Mr Boult said as soon as the construction fences were lowered between The Bathhouse Restaurant and Queenstown Gardens yesterday, ‘‘a horde of kids’’ came in.
The project was initially announced in August last year and was to cost $670,000 and be completed by Christmas. However, safety and a need to revisit the original design increased the price to $999,000, including a $100,000 grant from the Central Lakes Trust.
Mr Boult said yesterday that when the project first came to the council table, he was ‘‘a little bit concerned about spending this amount of money on a playground’’.
‘‘But now that I see it, now that I see the joy that it brings and the added benefit to the downtown area, it’s a really, really good thing.
‘‘What a way to kick off our new master-planning work around renewing CBD Queenstown.’’
