Rotorua Aquatic Centre closed: Swim clubs travelling to Tauranga, fear long-term pool closures

Rotorua Aquatic Centre's 50m pool pictured in 2021. Photo / Supplied

Swim schools have been forced to find alternative pools to use after Rotorua’s aquatic centre closed because of an issue with the bore that provides heating.

The council says it does not how long the centre - which includes a 50m outdoor pool - will be closed.

One Rotorua swim school’s top performance squad team is travelling to Tauranga for training and another swim school is using a Rotorua holiday park for swim lessons due to the closures.

They fear the closure might be long-term and prevent their top swim squad students from training for competitions and distance swim camps.

Rotorua Lakes Council said an investigation following a loss of heat to the outdoor pool on Tuesday found geothermal sediment in the bore pipes, which can cause blockages and damage.

Under the Building Code, the centre could not remain open without a domestic hot water supply.

Swim Rotorua Head Coach Aidan Withington-Edwards told the Rotorua Daily Post the school’s top performance teams aged 14-17 were travelling to Tauranga to train at the region’s pool facilities.

Withington-Edwards said he was not confident the pool would be re-opened by next week.

The swim school has more than 150 students, most aged 10-14. Withington-Edwards said many of the school’s students had to do dry land training sessions in the meantime.

“We are still doing dry land gym sessions across a whole lot of the [teams] to keep them active,” he said.

Rotorua Aquatic Centre's 50m pool after construction.

Withington-Edwards said the school was “putting [a plan] in place” in case the centre was closed long-term.

He said two out of the three staff members at the school had lost work hours because of the closure.

The school was focussing on giving the students a chance to learn team-building skills and not making the closure too much of a “hindrance”.

One of Swim Rotorua’s top swimmers, who had competed in national competitions for the club, was meant to be attending Swimming New Zealand Distance Camp during the second week of the school holidays in October.

Withington-Edwards said the closure made it “a bit tricker” for the student, who was now having to do many hours of dry-land training sessions instead of in the water.

Swim Rotorua board chairman Bruce Rankin said: “The reality is, it’s out of our control”.

He said Swim Rotorua wanted to keep people swimming and hoped the council was doing “all they can do to resolve it quickly and swiftly”.

Te Awara Swimming head coach Hank Greupink said he believed there was an issue with the heating and “dirt and rocks in the system”.

Greupink said he was told the pool was closed due to health and safety reasons.

Te Arawa swim school has about 80 students, from young children to master swimmers who compete in triathlons who use the centre.

Greupink said some students were currently being taught swim lessons at the All Seasons Holiday Park Rotorua pool. It had been taking their students to the holiday park pool for about six years but now had to take extra students.

The swimming pool at All Seasons Holiday Park. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rotorua Lakes Council group manager infrastructure and environmental solutions Stavros Michael said the council did not know how long the centre would be closed but the council was doing all it could to get it re-opened as soon as possible.

The centre is being upgraded and before this work started about 270 people visited the centre every day.

Michael said the council did not know what the repair cost would be.

The council and contractors would be working to identify and fix the bore issue as quickly as possible so that the facility could be re-opened.

Michaela Pointon is an NZME reporter based in the Bay of Plenty and was formerly a feature writer.