Athletes wanting to get high altitude and heat training no longer need to travel overseas thanks to the opening of a new training facility in Tauranga.

Mt Maunganui's Blake Park is now the home of the University of Waikato Adams Centre of High Performance which is one of the biggest high performance sports training facilities in New Zealand.

University of Waikato sports science lab manager Joe McQuillan in the chamber. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

High performance centres are training facilities which can include an environmental chamber, giving athletes the chance to train in specific conditions.

University of Waikato sports science lab manager Joe McQuillan states 'The environmental chamber has both heat, humidity and altitude which we can manipulate. You can go as high as 5000m in altitude and in heat we can go up to 40C and 100 per cent humidity.”

According to Joe there are only three performance centres in New Zealand which offer all three options and the Adams Centre has already attracted the notice of several local teams with the New Zealand 7s rugby teams expressing their interest.

'They'd probably be the first users of the chamber itself and from there we just need to grow. We're only an hour and a half from Cambridge which is where rowing and cycling and triathlon [athletes] are.

He says these are key endurance sports, preparing for the Olympics and he could see some of those athletes coming over and using the facilities.

The chamber can hold a number of different sports equipment. Currently it holds exercise bikes and rowing machines which Joe says will be able to help athletes such as Olympic gold medal kayaker Lisa Carrington prepare for the 2016, Olympics in Brazil.

However, Joe states the mode of exercise is irrelevant in the chamber, as the stress and the training comes from the change in altitude, heat and humidity it provides.

Changing these aspects can help New Zealand athletes prepare themselves for foreign climates as well as improve the performance of the local Bay of Plenty teams.

The Adams Centre of High Performance is the biggest in the country based on size and Joe states this is because of the abundance of local sports teams in the area.

'Because we're a team sport based location, we've got the 7s and hockey and teams, so we made it a little bit larger to accommodate team sports.”

The fact Mt Maunganui is now host to the biggest high performance centre has caused some jealousy from other areas Joes says.

The centre was born from a collaboration between the university, the Tauranga City Council and Bay Venues.

Joe says when the opportunity to move into the Bay of Plenty area arose it was taken, in order to provide better education to sports science students in Tauranga as well as Waikato.

A key component to the centre is to provide education as well as training for local athletes. When teams train in the centre there will be opportunities for students completing a masters or PhD to observe and participate, with specific sessions planned for undergrads as well.

The chamber itself cost $250,000 to build with the equipment costing about $150,000 and there are plans to slowly expand over time in order to attract more regional and national sporting organisations.

The centre had its official opening on Thursday.