Longer weekday opening hours will allow locals to pop down to the pool after school or work for evening swims.
When Bella Ngawhika is at school, she is Te Puke High School’s Head Girl.
When she’s working, she’s a Shift Leader and Lifeguard at Te Puke Memorial Pool.
The 17-year-old leader is excited to be returning to her community pool as it opens today for the 2025/2026 summer season.
“It’s more than just a pool, it's definitely a home. It’s a real whānau orientated pool, too,” Bella says.
With the new season also comes new facility management and increased weekday hours to allow members of the community to enjoy the pool for longer as temperatures warm up.
Bay Venues is now managing the pool on behalf of Western Bay of Plenty District Council and the community feel of the facility remains a key focus.
To celebrate the opening of the new season, a pool party will be held at Te Puke Memorial Pool over Labour Weekend on Saturday, 25 October.
The Te Puke community is encouraged to come along to the event, which will run from 11am-2pm and will feature pool inflatables, a manu competition and a free sausage sizzle.
Te Puke Swimming Club classes will be starting this week and other community activities and programmes are being planned, including aqua exercise sessions and a range of BaySwim classes that will be launching early next year.
When members of the community pop into the pool this season, they’ll be greeted by a lifeguard team with plenty of local familiar faces.
For the past two seasons, Bella has been a swim coach at Te Puke Memorial Pool.
“You get to know the regulars, you learn so much about them,” she says.
She says she is excited to be taking on a new role this season. As a Lifeguard and Shift Leader, she is hoping to be able to interact with more people in the community.
“It’s a real neat community.”
Born and raised in Pongakawa, and heavily involved at her school, Bella is no stranger to her workplace or the Te Puke community.
“There’s always someone there that we know.”
Helping to lead the team at Te Puke Memorial Pool this season is Daniel Kingsbeer.
The Aquatics Supervisor grew up on a local strawberry farm, has positive memories of using the pool as a child and still lives in Te Puke today.
He says he is looking forward to being part of a team with strong links to the area.
“It’s good having a local team because we already have all those connections with the community,” Daniel says.
The new season officially opened at 6am on Monday 20 October, with the first few swimmers in the pool and doing early morning laps shortly after.
The pool will be open to the public each weekday morning until 8.30am and then will reopen in the afternoon between 3.30pm-6.30pm.
The longer weekday opening hours will allow locals to pop down to the pool after school or work for evening swims. A small swim shop offering swim accessories will also be available for customers.
For more information about Te Puke Memorial Pool including entry prices, birthday parties, memberships and more, you can visit the website here.
About Te Puke Memorial Pool:
The main 33m swimming pool has 7 lanes.
The toddler’s pool is 0.5m deep.
The dive pool is 3.6m deep.
All pools sit at approximately 27 degrees Celsius.
The pool has certified lifeguards on site and new caregiver-to-child supervision ratios and requirements.
Operating hours are 6am-8.30am and 3.30pm-6.30pm Monday – Friday; 10am-5pm on weekends, school holidays and public holidays (except Christmas day).
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