Pioneer Recreation & Sport Centre

Positive experience: It's in need of an upgrade. Still a good place to take young children.

Fantastic experience: Love coming here with the kids. The children's pool is large and has a lazy river and a wave area. There is a hot spa that children may also go into. If you come during school hours than you almost have the entire place to yourself, but even rush hour is manageable. The staff are friendly, and the cafe makes great coffee. I have also taken yoga and fitness classes here in the past and really enjoyed them. If I am gonna be picky then I would love if the water in the kids' pool could be warmer and the corridor to the changing rooms was redesigned because it's currently functioning as a wind corridor. However, I have gotten around this by dressing one son in a wetsuit. Also, the family changing rooms are regularly used by non-families so it's sad to see parents with cold babies waiting unnecessarily. However, considering how affordable and large this complex is, these are just quibbles. Moreover, Pioneer Pool is located inside Centennial Park which has a playground, free tennis courts, basketball court, sand volleyball area, and soccer classes on Saturday. I think there's even a BBQ people can use in the park, but I am not sure how that operates. I should also mention that Pioneer staff allow you to leave your wallet and phone with them so that you can avoid renting a locker, and they even lend hairdryers. These things may seem little, but they are in fact very helpful and convenient and mean that we are regulars at this complex. One more thing, Pioneer sits between Lyttelton St Playcentre and a BestStart Kindy. My kids happily attended both and we often went to the pool after kindy or Playcentre. Quite ideal!

Fantastic experience: A place of space well-being healing very healthy nice life guards Jim swana steam room first best experience 20 years ago very respectful

Positive experience: Went here for Tumble time with my 20 month old! Great atmosphere and lots of activities!

Fantastic experience: Great late night laps ‍♂️

Negative experience: I'm a regular swimmer and its great exercise. Sometimes wonder about the water quality in general . The male changing room floor is always filthy why? No one will read this from the ccc

Positive experience: Went for the sauna, it's small and overcrowded. Otherwise it's a nice facility with very friendly staff.

Fantastic experience: Pleasantly warm pools and beautifully clean changing rooms.

Negative experience: Facilities feel a bit past it and grubby, the sauna has had a broken seat for a few weeks and there was a code brown in the lazy river and kids pool last time I went, resulting in mass exodus into the already crowded spa pool. Opening up the learners pool for families to use would have been a better option. Spa pool is also very hot, a bit too much for me, which is the main thing I go for.

Fantastic experience: I brought my guests here on Matariki weekend. We had the Goats cheese croquettes hot honey and Almonds Boar ragu casarecce Whole sole tomato saffrin picled onions and peas Carrots labneh za'atar and paired it with the Mojo Shiraz It was an awesome culinary experience we all left very happy and content.

Fantastic experience: Much Smaller than QEii. But it has gym

Fantastic experience: Fantastic recreation centre, great pools, great group exercise schedule and trainers.

Fantastic experience: Good pool pretty nice environment with swimming and basketball areas. The pool is nice and the coaches are nice too.

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff, great facilities, only bug bear is they turn hot showers off 5 minutes before closing time

Positive experience: Great facilities

Fantastic experience: Tumbletots is so good

Fantastic experience: We use / been to the pools mainly and also been to the mall area for community fair / show. It is an excellent venue

Fantastic experience: Took my Grandson to Tumble Times, what a great affordable activity for under 5’s (and nanas)

Fantastic experience: Staff superb, great vibe

Positive experience: As all government buissnes it is understaffed when needed and over staff when quiet. Staff work hard to give the best customer service possible. Gym trainers are okay. Half are very good and lots of experience and the other half can't talk to the customers this is why I left. Pool needs attention but good.

Fantastic experience: Amplo e seguro lugar! A programação para os pequeninos é super legal! Piscina e quadras bem cuidadas!

Negative experience: Very busy and crowded

Negative experience: Main pool closed. No notice out front, no mention of it from reception staff who happily took your money to not swim in the main pool. Poor poor service. Public do not deserve to be cheated like this.

Positive experience: Great place for a cycle ride to because it is just off the Sparks Road cycleway. Good place to stop for a coffee.

Fantastic experience: Mostly children loves this place. Lots of activities available for the kids.great Swimming pool.

Negative experience: If you’re going for a shower just don’t, best to try somewhere else. $3 each for a shower which is a comparable price to elsewhere. The water is a sort of mist system you have to push the button every 10-20 seconds. It was luke warm at best didn’t get the soap off, misted my clothes that were hanging up and every time someone flushed the toilet it went cold. I tested all 3 of the women’s showers and the disabled shower was slightly better as it has a proper shower head but still barely warm and I came out shivering. My partner used the men’s showers and sounds like they were warmer but still bad mist like pressure and awkward to use. Can’t speak for the other facilities but the staff are friendly and the place looked really clean, I just wouldn’t shower there again.

Positive experience: Hezký bazén,Whirpool a sauna za 7$ nenadchne, ale neurazí. Pro děti velmi hezké misto

Positive experience: Great pools for your swimming requirements. Friendly staff.

Fantastic experience: Love the vibe here the gym and pools are great and staff are very helpful highly recommend

Fantastic experience: The First Time I Visited Didn’t Enjoy My Experience Much But Had To Visit Again Because Our Local Gym Was Unavailable To Us. Absolutely Enjoyed It & Love The Outdoors The Most. Their Spa Is The Best & Changing Room & Showers Are Number 1. Looking At Changing Now From Our Local Gym To Pioneer. Staff Were Very Welcoming & Helpful & Made Our Stay Pleasant. Love Pioneer Pools…

Fantastic experience: Great pools and gym, also a great range of fitness classes.

Fantastic experience: Wave pools fun for the kids Friendly environment Saunas much hotter than qe2 Has a park with a bbq facility Community service gets you in cheaper

Positive experience: Nice sauna and steam room, option to go out in the fresh air to cool down is great.

Fantastic experience: Clean, easy access, lots of fun. Toddler enjoyed the pool and tumble time

Fantastic experience: Very nice swim pool Better than Jellie park swim pool

Fantastic experience: Steam and Sauna working, Sauna very busy sometimes uncomfortably... Outdoor pool was very nice ...

Fantastic experience: I go here 4 days a week. Great staff and good value for money. Friendly staff and great equipment. 7am Tuesday is a great Yoga class Leanne is great leads the class well. Been going to Pioneer since 2017, love it. Great for social, mental well being and physical fitness.

Fantastic experience: the gym is small, but as long as you dont go between 4-7pm theres definitely enough space and equipment to have a good workout! it does lack some equipment, but theres always alternatives with different machines or dumbells. theres lots of cables which is good and the leg press is better than any other ones ive tried the staff and other gym goers are all soo sweet and helpful its a very easy place to make friends as you end up seeing the same people every day if you go at the same time. overall its a really nice gym, especially if youre just starting out since it’s small and all the people there are very friendly and supportive!! - petition to get a hacksquat and hip thrust machine though please

Positive experience: Very Nice leisure pool with waves, the lanes are old and the soundproofing and lighting make the place unpleasant when packed in winter. The least fancy pool in CHCH but great courts and a gym too. The staff is great

Positive experience: Never enough car parks

Fantastic experience: I love using the spa, sauna, and, steam room.

Fantastic experience: I went there for the Encraftment Market before Christmas . Lovely place! They even have some food stalls on the lawn. I may go there for a swim some day.

Positive experience: I’m used to a newer council pool facility for the same price, so I was a bit unimpressive here. 5 lane swimming pool and I had a lane to myself which nice but the water was colder than I’m used to, no aqua jogging lane, and the spa wasn’t very hot on this articulate evening and had some kids splashing around in it.

Fantastic experience: Fees are cheap and are already inclusive of whole day fun in their pools. Parking is convenient and spacious. There's also a nearby playground at the Centennial Park if your kids would still like to burn more energy after swimming.

Positive experience: Dobre sprchy

Fantastic experience: Off street parking, great wee playground and lots of entertainment options as well as the pool

Fantastic experience: Great pool with lots of facilities including sports, sensory room, cafe and gym

Negative experience: 1. Poor communication by receptionist staff. 2. One reception staff suggests to warm up in court if it’s available other Reception staff suggest team to warm up outside in parking as not allowed to enter court before time or pay for extra 10 min warm up. 3. Court staff is very rude and not concentrating about safety of teams playing inside court as CENTRED net were pulled half way and volleyball from one court were going to basketball court. Luckily no one got hurt and she only pulled other half net after 1 hour. Recommend:- concentrate more to provide good service than just make money.

Positive experience: Facilities are a bit dated but still meets the purpose.

Fantastic experience: Great place to go swimming with the kids and us adults aswell

Fantastic experience: Great staff! For travellers: Hot showers available for 2$ there

Positive experience: Spa is super old, yellowed with age and currently the bubbles don't work for the past two weeks??

Fantastic experience: I go here for judo comps. It's a great place

Positive experience: Great Gym. Very busy. But overall really good.

Positive experience: A really great option for preschoolers with a caregiver, to swim for free during school hours.

Positive experience: Great place to take children for a swim.Lots of things to keep kids and adults alike entertained.Great place for carers to watch children safely swim.

Fantastic experience: The best.. my 4yr old super loves this place!! Sooo do I..and im in... a wheelchair.. is wonderful place to just soak and forget the world for a bit...

Positive experience: Go quite often. Just check times of classes if you want to do lane swimming as they use the same pool and lanes for reduced to two instead of the usual 6

Positive experience: I went here a lot for a steam room or a sauna , finished with a swim , good value.$6.70

Positive experience: Mainly went for the swimming pool which was a good size and plenty of lanes. Even though the place was busy, the swimming lanes were good to swim in.

Fantastic experience: Nice children's swimming pool, have different sport activities, sensorial activities for children and rehabilitation center. This is for me one of the most complete sports centers in the area.

Fantastic experience: Great open leisure area for kids and a lane pool for lap swimming. Modern, up to date facilities and always clean.

Fantastic experience: Absolutely love it here brought my God daughter she's 20 months old and my daughter and they both loved it too I'm usely in the pools but just had elbow opperated on.

Positive experience: Definitely need a aqua jogging pool most other pools have them very popular. We live over this side of town but go back to QEII for aqua jogging. Carol Stoffers.

Positive experience: Good gym, friendly staff. The learn to swim staff are lovely. Pool facilities are pretty standard. Could do with a bit of an update and refresh, but works fine as it is.

Fantastic experience: Erica is hands down the best instructor! I’ve had her for spin, pump, and hiit class and she has a such a great energy and interaction with the group.

Positive experience: Man of man, the facility as a whole is great. But oh my golly gosh - the toiletpaper was like 100 grit sandpaper. It hurt to use. 1/10 ln toiletpaper. Youve been warned

Positive experience: Difficulty getting through to book and to contact about queries. Confusion over booking for sensory room, expensive and had let someone else into our booking then gave us a shorter period of time.

Negative experience: Went there for social basketball one day and I ask what time it would be open to use tomorrow they replied 1-3 and I get their which is a 30min drive and they said it’s not on and accused me bye saying it’s my fault I didn’t check online.They are very unorganised and this issue needs to get fixed. Wouldn’t recommend unless you want to go there not fully knowing if it’s open.

Positive experience: If you haven't checked out the programmes at Pioneer, you are missing out! Everything is provided, the turn around is matter of factly efficient, plenty of parking, and the rooms are purpose built. I would give another star if the rooms were sound proofed. And it's affordable!

Negative experience: Woman at reception was rude. Family changing rooms had a strong smell of stale urine. Made me feel sick. Reception weren’t interested when I told them.

Fantastic experience: Tumbletimes was really good - more or less free play with access to 'gymnastics' equipment like foam wedges, balance beams, bars, bikes, balls, hulla hoops. Some structured activities that kids can choose to join in with if they want. Good activity for a wet winter's day.

Positive experience: Overall a good facility, however there needs to be clear signs about banning any use of cell phones at this facility! Some people think it's OK to use there cell phones at and in the pool/ spa areas! This should be stopped and enforced by the very junior lifeguards on duty.

Fantastic experience: I have my great grandchildren in the swimming program every term and the holiday program Monday -,Friday during the holidays it's been fantastic.I take them an half n hour early so they can have a swim b4 there lessons then we come home after the lessons.Ive found the holiday programme has done both children the world of good the eldest has gone up a class and the youngest is really doing well as it has brought her out of her shyness and she's loving the lessons and has gained alot more confidence it's fantastic money well spent

Fantastic experience: The service of the staff at this centre is second to none. Cafe is tasty. Clean bathroom and change rooms. Stadium was great for karate tournament.

Fantastic experience: Nice place, nice pools and the best class for pregnancy women.

Fantastic experience: Love the rec centres in chch. The group fitness classes are awesome and casual rate is only $12 but the membership is cheap as and you can go for all the classes you want. Ask the council staff if you get a discount. I found out that my husband and I both got 20% because of our jobs/companies. How lucky! We only pay about $27 every fortnight and I attend an average of 4-5 sessions each week. Saves so much money! Instructors are great and facilities are awesome. Clean and well maintained.

Fantastic experience: Life guards friendly and helpful to the children. Cool little pool to have a paly round for a while. Spa and sauna r great also. They teach swimming lessons here and they also do Gym memberships and packages here as well I think.

Fantastic experience: Love it here. Really friendly staff with experienced and enthusiastic instructors. I have a membership and take the fitness classes. It’s super affordable. The membership I’m on includes access to the gym, the pools and all the fitness classes. The gym is clean and well looked after with modern equipment. The cardio machines have solitaire which is a big win.

Fantastic experience: One of the things I really like about the council gyms, and they are all variations on a core theme, is there variety of outings that you have at each one. If you feel like a soak or a swim after a gym session, you can go to the pools; still have some energy left after a workout, then maybe a class will leave you satisfied. All these facilities at your finger tips for a very reasonable rate.

Negative experience: The cleaners need to be sacked and replaced. Toilets, change rooms and showers are smelly, dirty, and slippery . There's never enough lanes open for laps. I only swim there occasionally cos I live nearby, otherwise it would be the last place of choice. Also I have little confidence that the lifeguards would even notice if someone was in trouble in the lap pool. They barely glance in that direction.

Fantastic experience: Big park with a nice gym for basketball/ volleyball.

Negative experience: We had our combined kids Tumbletimes party here today, and although it went well and the kids enjoyed it, I would definitely not recommend. Upon arrival the reception staff were super grumpy and unhelpful which set the tone for the day. The facilitator was more helpful but rather short which the guests commented on. There was a dodgeball tournament on in the same room which they said we should have been told about at the time of booking (we didn’t actually mind at all). One word answers to any questions, an I don’t care attitude, I walked away feeling like I had been treated poorly and I’m a super easy going person. It sucks when a birthday party is an already stressful time, as well as being treated with smug looks when you’re just trying to sign in for the party. Definitely put a damper on the party. Overall I would not recommend if you want an stress-free, accomodating, happy experience! Such a shame, we’ve had parties at QE2 before and they were great.

Fantastic experience: Hey there, I wanted to share my experience at Pioneer Recreation & Sport Centre with you all. My kids are currently enrolled in the Swim Smart program, and I have to say that the instructors are doing an excellent job. They take great care of each and every kid, which gives me peace of mind knowing that my children are safe and in good hands. One thing I really appreciate about Pioneer Recreation & Sport Centre is that they offer a massive parking area, which is always a plus when you're trying to find a parking spot for your car. Overall, I would definitely recommend Pioneer Recreation & Sport Centre to anyone looking for a top-notch recreation center in Christchurch. The facility offers great programs and services for families, and the staff is attentive and caring towards all visitors. Give it a try if you're in the area!

Positive experience: Out of all public pools in the city this one is relatively chilled and provides opportunity to train for all skills from beginners to advanced. Swimming lessons have great teachers and there is of course other part for just training and gym

Fantastic experience: 굳 스파

Fantastic experience: 사우나시설 최고 물온도 최고 직원친절 최고...

Fantastic experience: Easy operation clean well optioned

Fantastic experience: Good swimming pool.There are sauna,spa as well.

Fantastic experience: Monday evening hot sauna not overly crowded Gym is not crowded

Positive experience: We go there for swimming lessons. It is ok, friendly staff. the changing rooms are outdated in my opinion.

Fantastic experience: It's clean staff are friendly an willing to answer any questions you have

Fantastic experience: Awesome pools no wait time in level two today for taking the kids ☺️

Positive experience: Fun to go to. Said they refurbished recently but it is still quite manky inside.

Positive experience: Craft market was awesome heaps of cute things ☺️ The felt artist there is amazing!

Positive experience: Lovely place for the whole family. Different sport activities offered and an outdoor playground!

Fantastic experience: I did the aqua natal class was so relaxing and such a safe space for us pregnant mama's

Fantastic experience: Great pool, nice lap pool, wave pool, lazy river, sauna, steam room, spa, gym... Mate she's got it all

Positive experience: Water temperature was nice and it was not very busy when I got there at 7:30am. Just disappointed that there are no private changing rooms.

Positive experience: A nice clean, place to stretch and flex. Also has a wicked sauna. I have found the staff to be kind always.