Waihi Beach wheelchair experience

Last week, we drove over to Waihi Beach to try out their beach wheelchair.

The beach wheelchairs are kept at the Tasman holiday park in Waihi, just across the road from the Surf Club and the beach matting for easy access onto the beach. We asked about booking the free available beach wheelchair in oder for me to experience the beach. There's a 2 hour max limit for the beach chair. They had 2 different types of beach wheelchairs available for use. One you could sit up in and the other one had a head rest with shoulder straps. The staff at the holiday park were very helpful and friendly.

As we got down to the beach's carpark, we headed over to the surf lifesaving club. We then went upstairs in the accessible lift to ask at the cafe if we could use their medical room in order for me to get changed and into the beach wheelchair. They happily showed us where the room was.

My Mum and my support worker adjusted the chair to suit my needs, because my muscles contract which makes me arch backwards (plank). We removed the headrest and substituted it with my knee block and a towel. It was brilliant that there was a harness in the chair as I am unable to sit up However, The majority of people who would need to use the chair would be able to without any issues.

Once I got into the beach chair I found it a bit uncomfortable as my arms were rubbing along the side of the chair's armrest. That's because I have extreme high tone, otherwise it was fit for purpose.

As we headed down to the beach there were rubber mats laid out for easy wheelchair access. Had the water and weather been warmer I would have stayed longer than I did

Overall I really enjoyed the experience of using the beach wheelchair and it gave me a chance to experience the sea. I haven't been able to do that since I was about 7 or 8 years old. I can't wait to come back and try it again. Thanks for the recommendation Tarsh and hopefully next time, we'll be able to catch up!

Accessibly rating 9/10 (But I'm a tough customer!)

Staff Rating 10/10