PART TWO: New Forest Water fun…..
This is amazing fun but I would wait until your child is old enough to have substantial upper body strength before even attempting this as you spend a lot of the time hauling yourself out of the water back onto the slippery WIBIT...…
It is a 4,000 sq metre floating, extremely strong obstacle course on water with 2 trampolines, monkey bars, flippers, slides, hurdles, springboard, rockers, rollers, an overhang climbing wall, a swing, a giant iceberg! and loads more....
My temperamental sat nav took me the scenic route, as it often does, through the New Forest and I ended up literally at a crossroads so I would say the post code given on the web site isn’t exactly correct: either that or my sat nav was having a really bad day! In future I would go straight down the M27 to the Ringwood roundabout and turn towards Fordingbridge, the Water Park is on the left and signposted by massive flags, you can’t miss it. You follow the signs and feel like you're on a road to nowhere banked by the river. If you’re lucky you'll see some people canoeing which is reassuring. I went with my friend, her two boys (aged 7 and 9) and my 9 year old as my other boys were elsewhere. First impressions weren’t great as the toilet block that greets you looks like a stables; you immediately get the impression that this is supposed to be rustic and rural. I personally prefer a roof on a toilet rather than corrugated iron but I am not a naturally outsidey person! The car park is divided with rope on the floor and you will see the lake, an enormous canopy and a wooden building to the right of you. This wooden building is the reception and I would definitely recommend pre booking and completing your disclaimer before arrival otherwise you risk the chance of queuing for a while as there are only two reception desks.
There is a lot of emphasis on safety which goes towards justifying the high cost of this Wibit experience. An hour costs £15 per person regardless of age. I would say not to put anyone on here younger than 7 as you need to be strong as I said before and definitely able to pull yourself back up onto the floats if you fall off. I only just made it myself! My upper body strength leaves a lot to be desired! You also need to be able to swim at least 50 metres I'd say; despite getting a life vest you have to jump off the jetty into the water and swim a few metres to get to the Wibit. I have no idea how deep the dark green lake is as I could not see the bottom.
You need to put all your belongings including all jewellery into the lockers provided (£3) or back in your car and give the keys into the reception and get a life vest on before the extensive safety presentation given in the canopy tent on a big screen before your hour session. There is zero tolerance for pushing anyone into the water and you are told that your session will be terminated if anyone is seen pushing anyone in. The walk along the wobbly jetty is quite long and unsupervised. It is required that all children under 11 years old are accompanied by an adult and due to the distance from the shore I would recommend that an adult goes with all children up to the age of 14 depending how mature your children are! I know my 11 year old may get up to some mischief unsupervised! There are life guards on duty and many additional pieces of Wibit equipment that the deep lake enable in comparison to the shallow waters at Lymington such as trampolines, high places to jump off, opportunities to catapult each other into the air, a ball system that carries many etc …..
I would say that the hour is definitely long enough and my friend and I were really ready to finish by the end of the hour. Once completed you return your life vest and there are showers which are open air and multi sex. There is no soap unless you bring your own but you can get some from the hand dispensers next to the stainless steel outside taps that are available to wash your hands. The changing rooms, which are segregated, have no cubicles and are reminiscent of a wooden sauna with wooden benches and walls, again with a corrugated iron ceiling. Be warned the toilets can be locked from the outside so if like me you have some cheeky little kids ensure you have a buddy to let you out if they lock you in!!!
There are plenty of other things to do here apart from the Wibit including a very impressive wake boarding track. One with jumps and demon turns, the other on a straight for learners.
There are picnic benches under another large canopy as well as some seats in the enclosed wake boarding area. There is an outside ice cream and drinks stall and next to reception is a bar with café area that serves meals. Everywhere it states that only food bought on the premises can be consumed on site. Consequently this is a far more expensive option to experience a Wibit style experience than the Lymington salt water baths but it isn’t one to discount due to this. It was great fun and gave us totally different and some similar experiences to Lymington. After our session, as it was a warm day we sat on our rug outside and watched the wake boarders. Other than that unless you spend another small fortune on the other activities available it is quite an expensive hour.
