Best playgrounds in Hurunui

Amberley Playground sits inside the district's main recreation reserve on the edge of State Highway 1, with room to run beyond the play equipment itself. North of there the same road-trip pattern repeats. Coulbeck Reserve Playground in Leithfield has a full slide-and-swing set, climbing gear and toilets on site, a handy stop before the climb toward Cheviot. Cheviot's Children's Playground is a tidy town-centre stop, a slide and climbing frame with picnic tables in the shade and a market nearby. Further north, Hanmer Springs' Playground at Sports Reserve splits swing-and-slide gear for younger kids from a rope swing and climbing wall for the ones chasing a challenge, with a skate park next door for older siblings.

On the coast, the Childrens playground at Motunau Beach sits on the foreshore at the end of the road that winds through Greta Valley off State Highway 1, a quiet holiday settlement worth the detour. Inland, Waiau Village Green Reserve Playground serves a rural service town of a few hundred people on the Waiau Uwha River, about thirty kilometres east of Hanmer. Coulbeck has toilets on site, the Sports Reserve doesn't, the nearest loos are back near the pools. Amberley and Hanmer Springs are the two service hubs to fuel up in between stops.