Fit for active living in the zone

Raelle Connolly was walking her dogs Pearl Barley and Ryely Barker on the seafront and decided to give the new hip-swing exercise fitting a shot. Photo / Duncan Brown

The last piece of Napier's new outdoor gym on Marine Parade is set to be put in place next week and will give fitness followers the opportunity to do a spot of America's Cup racing - on dry land.

It is a ship's grinder and will join a leg press, overhead press, hip swing and an ab stretcher already laid out across the grassed area beside the National Aquarium.

The fitness zone is the result of a partnership between the Napier manufacturers of internationally recognised systems, GymGuru, and the Napier City Council.

The council will trial the fitness equipment for a year and then decide whether it will remain - and if so would be offered it at cost price.

Roger Forsyth from GymGuru said similar layouts across Auckland and Australia had proven popular.

Plans were afoot to spread them to Wellington.

He said each machine would be monitored to determine the number of times it was used, and he predicted all would get a good response from the public.

The weather and salt air was no issue, Mr Forsyth said.

"You could put them at the bottom of the sea and they'd all still work."

He also doubted they would become targets for vandals - noting that near identical set-ups in some tougher areas of Auckland had survived unscathed.

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said the installation of the outdoor fitness exercise equipment was part of the council's ongoing work to make Marine Parade more attractive and appealing to residents and visitors.

The work includes a $5.7million redevelopment of the now-closed Marineland site which is to be turned into a recreation facility for roller sports and other activities later this year.

In February the council opened a "pump track" south of the aquarium for young bike and scooter riders.