Best playgrounds in Lower Hutt

The Hutt River shapes this city's playground map. Sladden Park's playground sits on bark surfacing within earshot of the water in Petone, a plain wooden climbing structure and slide paired with a see-saw for the youngest visitors. A few kilometres upstream, Avalon Playground opens into a six-hectare riverside park with a miniature railway, paddle boats, mini golf and an award-winning skate park alongside the slides, sandpit and water play. At the harbour end, Te Kohanga Manaaki - Petone Playscape trades climbing frames for mud kitchens, sand pits and water pumps, a sensory-led design for toddlers through primary schoolers, near the new Te Ara Tupua foreshore path. Across the water in Eastbourne, Bishop Park's fenced toddler area is built around a lighthouse tower beside the Muritai Yacht Club.

Parking is easy almost everywhere; a flat sealed lot near the gear is the norm. In Wainuiomata, Parkway Family Playground fences off a junior zone for toddlers from a separate adventure zone for bigger kids, the pick when visiting family want one stop for a wide age range. Hill-suburb families lean on Belmont Recreation Reserve, tucked below the bush-covered ridgelines of Belmont Regional Park. In the city centre, Riddiford Gardens Playground folds a splash pad and climbing structure into a century-old public garden that once held New Zealand's largest outdoor pool.