Playgrounds in Coromandel

A summer morning on Whitianga's harbour beach tends to end the same way, with sandy kids walked the short block to Waterfront Playground on The Esplanade. It sits right on the water with the wharf and its boats in view, and packs in water play, a sandpit, a trampoline, a seesaw and a small bike track alongside the usual slides and swings, so a toddler and a ten year old both stay busy. That after-swim stop is the peninsula's whole playground rhythm: the beach does the heavy lifting, and the town play space gets the salty, hungry kids out of the car for one more go.

Each beach town keeps its own version. In Tairua, Pepe Reserve on Main Road North centres on a rocktopus climbing structure with a bowl rocker and a basket swing, plus a standard swing set with an infant seat, and there are toilets and parking for a stop on the way through. Pauanui's Given Grove Playground is the one kids ask for by name, built around twin flying foxes that run side by side so two riders can race off the same platform. Down in Thames, the gateway town, Porritt Park Playground on Queen Street is the proper destination, rebuilt around a bespoke Wakatere boat and a lighthouse climbing tower with a tubular slide, hamster wheels and talking tubes, with toilets and picnic tables for a longer stay.

The smaller plays earn their keep as the after-beach backup. Hahei Community Playground is a modest climbing frame, slide and swings on the village green at Grange Road, exactly what families need when the kids will not get back in the car after Cathedral Cove, and Whangamata's adventure playground handles the surf-town end with climbing, slides and swings in the middle of Port Road. The catch is the calendar: from Boxing Day to mid January these towns fill and parking near the popular plays gets tight, so an early start or the shoulder of summer is the move.