Best playgrounds in New Plymouth

A few streets from the shops, New Plymouth Central Playground packs the district's broadest equipment lineup into one reserve: a waterplay area, flying fox, trampoline and spring rocker under shade sails. Bell Block runs a different pattern at Hickford Park, where a play structure for toddlers through primary schoolers sits beside the skatepark, so older kids peel off to the ramps while littles stick to the swings and roundabout. Kawaroa Park does it at coastal scale, its fort, pump track and sculpted climbing hill strung along the Coastal Walkway. Inner suburbs stay smaller and closer to home: Audrey Gale Reserve in Merrilands pairs its play area with the Waiwhakaiho River for a swing and slide stop that stretches into a longer walk, and Ngamotu Beach Playground trades river for surf, its basket swing and see saw set right on Ocean View Parade.

Parking is easy almost everywhere except around Pukekura's gates during the Festival of Lights each summer. Kawaroa's splash pad channels its runoff to the Todd Energy Aquatic Centre next door on Tisch Avenue, which doubles as the wet weather fallback with its indoor hydroslides and toddler pool. Bell Block sits far enough out that Hickford Park rewards a deliberate trip, worth pairing with the bike track and skatepark next door. Inland suburbs like Vogeltown and Merrilands run leafier and calmer, a fair call on the days the coastal strip catches the worst of the wind.