New playground to explore

An inexpensive new playspace that combines discovery with learning about nature has been unveiled in Kaiapoi.

The playground equipment at Currie Park in Ellen Pl needed replacing so the Greenspace team at the Waimakariri District Council decided to come up with a new plan for the space, one that offered an alternative to the usual swings and climbing frames.

Grant Stephens, the design and planning team leader at Greenspace, worked with landscape architect Tori Stableford to design a new playspace - one that invited young people to play in and explore the nature around them.

"We moved the play equipment over to Norman Kirk and found a cost-effective way to create a new type of playspace in the area using what was already there and other bits and pieces we could find in the neighbourhood,’’ says Grant.

"This type of inexpensive playspace encourages children to seek out and explore their environment.

"We have created a series of small spaces that challenge children to clamber of rocks and poles, to tip over and look under stumps to see what’s living there, to investigate the flowers and fauna around them for bugs and insects and discover who’s living in the bug hotel."

He says it caters to people of all ages in the community and should become a treasured space to relax in and discover more about the world around you.

"The bio-diversity team have done a wonderful job naming and signposting everything that is contained in the small space, which used to be just a swing, a slide and a box.

"We even paved in the seat that was there originally, to give access to everybody.

"It’s something that’s different and a wonderful place for a family to relax in while their other children kick a ball around or play in the wider park area."