Tristan Teki's children have beaten the lockdown blues after the family created their own waterslide with a sea biscuit, digger and slide. Photo / Supplied
Tristan Teki's children have beaten the lockdown blues after the family created their own waterslide with a sea biscuit, digger and slide. Photo / Supplied
They say Kiwis have a number 8 wired, do it yourself attitude.
And that's exactly the case for one Kiwi family who wanted to defeat boredom this Covid-19 lockdown.
With parents struggling to keep their kids entertained, Whanganui father Tristan Teki decided to take the entertainment to the next level after building a homemade ride some theme parks would be proud of.
Teki utilised his company's diggers by making a waterslide and attaching the sea biscuit to the digger to form a sea biscuit waterslide swing.
"They [the diggers] were all parked up at my house so I could look after them during lockdown.
"I once saw somebody a couple of years ago had a little toy digger swinging kids round and round, and I thought why don't I go one bigger and get the 13 tonner out in the paddock."
Tristan Teki's children have beaten the lockdown blues after the family created their own waterslide with a sea biscuit, digger and slide. Photo / Supplied
Tristan Teki's children have beaten the lockdown blues after the family created their own waterslide with a sea biscuit, digger and slide. Photo / Supplied
The family initially laid down 100m of slide before Teki spent hours perfecting the length of the rope and the safety mechanisms of their creation.
Teki says after perfecting their creation, the children had a blast with the ride reaching speeds of more than an estimated 60km/h.
"We put a D shackle on the digger which has a proper lifting hook on it and we put a heavy sea biscuit rope on it and kept adjusting the length until we could keep the biscuit on the slide.
"We went out each day for a couple of hours and swung them round and round.
"We were starting to get airborne so we slowed it down a bit, we don't want any injuries.
"When the digger is going at 15km/h and you're way out there on the sea biscuit you're probably hitting close to 80km/h at top speed. We slowed it down to make it safe.
"We spent the whole Easter weekend sliding around. We also dug a pool and laid the plastic down and filled it with water. It's all the kids have been talking about."
Teki's videos have since been posted to TikTok and Facebook, receiving thousands of likes and comments.
The Whanganui father says he didn't expect it to blow up.
"It took me by surprise the attention it got. We're just out there enjoying life. Trying to keep it as safe as we can but I'm not one to them in cotton wool. That's how we grew up.
