Otepuni Gardens

Otepuni Gardens is Invercargill's original town garden, a strip of old trees and lawn along the Otepuni Stream on the edge of the central city, with a very small playground on its Forth Street side. Come here for a stroll by the water with a baby or young toddler; for a full play session, head elsewhere.

Equipment

The council's playground list names a single item at 34 Forth Street: a double infant swing.² It sits in Block I, the block of the gardens along the Forth Street frontage.¹ That makes it a swing stop for babies and young toddlers, not a destination for school-age kids. That list is the only record of what is there, so do not promise anyone a slide.

For climbing and sliding, Ettrick Street Reserve on Bowmont Street, about a kilometre away, lists a play module with climbing and sliding features, a roundabout, a climbing frame and a double junior swing.²

History and Cultural

The gardens were set aside as public reserve, along with Queens Park and the rest of the Town Belt, when John Turnbull Thomson laid out Invercargill in 1856, and were long known simply as the Town Gardens.¹ Stop banks built for flood protection between 1989 and 1991 now enclose each block.¹

Practical Info

Parking is around the perimeter of the park, and a liquor ban applies.¹ Part of the Otepuni Walkway runs along the top of the floodbank between Clyde Street and Rockdale Road, a well-formed track with a raised view over the city if the swing does not fill the visit.¹ The gardens also hold a band rotunda and a bowls area, but the council's facilities list for the park does not mention toilets, so plan around that.¹