ONE FIVE ONE Health Club

Started the day with a morning trip out to Piha on the west coast with my brother before heading into Auckland later. It was a wet, misty morning crossing through the North Island rainforest. Somewhere near Riverhead, the police had a roadblock breathalising everyone — first time I’ve been breathalised! I’d always imagined blowing into a tube like in the movies, so the officer moved quickly when I went to suck the end of his probe... apparently now you just count to five while they hold it near your mouth. Waiting for that ‘Pass’ light to flash up was tense!

After a walk along the beach and a toasted sandwich and coffee in the only open café in Piha, we drove 40 minutes east into Auckland city.

I hadn’t planned a sspecific pool for a swim today but had a couple of hours spare before visiting my favourite record shop on Queen Street (if it’s still there after six years). I’ve already swum most of the central city pools years ago, but I found something new within walking distance — a private health club on the 8th floor. The photos online looked great, so I decided to give it a go.

I arrived, checked the building directory (which lists some impressive tenants, including the British Consulate), and took the lift up to the 8th floor. The lady at reception was lovely — I was slightly concerned they might not offer drop-in day passes, thankfully NZD$25 gets me in. She mentioned there might be complimentary towels in the locker room, though she hadn’t had time to restock them as was on her own at reception. Naturally, I ended up carrying an armful of towels to the changing rooms to restock for her!

You know you’re in a fancy club when the changing room has an iron, ironing board and shirt hanging rails. I’d love for this to be my daily swim spot — maybe I need an Auckland office!

The pool deck is beautiful: half covered by a glass roof that looks up to the tower above, and the other half opens via sliding windows to a rooftop garden. The stone-tiled deck gives it a classy finish and makes the most of the space.

The 25m pool is about 1.2m deep with two lanes — the right-hand one widens towards the shallow end, possibly a hydrotherapy section. Both lanes were taken, but one swimmer kindly offered to split as he was nearly done. The water temperature was perfect (not overly warm like some ‘spa-style’ clubs), crystal clear, and chemical levels felt minimal.

I’m still on the easy 2km-a-day plan: 1,600m straight, then four 100s with a bit of backstroke mixed in. After that, I thought about trying the hot tub, but I'm tight on time, I think there was also a cold plunge pool, but it was out of action for maintenance.

No time left for record shopping this time. We had to head north to pick up my nephew for his first swimming lesson. He’d even drawn a picture of me swimming at nursery today — brilliant. His lesson was at a pool in Silverdale that I haven’t added yet — turns out it has two separate 25m pools. One for a future visit, I think.