Things to do  |  12 May 2020

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Christchurch City Council is gearing up to reopen its recreation and sport facilities under Alert Level 2.

Jellie Park, Taiora QEII and Nga Puna Wai will all fully reopen from 18 May.

Graham Condon's fitness centre and sports halls will reopen from 18 May. The pools will reopen from 25 May following refurbishments.

Pioneer’s pools will reopen 18 May. The fitness centre and group fitness programmes will resume before the end of the month following upgrades to the roof and ventilation system. The exact timing is yet to be confirmed.

“We know lots of people can’t wait to return to our facilities so they can get back to their exercise and sport and doing what they enjoy,” says Council Head of Recreation, Sports and Events Nigel Cox.

“We still need to take steps to protect the health and safety of visitors under Alert Level 2, which means there will be reduced services and important guidelines for people to follow when they visit, including a booking system, contact tracing and physical distancing.”

The Council will be updating its Covid-19 webpage  and the Christchurch Recreation and Sports Centres Facebook page over coming days to include information about accessing and making bookings for its recreation and sport facilities.

“We’re excited to be reopening, but we need to make sure we’re doing it the right way,” Mr Cox says.

“That means putting in place a contact tracing system and a bookings app, and training staff to follow Alert Level 2 guidelines to protect the health and safety of everyone who visits. We also need to complete some repairs we started under Alert Level 3, as well as a thorough cleaning of all our facilities.

“We appreciate everyone’s patience and we look forward to opening the doors again from 18 May,” Mr Cox says.

Sports fields will gradually reopen over several weeks as line markings and posts are put back across all of the Council’s 322 fields. Organised training and games on Council sports fields will resume as sports clubs complete Alert Level 2 planning around contact tracing, additional hygiene practices and physical distancing.

Spencer Beach Holiday Park will begin taking new bookings again from this Thursday, while bookings for the Duvauchelle Holiday Park, Okains Bay and Pigeon Bay camp grounds will resume from this Friday.