Thousands cool off in Chch pools

Press, 1 March 1984, Page 8

Thousands cool off in Chch pools

Mr Craig Ander, of Christchurch, and his son, Varin, aged four, were among the hundreds of people who enjoyed a swim at the Centennial Pool yesterday. It was the last official day of summer yesterday and the season finished in style, with temperatures reaching 29.4 deg C at 4 p.m. As the temperatures soared so did Christchurch pool attendance figures. The Centennial Pool had one of its busiest days this summer, with between 700 and 800 people attending yesterday afternoon. A queue of

about 100 was waiting when the evening session opened. Queen Elizabeth II Park pool was busy yesterday with inter-secondary school swimming championships which will continue this evening. In two hours last evening when the pool was open to the public about 500 people used it.

The Jellie Park Pool was also well attended with about 4000 swimmers there yesterday. About 15,000 have used the pool since Friday. About 80 swimmers attended an adults-only evening at the Wharenui Pool last evening, about twice as many as usual. The Waltham Park Pool at-

traded about 1500 swimmers yesterday. A spokesman for tbe Weather Office said that yesterday’s high temperatures were not “exceptionally unseasonal.” Rather it was one of those northwesterly days which was late in coming. Yesterday’s maximum temperature narrowly exceeded the previous day’s high of 29deg C to be the hottest day of February. Although well above the February average of 16.3 deg, it was still well below the scorching February maximum of 40deg recorded in 1973.