Best playgrounds in Far North

Kerikeri Town Playground does the heavy lifting here: a play fortress of towers, tubular slides and an inground trampoline sits across the lawn from Kerikeri Skatepark, with a rubber pathway and dedicated accessible gear so a mixed-age crew can split up and regroup. Paihia answers with Rotary Playground, a small fenced set on the foreshore built around a slide and infant swings, right for toddlers through early primary. Kawakawa Playground, fenced and on Railway Road, gives families something to do while they wait on the Gabriel steam train. Inland and west it gets simpler: Centennial Playground in Kaeo runs a swing set, seesaw and climbing net, and Mathews Park in Kaitaia keeps to swings and a bark-surfaced multi-play structure.

Korora Park Playground in Ahipara pulls in visitors from across the district for its giant whale sculpture, the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world after Spain, alongside a flying fox and mini trampolines. Rangitane Park on the Kerikeri Inlet is the quiet toddler pick when the Domain gets busy. Pack sunhats and a beach plan; this district is rarely more than twenty minutes from sand, and December through February is the busy season everywhere east of Kaikohe.