Tarnica Park Playground

Tarnica Park is a neighbourhood playground in Northpark, east Auckland, sitting in the middle of a wide grass reserve ringed by houses and only a short walk from the back of the Botany shops. Its 28-year-old play module had a proper refresh in 2026, so it is in better shape than reviews about tired timber boards suggest.¹

Equipment

The centrepiece is a multi-level combination unit with a small roofed tower, timber decks and step-up platforms, a timber and chain scaling wall, overhead monkey bars, hanging rings, a wobbly chain bridge and a slide. The 2026 works replaced the module roof, the slide, the wobbly bridge and the decking, upgraded the climbing features, added a new swing set and a Pot Shot goal module for ball play, and rust-treated and repainted the rest, seesaw included.¹²

The scaling wall and overhead bars suit confident school-age climbers best. Under-fives can manage the low decks, swings and seesaw with a parent close by, but there is no separate toddler area.

Practical Info

The play area is set well back from the road in open lawn, which gives a decent buffer from traffic, but it is not fenced and there are no toilets. A path crosses the reserve right to the playground, useful because parents report the grass gets boggy and muddy in winter. The ground under the equipment is bark chip, and there is no shade sail, only a handful of young trees, so pack hats in summer. There is a bench beside the path but no car park, so plan on street parking.

It works well as a breather after a Botany shopping trip when the nearby McDonald's is packed. One parent has occasionally found teenagers smoking and misbehaving there, and the local board added a solar-powered light in 2019 after neighbours raised concerns about evening noise and damage.¹ The council also calls it Bowscale Place Reserve. For a change of scene, Kilkenny Playground and Frank Nobilo Park Reserve Playground are each about a kilometre away.