By Justin Atkinson, 28 March 2024
Welcome to a text edition of Welly Weeknight Walkies. On this instalment, we'll be ranking the playgrounds of a trio of Eastern suburbs: Seatoun, Strathmore, and Miramar. Buckle up and put your playground design hats on!
Judges: Justin, Henry, Iliya, Johan, Seth, Dee, Zoe, Finlay, Max, Pebbels, Melanie
8. Crawford Green Park Play Area (aka the soulless one) - 2/10
Terrible. Very drab, the playground equipment was boring, small and too spread out. Saving grace was a cool pole.
7. Seatoun Park Play Area (aka the health & safety one) - 3/10
Mediocre. Too gentrified and sparse, felt like it was designed to prevent injuries (and fun!).
6. Wilberforce Street Play Area (aka the dodgy dino one) - 5/10
Mid tier. 1 epic dino, 1 dodgy guy on the swings. Lots of fun spinning around on spinny/wobbly things.
5. Monorgan Park Play Area (aka the weed one) - 7/10
Love a little shop. Had a shack for selling weed. The nearby Scots Collegians are the best customers. We also enjoyed the bouncy things, the immobile helicopter, and bright street lights.
4. Churchill Park Play Area (aka the pirate one) - 8/10
Pretty good. Cool pirate-y theme, with an epic ship and dodgy af Crow's Nest climbing frame. Sand adds extra authenticity. (NB: pirate ship an amazing emergency shelter in case of downpour).
3. Kahurangi School playground (aka the intellectually lit one) - 8/10
Pretty lit, pretty smart. Those were the conclusions we all reached in our chaotic, intellectual late night state! Tall and challenging climbing frames. Best part was a screechy flying fox that created sparks when used!
2. Miramar Central School playground (aka The Fortress) - 9/10
Great. A very interactive big castle, with 2 great slides and a mini command post 2nd floor. (NB: I thought tall school fence was locked and we all jumped fence, but turned it was unlocked!).
Honourable mentions:
- Nuku Street, Taiaroa Street, Kekerenga Street Play Areas (ran out of time) (NB: visited Kekerenga on the later Seatoun Bunker Tour Walkies, but unranked as had to rush to get nearby 4 bus)
- The Seatoun swing - minimalist but fun
1. Chelsea Street Play Area (aka the spinny, drunk af one) - 1100/10!!! :)
The picture doesn't do it justice. Creative airport theme, many spinny things, and high quality equipment. (NB: Weird music and lights were emanating from the community centre, which was super creepy).
