A year ago, Hummingbird Coffee provided over $60,000 to The Green Lab, experts in environmental green spaces, to create this playground.
Photo: Chris Lynch
Nestled within restoration plantings by the Avon-Ōtākaro Forest Park Trust, the Sensory Nature Play Park aims to serve as an educational hub for all ages and abilities.
Its design encourages children to explore nature through various senses, such as feeling different textures of leaves and wood, smelling native plant aromas, and listening to natural sounds like tapping on wood and rustling leaves.
Christchurch City Council play advocate Louise Van Tongeren said, “This kind of opportunity to invent play, to utilise found materials and discover interesting spaces to play is really important for our children’s sense of independence, creativity, and confidence.
The play spaces are deliberately set up to inspire children to head off and explore, without being overly prescriptive about what to actually do.”
Photo: Chris Lynch
“Children learn through all their senses – some through running and climbing, while others may benefit more from sensory elements.”
“When we provide spaces that allow for other kinds of exploration, including calmer play experiences, we are being much more inclusive of a wider range of needs within our community,” Van Tongeren added.
Once a former residential area, the park is now home to multiple wētā ‘hotels’ and ‘apartments’ made at workshops held at Phillipstown Community Hub. These warm and dry spaces offer protection for ecologically important native wētā, bees, and wasps from predators like rats and birds.
Photo: Chris Lynch
The park has been designed to significantly increase and encourage biodiversity in the area.
Christchurch City Council community partnership and residential redzone ranger Sarah Mankelow said, “The opportunity to restore and protect the river that runs through the heart of our city and plan ahead for climate change is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Hopefully, the grief still attached to these lost homes will be slowly healed over the years as we heal the land and create this green legacy.”
