was 2007, with the trust giving council a heads-up of its intentions, followed by a condition report presented to full council in 2008. A design team drew up plans in the same year, which drew 450 submissions, says Paul.

"It was a real challenge to marry wants and needs in the budget."

That budget included $14 million from the council's reserve funds.

Resource consent was notified in February 2009, attracting just four submissions, which Luke says were mainly supportive, and Evan Jones Construction won the contract to build the complex.

By October 2009, work had begun. In March this year, a wall between the old 25m pool and the new section came down, revealing the almost finished complex.

Luke attributes the project's comparatively speedy progress to huge community and council support, the trust's proven record and the huge known need for a new pool.

But like the Operation Undercover committee before him, Luke found the construction process intense.

"The duration and complexity of the construction, just the nature of a project of this size, the continuously working with designers, constructors, builders and ensuring that we're delivering for the dollars."

Although he has yet to find time to enjoy a swim himself, Luke is "enormously pleased" with the result.