Summer jobs: Avoiding the 'wedgie' slide at Splash Planet

Splash Planet is the storied water park located in Hastings, in the Hawke's Bay region of the North Island. The park opened in 1967 as Fantasyland and reopened as Splash Planet in 1998. Attractions include a speed slide, a body slide, and a tube slide, as well as a lazy river, pools, go-karts, and a train ride.

There might be up to 3000 patrons each day during the summer, all anxious to make the most of the park's attractions, including a speed slide, a body slide, and a tube slide, as well as a lazy river, pools, go-karts, and a train ride.

Donnett Dallow, 56, as head of security of the park, is tasked with keeping everyone happy and behaving. This is her sixth season in the role.

What does an average day in the summer look like?

We start the day with the crowd starting to line up and amp them up by welcoming, making sure that they’re going to come in and have a really good experience.

There’s normally about six [kaitiaki] on site, and we’re checking in with ride operators to make sure they don’t need help with ride management. If the line is getting out of control and there are a lot of people in the heat, we just stand there and talk to the crowd and let them know it won’t be far to go.

We’re feeding all sorts of information to them because, for us as kaitiaki, we are here as ambassadors at Splash Planet. Prior to the season starting, I’m finding out what’s happening in Hastings and Napier and all around the place to feed into my team. We’re walking, talking billboards and advertisements as well.

Where's the best fruit store? Where's the best place to go for dinner? Where's some live entertainment? Where do I go to get the good strawberries? (Splash Planet is owned and operated by Hastings District Council)

What are the most popular rides?

Last year, it was the go-karts cause they were new. The double tube slide, where you can go down together, and then there is the one that goes straight down. The people always love that one. I don’t know why, and I tell people ‘No, that is not my favourite. You always get a wedgie. You go down too fast and you end up with a wedgie,’ but they still go on it.

​What skills do you need for your job?

You need to be a people person, and you need to be able to communicate. I just want everybody to leave happy with a good experience, so I like to know what got them mad in the first place. I'm pretty open-minded and like I'll take their side. I want to know what's wrong and try and make it right for them so that by the time they leave, they're going to be okay about it.

If they're mad with another whanau next door, we want to make that right. You know, if the whanau is playing music too loud, it's like, ‘Come on guys, we need to turn the music down a bit'. If it's not quite family music, we might even ask you to turn it off.

The more we get involved with the people, the less we have to be security, if you get what I mean. Who needs a security guard when you're happy?

What do you love about your job?

It's like a summer holiday, and it fills my cup for the rest of the year.

We get people from overseas coming. It's on the map, Splash Planet. People coming from Australia, and I think the furthest family that I've met was from America. They were on a family trip that they had planned for two years, and we had been on the calendar for two years. It just makes us put in a little bit more effort with that family because they've made us feel special in their home. So we want them to have a special visit.

Fantasyland was a place where I went as a child, and I always sat there thinking, ‘I want to work here when I get big.’ Now, it’s Splash Planet, and I work here. My grandkids think that it’s cool that I work here, too.

The interview was lightly edited for clarity. ​