Best playgrounds in Hastings

William Nelson Park's skate plaza usually pulls the bigger weekend crowd than its playground, but the small fenced set beside it, slide and swings for kids not yet on boards, still earns its keep on a Friday afternoon. That split repeats elsewhere: Lions Community Park in Mayfair sits next to the district's water park, so a hot Saturday turns into a two-stop circuit without moving the car far. Out past the orchards, the district thins fast. Puketapu Park serves its whole rural village alone, a flying fox and shaded bark surface for toddlers through to primary age, and Farndon Park Domain does the same quiet job for Clive on the Heretaunga Plains, a neighbourhood set that never makes anyone's top ten but earns its keep daily.

Cornwall Park's climbing structure and water play, and Havelock North Village Green's water feature, are still what visiting families ask for first, both shaded by mature trees and an easy skip from the day's heat. St Leonards Park Playground carries the same fenced, shaded build with a farm theme and a tubular slide tower. Parking is easy across the district except around the Village Green on a Saturday morning. Splash Planet on Grove Road is the district's proper water park, open weekends year round and daily through summer, and Lions Community Park next door doubles as the overflow when the pools are packed. Pack hats and sunscreen from November through March.