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This Week’s Issue

Vision Whitianga – Water Sports Centre

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November 25, 2025

This is the second in our series on people’s vision for Whitianga. We are keen to hear about the visions for other centres on our Coromandel Peninsula.

BY JOHN MCKENZIE

As a lifetime sports-person, with a background in rugby and later triathlons and cycling, and being a very well-travelled person, I have come to believe that Whitianga is absolutely a prime location for aquatic based sport. Such sports include open water swimming and sheltered-water swimming in the estuary. Other estuary based sports could include rowing, kayaking and canoeing. Open water sports also include yachting, waka ama and triathlon.

It would be great to have one Aquatic Centre to house these sports. Such a centre would house equipment, provide changing facilities, social areas and so on. Realistically it would be based as close as possible to town but could also be based at Brophy’s Beach or further up the estuary on South Highway.

The surrounding countryside provides great scope for cycle and running training which supports aspects of aquatic sports such as triathlon.