Leisure Island, 1981-1990 (Organisation)

Following the closure of Marineland in mid-1981, Mount Maunganui Council negotiated a 25-year lease in June with Mount Maunganui Leisure Park Company. Spencer (Spinner) Black, from Morrinsville, took ownership, using shares in Rainbow Corp. (that owned Rainbow's End in Manukau) as part-payment.

In July 1981 the Bay of Plenty Times reported that John Sheffield, director of Mount Maunganui Leisure Park Ltd, was in town to 'make a start on the proposed $200,000 development on Moturiki Island." Talks with the Borough Council about terms of the lease were "satisfactory but steady." Planning to use most of the features and facilities of Mount Maunganui Marineland, construction would include "a long, bob-sled-type water slide, swimming pools, miniature golf links, bumper boats and other water-orientated amusements." Whangamata building contractor Gary Lowe was also onsite, moulds for the fibreglass water slide were enroute from Australia, and 17 bumper boats had been completed at a cost of $2600 each. Mr Sheffield was looking to have discussions with local Historic Places Trust representatives about the historical significance of parts of Moturiki Island, then negotiate a lease with the Department of Lands and Survey.

Leisure Island opened in mid-late 1981 with "bumper boats, hot and cold pools and a water slide."

In 1982 archaeologist Kathleen Fletcher reported that during construction, six burial sites were discovered, estimated to be around 150 years old, and a subsequent reburial was arranged.

Visitor numbers and park upkeep declined through the 1980s, Andrew Campbell noted in a 2015 article "Leisure Island was deemed a failed business and spent much of the 1980s in a derelict state before being demolished at the ratepayer's expense."

The water park closed in 1990, and all structures were demolished and removed by Tauranga City Council, to return the site to it's 'natural state'.