It's summer here in New Zealand, the sun is out and I'm making more trips down to Auckland to see old friends and explore the North Shore. Every time I make the trip I pass by my old hometown of Orewa, where I grew up. My last trip I decided to take the scenic route off the highway and pass through Waiwera, which is about a 15 minute drive from Orewa. I had heard that the pools were closed after some Russian multi-millionaire acquired it a few years back for the bottled water company and left the resort to rot, the rich knob got into several drunk-driving incidents and owes the government millions, with no incentive to take the reigns, all of Waiwera is simply forgotten about.

Waiwera was a thermal hot pool resort from a local beach-side spring, it was essentially a holiday destination where during the summer a lot of tourists would come into town and the whole place would be packed. During the off seasons however, is when it would shine, being able to go to the hot pools was relaxing and was a fun and safe place as a kid growing up (especially since it was cheaper on Tuesdays). 

The place was pretty great at the time. A safe shallow kids area, an adults pool with hotter temperatures for relaxing, community pools for playing games, or even watching movies on a big projector, and of course, water slides.

As a kid growing up, the slides were basically rites of passage for different stages of growing up. All of the slides were attached to a large wooden structure with different levels, I remember being really young, (maybe about 7-8) and seeing the 3rd level be exclusively for "the big kids", let alone the 4th level! 

The slides like "Bob's Mistake" which was cut off at the very end so you end up dropping into the water. Or "The Black Hole" which was a dark metal tube that twirled downwards, where you'd always hear a rumour about the kid that broke his collarbone when taking the plunge. When I got older, my favourite was "The Speed Slide", the only one that was bright yellow and was basically a straight drop down from the 5th level and you could race another person next to you, it also put you close to a shortcut ramp so lines were short. 

Today the site is basically a haunted ruin, it was truly somber going back after all of these years and seeing so much of what made you completely swallowed by time. A part of me wanted to break into the site and look more into what remains of Waiwera, but with the surrounding surveillance (even if I think nothing would happen) It felt similar to circling a graveyard without stepping onto the grounds. It was such a monument for growing up and my adolescence especially, it was a place of conquering fears and finding my own agency - so it was weird to peer through the worn holes of these now forbidden ruins.

One day something will happen to Waiwera, maybe it'll be fully refurbished and lively again, people won't remember these ruins, and people wont remember before then when Jason got a handy in the movie pool. Maybe it'll become a haunted house attraction and live off of the urban legends of broken collar bones. But chances are, it'll become another set of beach-side apartments.

Coming back and forth through my old hometown and seeing how much has changed makes me think of how my past is going to be unrecognizable in time, thinking of all of the stories that will go with it. The house where I grew up was the first built on it's street, now the town is gentrified beyond familiarity and it became too expensive to live there, no one else will know the view from my bedroom window. I think that's why I got more into film photography, I want to catch more of the permanence in the world around me and hold onto the feelings and memories I get from them.

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Stay Splendid