Parakiore Recreation and Sport Centre

The facility is . The pool itself is actually 51.5 metres, but includes a 1.5-metre-long bulkhead that can be moved to change the size of the pool, and also split the pool into two 25-metre pools. a pool for learning how to swim, a room for birthday parties, a gym, a café, a sauna, approximately 550 parking spaces and three courts. One of the slides, named the Looping Rocket, has a trapdoor, which was reported in 2019 to be the first trapdoor waterslide in New Zealand. People stand on it and then it opens and drops people down the slide at 40 kilometres per hour. There it also a 125-metre slide named the Sphere Slide, which people use rafts to go down and has a big ball which causes riders to spin around as they go into it, and riders go down the rest of the slide. It has an "aquatic sensory experience" designed for people with disabilities. It includes a pool with a gradual slope so that people can enter it similarly to how they would at a beach, as well as water features and a tactile wall to provide sensory stimulation. == Construction ==

The centre, originally named the Metro Sports Facility, was announced in 2012 as part of the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan, which was a plan to recover the Christchurch Central City after the devastating 2010 Canterbury and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes occurred. The indicative project delivery schedule published in the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan published in mid-2012 aimed for completion in the first quarter of 2016. In the publication Anchor Projects Overview published by CERA in June 2014, the completion date had been revised to end of 2017. This was further revised to 2021. The build is being managed the Crown-owned rebuild company Ōtākaro Limited, and is being built by the Australian company CPB Contractors. After Ōtākaro and the Australian company CPB contractors, who was also working on Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre and a building for Christchurch Hospital, went into final negotiations in February 2019, it was decided in May that CPB would build the sport centre. The contract with CPB was worth $221 million and another $80 million had been allocated for the project. The construction of the facility started with groundwork in August 2018. In late 2021 the government allocated another $16 million to the project after the costs increased. Parakiore had a reputation for strength and speed and is reputed to have outrun an enemy war party near Moeraki Beach while carrying his wife on his back. This name was selected to reflect the centre's intention to promote sporting excellence and physical wellbeing. In March 2023 it was reported that a dewatering well had removed sand and soil from the ground when it was not supposed to, which caused an area of 10 square metres to sink by an average of 90 centimetres, further delaying the project by what was estimated as five months at the time. There were rumours that the project stopped because of sinking pools, but a spokesperson said that this was false: the pools were not sinking, and the construction did not stop. In January 2023 CPB Contractors requested another $212 million for the build. However, CPB and Ōtākaro were in a fixed-price contract and Ōtākaro did not agree to the give the extra money. As a result, CPB initiated legal proceedings in order to either "suspend or terminate" the contract at the High Court, but the court ruled against it. In April 2023 the sub-contractor Benmax went into liquidation. On 17 December 2025, Parakiore opened to the public. == See also ==