In March the City Council called for proposals from operators, and at last month's meeting councillors considered a staff report comparing two proposals. They favoured one from QEII Hydroslides to install a five-slide attraction next year. A Super Bowl ride could be added in three to five years. Councillor Graham Condon, chair of the Council's Community and Leisure Committee, says that if the lease talks are successful the slides will be another magnet drawing people to the sport and leisure complex in the city's north-east. Early in August last year, the Council opened the Atlantis leisure pool complex at QEII with its 40m wave pool. Between then and the end of June this year about 600,000 tickets were sold to people using the complex. QEII had been home to a set of old waterslides, but they were taken out to make way for the redevelopment.

"We always intended that a modern waterslide would return to QEII," Councillor Condon says. "If the talks are successful, this facility will have a set of slides that's right up with the best in the country. I'm also pleased that the pricing looks to be competitive."

The proposal from QEII Hydroslides includes two narrow, fast-moving tubes, one of which will be darkened to make it feel even faster. Of the three wider slides, one will provide a calmer ride and two will allow people to ride down on blowup tubes, either singly or in pairs. The five rides will have almost 10m of fall.

A child entry to Atlantis at QEII costs $2. Atlantis is open 6am-9pm weekdays and 7am-8pm weekends. For more information about QEII and other City Council leisure centres, see www.ccc.govt.nz/leisurecentres