Activity Category: Free

The Seaside Market, New Plymouth

This family friendly market runs on the first Sunday of every month (check website for dates) and is the biggest market in Taranaki. A good atmosphere is created by local artists who come along and play music. There are stalls selling food and locally made produce including clothes, jewellery and home…

Harcourt Park, Upper Hutt

A great playground within a lovely park with a lot to do for the whole family. There’s an area for bigger kids that allows climbing, sliding, balancing and swinging skills to be tested. There’s also a good long and reasonably fast flying fox. Just across a grassy area there a…

Pukekura Park, New Plymouth

With 52 hectares of land, there is a lot to do in Pukekura Park! There’s a playground with some interesting equipment; a waterwheel and channel for controlling the water, tunnels through a little hill, a couple of slides, the rope structure for climbing on (as pictured above), mini trampolines, flying fox…

The Coastal Walkway, New Plymouth

This is a 12km walkway along the coast from the port, through central New Plymouth, to Bell Block. It’s all fully paved and open to cyclists, so great for kids on bikes or scooters as well as being buggy friendly. It’s also good for walking dogs on leads. To check out dog…

Oakura River and Beach, Taranaki

There’s a swimming spot that is popular with those in the know just north of Oakura in the Oakura River. There are toilets nearby, picnic tables and places to park. The river opens out to the beach, which is one of the more kid friendly ones in the Taranaki area,…

Levin Adventure Park

This is a great playgound for all ages with separate fenced toddlers section (which is under shade sails) but also areas that should challenge pre teens and an adult fitness section that teenagers might want to try. There are clean toilets, a coffee cart in the carpark and a room…

Memorial Park, Taihape

There is space to run around and benches/picnic tables if you’re looking to take a break from a car journey on SH1 south of the Desert Road. While there is a small playground at Memorial park it is quite tired but just next door at Taihape Area School there’s concrete…

Tongariro Domain, Taupo

The Domain is home to Taupo’s largest playground with some interesting equipment. There’s a space net with a ‘waggle bridge’, swings and a good selection of equipment suitable for smaller kids like a collection of pods that kids can climb into and then exit via a short slide. There’s also…

Coyle Park, Point Chevalier, Auckland

This park is probably best known for its playground but there’s also beach access and a huge area of grass suitable for picnics, running around and ball games. The playground is wheelchair accessible and it also has a special area for preschoolers with a low level platform for kids to…

Victoria Park, Auckland City

This playground has a particularly good selection of equipment for school aged kids with some quite different pieces like the wobbly balance beam log. There’s lots of climbing opportunities, a high fireman’s pole and monkey bars. Preschoolers are only really catered for with things like climbing on a tuatara and eel sculpture,…