Windsor Reserve Playground
Why go
Windsor Reserve is home to one of the best destination playgrounds in Auckland — a properly considered, multi-feature playground sitting right on the Devonport waterfront, with the Waitematā Harbour and the CBD skyline as the backdrop. The centrepiece is a magnificent lighthouse tower structure — a multi-level climbing frame with a lookout tower, walkways and a long slide, perfectly themed to match the harbour setting right behind it. It's the kind of playground that justifies a ferry ride from the city, and a guaranteed Devonport day-out for families with kids of any age.
What to expect
The lighthouse tower is the hero, but there's genuinely something for every age across the reserve. The bucket-and-chain sand lift is endlessly absorbing for little ones — kids load sand into small buckets, crank the chain to carry it up to an elevated platform and watch it pour through funnels and down a chute back into the sandpit below. Around the rest of the playground you'll find in-ground trampolines (always hotly contested), stepping stones, swings, and a spider rope climbing frame. The whole reserve is shaded by mature pōhutukawa, with picnic-perfect grass between the playground and the beach — and plenty of open green space for kicking a ball around or flying a kite when the wind's right.Pair it with a swim or a paddle at Devonport Beach right behind it, a stroll into Devonport village for an ice cream, or extend the day with a climb up Mount Victoria/Takarunga or North Head/Maungauika nearby. It's also one of the best-connected destination playgrounds in Auckland — an easy ferry ride from the CBD and you arrive directly into Devonport's main waterfront precinct.
