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Olympic Park, New Lynn

Exploration 12 (Feb 2015) - Olympic Park, Wolverton St, New Lynn

For this weeks exploration we meet at Olympic Park in New Lynn. This has a large grassed area and extensive playground with several different zones. There is walk along the riverbank and a number of sculptures & art installations scattered around the park.

We started off at the main playground where we congregated around the preschooler area which features a sand play area, swings, double slide and a rocking motorbike & side car. The playground area stretches quite a long way through several different zones, aimed at varying age ranges. There are a number of different climbing frames including a rather spectacular spider web climbing frame which was aimed at an older audience than ours.

After briefly exploring the playground areas, we went on a walk across the bridge and up towards the train tracks which provides a good view of the trains going past which was a highlight for some of our little explorers. From here we travelled in large loop along the riverbank ending up at the opposite side of the playground after stopping past some of the various sculptures. Under the shade of a tree we stopped to have some lunch next to the playground. After which the kids had a bit more of a play and tried out the other various equipment at this end of the playground.

We developed a wee report card to form a collective opinion of the park, walk and playground. Our participants this time rated the park an average of 7.6 / 10 for quality of park and walk, 8 / 10 for quality of playground, 8.4 / 10 for cleanliness and maintenance, and 8.2 / 10 for convenience and accessibility. The main piece of constructive criticism we would have for the council about this park is that the scoops for the sand play area where secured with a very robust and heavy chain which was a little too short and also encased in an inflexible plastic pipe which made them incredibly difficult to use effectively, especially for little people. We appreciate this made have been taken as a response to vandalism or theft but perhaps an alternative approach is needed.

This park is suitable for children with a wide variety of ages and while some of the equipment was not utilised by our preschooler audience is would be appreciated by older kids. The entrance to the playground confused a couple of us as there is a much smaller playground on the far side of the sports park (found on Portage Rd), but the main entrance to the bigger playground can be found on Wolverton Street. Other than this, it was a good park and walk enjoyed by all our explorers today.

We are taking suggestions on where we should explore next week, feel free to comment here or on our Facebook event here - https://www.facebook.com/events/708440032602255/

Look forward to seeing you there!

#Henderson valley park

Exploration 11 (Feb 2015) - Henderson Valley Park

Today we headed to Henderson Valley Park, having been mislead by Google Maps, we meet in Tabitha Cresent on the far side of the park. We started by crossing the paddocks which are shared with the pony club next door. The kids where very excited to see some older kids riding the horses and enjoyed picking some blackberries. After making our way through the paddocks to the playground, which is located on 201a Henderson Valley Rd, we meet some more of our explorers who had made their way directly to the playground entrance. :) The playground is situated in the middle of a large grassed area next to a toilet blocked. There are some big trees providing shade and a low fence to the road side. The playground has an awesome little sand play area in the corner with scoops and pulleys and some funnels. There is also a see saw, a large basket swing, climbing frame, spring rocking horse and a spinning ring on an angle. There wasn't a huge amount of play equipment but what was there was very cool and appeared to be quite new and in good repair. Our preschooler group particularly liked the sand play area, but the see saw was also popular and all the equipment was put to good use. After all the kids had a bit of a play, we sat in the grass next to the playground to share some morning tea. After this went past the horses again as we made our way back to our cars and so concluded another adventure. We developed a wee report card to form a collective opinion of the park, walk and playground. Our participants this time rated the park an average of 7.6 / 10 for quality of park and walk, 7.1 / 10 for quality of playground, 8.7 / 10 for cleanliness and maintenance, and 7.6 / 10 for convenience and accessibility. Our participants enjoyed the variety of play equipment despite some thinking more could have been more. Our explorers felt that it was a nice quiet park with a nice atmosphere but was still not too far out of the way. The sand play area was particularly appreciated by our audience and the pony club added another element to our experience. We are taking suggestions on where we should explore next week, feel free to comment here or on our Facebook event here - https://www.facebook.com/events/797657966996747/ Look forward to seeing you there!

#rocket park #mt Albert

Exploration 10 (Feb 2015) - Rocket Park, Wairere Ave, Mt Albert

We meet today at the playground at Rocket Park, Mt Albert. All of our explorers today noted that it was particularly well set up for preschoolers as well as being suitable for older children. It has a fort like structure which is particularly well suited for preschoolers with several slides and climbing areas to it. There is a preschooler see saw which our kids seemed to particularly enjoy. There was also a range of swing sets and some spinning things and climbing areas aimed at slightly older kids which our younger audience (as well as some of the parents) still enjoyed exploring. There is also a swing specially designed for disabled kids in wheel chairs, which we thought was a nice touch as no one could remember seeing another one of these in Auckland. There is also some exercise/play equipment for adults around the exterior of the playground, which our adult explorers also had a try on! And the feature of the playground is of course, the rocket! This is four levels high, fully enclosed and reasonably well padded on the inside, it has rather narrow ladders and openings to access each of the levels. The kids really enjoyed climbing up and exploring each of the different levels, the only downside was that it is tight squeeze for adults, with some of us commenting that we just couldn't access it, yet it was accessible to quite young children and it was quite common for kids to need some assistance getting down once they had climbed up. After we had some morning tea and a play on the playground (as well as some fun chasing the pigeons!) we went to explore some of the grassed area on the other side of the car park where we found a large red steel tree sculpture and some stone blocks before concluding our exploration for today. We developed a wee report card to form a collective opinion of the park, walk and playground. Our participants this time rated the park an average of 8.25 / 10 for quality of park and walk, 8.75 / 10 for quality of playground, 8.75 / 10 for cleanliness and maintenance, and 8 / 10 for convenience and accessibility. The toilet block was conveniently located next to the playground and was clean and well maintained. Besides from all of us commenting on the lack of adult access to the rocket the only other downside noted was the fence doesn't go the whole way around the playground. Other than that, all our explorers thought it was a great playground for preschoolers, one of the best suited we have visited yet. We are taking suggestions on where we should explore next week, feel free to comment here or on our Facebook event here - https://www.facebook.com/events/592269670874484/ Look forward to seeing you there!

Exploration 9 (Jan 2015) - Muriwai Beach

We met today at the playground at Muriwai Beach. The kids had a bit of a play here while we waited for our group to assemble. The playground is well set up to accommodate a range of ages of kids with the “preschooler section” along side the higher slides and climbing frames suited for bigger kids. There is also a grassed area with seating and shaded areas behind the playground with a big hill to climb up, not that any of our kids ventured up there on this trip.

Once everyone had arrived we ventured down to the beach to check out the rock pools while it was still low tide. The kids were particularly excited about the anemones, crabs, starfish, corals and seaweed we discovered here. As the tide was particularly low at this time, we were able to venture around the front of these rock pools and explore the cave briefly.

As the tide was starting to come back in, we then decided it was time to venture elsewhere and took the bush path over the hill to Maori Bay. The kids enjoyed looking at the waterfalls alongside the path and it provided a nice cool change from the exposed beach sun.

Once we got to the top of the hill we looked over Maori Bay but decided instead of exploring down there as well to instead continue around the top of the hill to see the gannet colony and the chicks which are just fledging.

On the way around the point we found some shade under the trees where we stopped to have some lunch and refuel before our trek down the stairs to return to the beach. Once we got down to the beach again we travelled along until we were between the flags where we had a quick swim before everyone got ready to leave.

We developed a wee report card to form a collective opinion of the park, walk and playground. Our participants this time rated the park an average of 9.3 / 10 for quality of park and walk, 8.2 / 10 for quality of playground, 8.8 / 10 for cleanliness and maintenance, and 7.7 / 10 for convenience and accessibility. Everyone seemed to have a great morning and it was great to have to so many Dads with us this week given it was a public holiday.

We are taking suggestions on where we should explore next week, feel free to comment here or on our Facebook event here - https://facebook.com/events/807238656008491

Look forward to seeing you there!

#outdoor explorers #preschooler playgroup #preschooler #WAPC #west auckland parents centre #muriwai

Exploration 8 (Jan 2015) - Kelvin Strand, Kelvin Cres, Te Atatu Pennisula

We met today at the playground at Kelvin Strand, Te Atatu. The kids had a bit of a play on the double slide and swings, the assorted climbing equipment was mostly aimed at bigger kids but our little ones also really enjoyed walking and balancing their way around the outside perimeter of the playground area.

After a short play here we headed off down the path towards Te Atatu and enjoyed a spectacular view of the city. Some our explorers who are local to the area tell us the path continues the whole length of the peninsula but we only travelled roughly a kilometre until we found a nice area of beach front to park up the prams and explore the water front.

It was low tide when we visited, so headed out on to the mud flats to some small rock pools where we found lots of crabs, as well as oysters and cockles. It would pay to note that was a sign warning of quick sand in some parts so close supervision would be recommended but we didn’t come across any areas of concern.

After a play in the sand, mud and water, we headed back towards the playground where we found a nice shaded spot to stop and have some lunch. There were generous amounts of shade and big areas of grass to run around on alongside the pathway.

We developed a wee report card to form a collective opinion of the park, walk and playground. Our participants this time rated the park an average of 8.7 / 10 for quality of park and walk, 7.7 / 10 for quality of playground, 8.3 / 10 for cleanliness and maintenance, and 8.3 / 10 for convenience and accessibility. Some comments from other explorers mentioned the nice flat path which was convenient as we had a lot prams on this trip, also appreciated the abundance of shade but we did notice there was a lack of toilet facilities which was a little inconvenient. All our explorers really seemed to enjoy this expedition and we had a lovely morning.

We are taking suggestions on where we should explore next week, feel free to comment here or on our Facebook event here - https://facebook.com/events/633068643487579

Look forward to seeing you there!

#outdoor explorers #west auckland #west auckland parents centre #WAPC #preschooler #preschooler playgroup #te atatu

Exploration 7 (Jan 2015) - Parrs Park, Parrs Cross Rd, Glen Eden

This morning we checked out the new playground at Parrs Park in Glen Eden. Being that it was a hot morning and school holidays still the playground was quite busy.

The playground featured a tower with some big slides and climbing areas and a viewing platform which looked over the sand and water play areas. There was a big circular swing set and two different basket swings, see saws, merry go round and some further climbing areas.

The water play area was a particular hit with our group, maybe due partly to the heat, but there was more than a few of our kids that got in the water completely and needed a change of clothes by the end of it!

The Archimedes screw was a particular hit as was the sluice gates, but these were a little bit hazardous for preschoolers (we encountered a couple of minor mishaps during our visit) and we would suggest that some supervision may be needed.

The rest of the playground was also good, although maybe aimed at a slightly older audience. There was a little bit of a concern about how easy it was for little kids to get up the tower to the high platforms that the big slide came down from. Once they were up there it was quite difficult for them to get down without using the slides and the slides were not particularly appropriate for a young preschooler audience.

The playground was such a hit with the kids it was actually a bit of a mission to convince them we should go off exploring!

We did a short walk around the outside of the sports field where we looked at the different trees and found bugs under the bark.

In our travels we went past a police car with his flashing lights on, he kindly invited the kids to come and have a look at the car, sit in the passenger seat and even try on his hat which the kids all enjoyed.

We crossed back over the sports field to the playground where we had a bit more of a play and some lunch but were very conscious of the lack of shade as it was very hot and exposed in the direct sunlight. There are some trees planted around the playground but they are still small and don’t really provide any shade as yet.

We developed a wee report card to form a collective opinion of the park, walk and playground. Our participants this time rated the park an average of 7.14 / 10 for quality of park and walk, 8.86 / 10 for quality of playground, 8.14 / 10 for cleanliness and maintenance, and 8.86 / 10 for convenience and accessibility. Some comments from other explorers mentioned the lack of shade but otherwise everyone really seemed to enjoy the playground in particular.

We are taking suggestions on where we should explore next week, feel free to comment here or on our Facebook event here - https://www.facebook.com/events/625843210875422/

Hope to see you there! :)

#preschooler playgroup #outdoor explorers #west auckland parents centre #west auckland #WAPC #parrs park

Exploration 6 (Dec 2014) - Moire Park, Granville Drive, Massey