First scan, first swim: Doors finally open at Parakiore

Wednesday, 17 December 2025

The rain didn’t matter. Neither did the cold, nor the darkness that still blanketed Christchurch before dawn as dozens of people stood in a queue outside Parakiore all waiting for the same thing: to be among the first through the doors of the city’s newest recreation and sports complex.

When those doors finally opened to the public at 5.30am on Wednesday, the queue swelled as more people who must have been sheltering from the rain in their cars came out of the woodwork and a steady stream of people flowed through the door.

It was Pete Maynard who claimed the prize he’d been eyeing for years. First member to scan in. First to dive into the 50m pool.

“I’ve been looking at it for about the last five or six years, asking ‘is it going to open?’” he said, catching his breath after completing a 2km swim. “And eventually, yes, it opens and I’ve got to get in there.

Christchurch’s long-anticipated recreation and sports complex Parakiore welcomed early swimmers and gym users when it publicly opened on Wednesday.

“What an awesome facility this is for the city. It’s just great and I can’t wait to use it a lot more,” he said.

Upstairs in the group fitness studio, the 5.45am “Arma play” circuit training class was in full swing, complete with colour-changing lights that pulsed with the intensity of the workout. Kevin O’Connell, catching his breath after the session, was sold.

“It had a bit of a nightclub vibe to it, which was really good,” he said. “It was very motivating.”

Waitaha Swim Club coach Patrick Langley works with his athletes during the public opening morning of Parakiore.

His gym friends Lisa Ding and Katrina Galbraith said the class felt like a “step up” from the usual sessions they attend at other council facilities Jellie Park or Graham Condon.

The brand-new equipment didn’t hurt either. “Everything was so smooth, the bikes and the rowers,” Ding added. “Having brand new equipment was a real treat.”

The facility was “absolutely” worth the wait and the group planned to cycle in trips to Parakiore for more of their workouts, depending on scheduling. “It’s not as local for me but because it’s such a good facility, I’ll probably do a bit of both,” Galbraith said.

Meanwhile, in the pool area, 9-year-old Lily Maynard was thrilled to tackle the 50m length pool with determination, despite the deep end being a bit scary. She had never been in an indoor pool that big before, and asked her father to bring her on opening day — even though it meant swimming before school.

“I could be one of the first kids to be able to swim a length,” Lily explained when asked why today mattered so much. “It was really fun.”

Her father Matt said the pair enjoyed regularly swimming at other facilities and had “been counting down the days” for Parakiore to open.

From left, friends Kristian Otto, Wolf Spark, and Hayden Smith were all thrilled to get amongst it and thought it was an amazing facility.

Worth the wait

Hayden Smith, Kristian Otto and Wolf Spark, a trio of friends who train together at Oceanside Jiu Jitsu, arrived early enough to test both the pool and the sauna facilities before heading to work. As regular swimmers at Jellie Park and Pioneer, they had high expectations.

“The wait was worth it and the early start was worth it,” Otto said. “And the double sauna is great, it makes it a little bit more accessible in the mornings and busy times.”

Smith added: “We're big swimmers, and having a 50m pool that’s open all year round is massive because Jellie Park’s [outdoor 50m pool] is just seasonal.”

For Patrick Langley, coach of the Waitaha Swim Club, this morning represented something bigger than just a new facility. It was a game-changer for Canterbury swimming.

Seats in the 2500 capacity arena at Parakiore.

“It's going to set us up really well for being able to compete with the North Island swim clubs as we haven't had an indoor 50m pool for such a long time. So it is a really big deal for us,” he explained, watching his group take their first strokes in the new pool.

“[A] few of them haven’t actually swum in a long course [50m pool] before so this will be a first time for them.”

While the 50m pool, spas, saunas, hydrotherapy pool and fitness facilities opened initially for the early hours, other features including the hydroslides and the playground pool open later in the day.

The 50m pool has a moveable wall, pictured here dividing the pool into two shorter lengths, and also a movable floor, pictured here as the white side of the pool has been made to be temporarily shallower than the right side.

The 32,000m² central city complex has been more than a decade in the making. Originally the project, announced in 2013, was to have cost $217 million, but the cost more than doubled to an expected $500m after a string of price escalations, delays and conflict over the contract.

The facility is expected to draw everything from national swimming championships to secondary school tournaments and world masters events, with those visitors expected to inject millions of dollars into the city.

It is also expected to revive the lost sport of diving, as Christchurch has not had competitive diving since the 2011 earthquake, though the dive pool is only open for public dive sessions on Saturdays and Sundays from 2pm to 4pm.

Parakiore has diving platforms at 1m, 3m, 5m, 7m and 10m high, meeting Olympic competition standards, and there is a dry diving space with a foam pit so divers can practise techniques safely.

The pools themselves are engineering marvels, with a moveable wall in the 50m pool to divide and create different pool lengths such as two 25m pools or one 50m, and a movable floor can change the depth from 2.2m to ground level.

Before publicly opening the facility hosted the Special Olympics National Summer Games last week.