Margaret Mahy Family Park turns 5!
It’s known far and wide that Christchurch’s Margaret Mahy playground has the best big slide around. Built in the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes for a city on the mend, it has become a true community treasure.
According to Wikipedia, Margaret Mahy playground is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Whether you believe that or not, it certainly is one of New Zealand’s most iconic playgrounds.
Built in the years following the 2011 earthquakes that broke the city, the destination playground was a boon for central Christchurch, attracting families back into the town centre and giving locals hope for a brighter future for the city.
Numat had the privilege of providing play surfacing for the playground. It was one of the first public playgrounds to extensively use Pour‘n’Play, and it is still the largest wet pour rubber playground surface in New Zealand.
This month, Margaret Mahy Family Park playground turns 5. In this article, we wanted to revisit the making of this iconic playground and its unique play surface through some of the photography we captured during construction.
“I have found the product very good to work with and impressive in terms of durability. There haven’t been any issues with colour fade either. From a maintenance point of view, it is fantastic. We use a leaf blower daily for sand and bark chip removal and it cleans well with water for other items such as ice cream, sweet drinks etc. We have extraordinary visitor numbers through the playground each year and I feel that this is a real credit to Numat and the quality of the product you offer.”
Chad Dix, Supervisor Inner City Parks
Christchurch City Council
