Rotary Water Park is situated in Carnarvon Park, on Henderson Road in Oak Bay. We went there this morning after receiving a top tip from a Swings and Roundabouts contributor and according to 'A' it was a good time to go because there were no other people there.
It's a weird little playground in a busy park. Surrounded by playing fields and tennis courts, the water park is enclosed by wire fences and has an assortment of 'flooring' types; painted pool concrete (where the water flows), spongy floor mats, woodchips and grass. There are benches and picnic tables around for those not running through watery arches, over little wooden bridges or frolicking around one of the numerous jet sprays. The taps weren't turned on when we were there (Mid-May through June 11am-4pm, July through Sept 10am-6pm - weather permitting)which is good considering that we were fully clothed. With the taps off and the lack of people, the gaily coloured playground featured were almost spooky. However, 'A' was excited from the moment we stepped inside as he let out a little squeal as he rushed over to the train and started frantically trying to steer it away from the 'river' it was about to drive through!
The water park/playground is a bit dated and worn, and it obviously gets a lot of traffic through during sunny times. There are two little wooden bridges, a climbing frame structure and afore mentioned train. There is a little wooden house with metal stairs up and a metal slide down and 'A' was delighted to go up and down this several times before he noticed the zip-slide hiding in the back. The zip-slide is the longest I've seen in a play park this side of the Eighties! It's a bit rickety and I wouldn't advice adults to use it as you can see from the video. Sigh.
The park is a funny combination of separate little areas with separate features, none of which seemed to be constructed in the same era. There are three bouncy things in a woodchiped area, the house with the slides, a tire swing, the zip-slide and the usual double/double swing combination with two very worn toddler swings and two big kid swings. There are washrooms, picnic tables and parking and there are trees and shady areas.
As far as a challenging and exciting playground goes, I wouldn't score it too highly, but as far as an interesting and engaging water park, it's pretty good. 'A' liked it a lot and I had fun; fell off the zip-slide and got a plastic burn from the tunnel slide....however I can't help but think that the whole place could be improved by a bit of TLC.
i remember this park from when i was younger, but never could figure out where it was. thanks for posting, i've wanted to take my kids for a long time :)
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