Tui Glen Reserve Playground
Why go
Tui Glen playground is the sort of place you have to be heading to. It sits off the main road down Claude Brookes Drive, and from outside there's nothing that tells you what's in there. Then you come round the loop and there it is: three climbing towers, a flying fox, and a whole separate sand area, in a park that somehow stays calm even when it's busy.
What to expect
The three towers are the centrepiece, climbing inside them, and two decent slides coming down. Not the timid kind. The flying fox is the thing kids queue for.
There's a sand play area with its own smaller slide, which keeps the younger ones occupied and away from the towers.
The playground sits in the middle of a one-way loop, flat at the top with the ground sloping gradually down to the road behind. Parking runs along both sides, so you pull up and you're there — which when you're unloading scooters and a picnic matters more than it sounds. The picnic tables aren't inside the playground proper itself but set around the perimeter, closer to the road, each on its own pad.
What surprised me was the history sitting quietly around it. The reserve was the county's first registered camping ground, back in 1925, and ten historic buildings still stand on the site, including the Manuka Shade Cabin, a simple colonial cottage. You'd walk straight past them.
The name comes from the tūī that fed on kōwhai nectar along the stream banks.
