Waiwera Hot Pools

It's the long weekend! Today we decided to take the boys to Waiwera Hot Pools for the afternoon. On the way there, we worked out that we hadn't been there since I was pregnant with Ethan - about 5 years ago!! Rob and I used to go quite often before we had kids. And I've lived in this area all my life, so I remember going there when I was a kid.

The day was perfect for it. Slightly overcast, not too hot, but not too cold.
The boys had a great time there. They've always loved going to the pool, but it was their first time at Waiwera. I think they were a bit overwhelmed with the size of the place and the sheer number of pool choices, not to mention the crowds.
Tyler took a little while to adjust to the whole thing, actually. At first I was worried that he had lost all the water confidence he had last summer, when he was constantly in the water, trying to dive in to water above his head and "swim" on his own. But I needn't have worried, because he soon found that confidence again.

We started off by the slides, and we went down a couple of them with the boys on our knees. They enjoyed it, but didn't want to go again. So we went off to play in some of the other pools for a while until they were more settled, and then Rob decided to try again with Ethan. When he came back, Ethan said he had been on the slide "3 times, all by myself!!" So we all went over and the boys spent AGES going on the Kiddie Slide all on their own (we caught them in the landing pool). Tyler looked so cute walking up the stairs on his own! He was so excited each time he got to the top and started to slide down. Ethan really enjoyed himself too.

I did take my camera, but I didn't use it. Too hard when you're always wet and too hard to get decent shots when you are actively supervising young children. Which reminds me, hardly any parents really do that. Sitting by the pool reading a mag is not "active supervision". And why don't the other parents want to swim with their kids and go on the water slides?? Huh? But I digress. I'm sure the boys will remember this day for a long time. We have a discount card so we have to go again soon before the weather gets too hot (it is hard to spend too long there on a hot summer's day as most of the pools are quite warm).

Tomorrow we're off to Butterfly Creek so I'm sure I'll have more to write about then, and hopefully some photos to share as well.