At Island View Reserve in Waihi Beach, a driftwood log that washed ashore in a storm is built into the play as deliberately as any climbing frame, alongside a six-sided Kompan tower, an eagle claw swing and a pump track for scooters and bikes. Designed around the dunes it backs onto, the space won Recreation Aotearoa's 2024 Play Space of the Year, a rare result for a small beach-town build. Inland at Te Puke's Jubilee Park, the scale runs bigger and rounder: a six-metre tower twisted to look like a kiwifruit vine anchors the swings, a seesaw and a fitness piece, tucked behind the New World supermarket with parking and toilets close by.
Waihi Beach is the pick on a hot day, close enough to the sand for a swim right after the swings, with the pump track for kids who've had enough of climbing. Jubilee Park suits a stop on the drive through, a picnic table waiting between the fruit shops and State Highway 2. Both are quiet on weekday afternoons and busiest on weekends, especially the Waihi Beach foreshore over summer.
