Ashburton Pool & Recreation Centre

Good swim school experience – We've had our son in swim classes here for 8 months (4-5 years old) we've had consistent teachers, good progress on his skills and through levels of their program, and zero issues with billing or bookings. Swim teachers are excellent -- high expertise and patience. Facilities are excellent although cafe occasionally struggles with staffing and front desk staff often seem swamped too.

Not a great swim class experience – Swim class experience is not great. Teachers change all the time. Inability to progress my kids through the levels. My daughter stayed at one level for 13 months of classes. Eventually we had to pull her out and went to another swim school. Within 2 mins of assessment, they had her in a bigger pool and swimming a lot further. Also had a 6 to… Read more

1 ratio of kids in a very small swim space. The new pool has a 4 to 1 ratio in a much bigger space. Also very expensive and not worth the money for what you get.

Excellent pool & recreation centre – Large complex featuring an outdoor swimming pool and various indoor pools (all heated). Also has a fully equipped gym, various fitness studios and sporting facilities for hire. Big enough to have its own cafe with fresh food, snacks, cool drinks and coffee. Newspapers available to read and two tv screens nearby for live sport scores. I have regularly enjoyed sitting in the cafe having a coffee amongst all the activity.

This is perfect place to relax and have fun – Fantastic place to relax and have fun with family and friends. I loved it. I would like to recommend friends and colleagues

Classes cancelled without notice – Just turned up to participate in a class with my Active April pass only to be informed it has been cancelled due to renovation works. Centre did not update timetable online. All classes have now been rescheduled until further notice however the new timetable is also not available online. Staff on front desk have not been informed of changes either. Really unprofessional and not a great way to entice new members to join.

Awful swim program – To those who want to put their kids in a swim program, don't enrol them here. We were there for a couple of years and my son was swimming without floats, when they put him up to the school age lowest level because he turned 5 years old. They put him back on floats and with kids that are only just learning how to swim, and refused to move him up,… Read more

claiming he was not ready. Yet, they continued to let him swim in floats and noodles, and were not doing anything to help get him ready for the next level. We have since moved him out, and he now swims with kids his own level. What am improvement! We will not be recommending Ashburton swim program to anyone.

Omg had similar bad experience as the previous reviewer!!! – We had put our memberships (including kids swimming lessons) during the APARC renovation fiasco. We were told that when facilities were more adequate we would be notified of recommence of direct debit. Lo and behold, Ashburton YMCA starts deducting money without contacting us. Long story short and lots of lies from the centre later, we finally got… Read more

an answer - they didn't contact us because they had incomplete database details (despite us providing them and having proof in our initial membership sign up copy). If you like nonsense with your gym membership, swimming or Childcare then this is the place for you!

Terrible service – The centre itself if good but it becomes terrible when the management fail to process debits efficiently. I then went into a nightmare of staff lies and coverups and threatening letters etc. etc. I used to love going there but now cringe when Ai have to drive past. Shame really because my fitness has deteriorated but it would be unethical to condone their shocking management by ever giving them business again Management