Let's play! An EPIC playground experience, challenging and meaningful fun for everyone.
Set inside the stunning, sandy and shallow Caroline Bay in Timaru District you'll find a special playground designed to tap into childrens adventurous fantasies.
This playground embraces a range of ages, stages, abilities, and sizes to foster inclusive play. Embark on an fun-filled journey exploring the shipwreck, conquering the lighthouse slide tower, engage with the mahika kai-themed play area, challenge yourself in the floor-is-lava obstacle course, and soar through the air on a 50 m tandem flying fox and under the watchfull eye of the taniwha. Let imagination run wild and draw inspiration from the stories and history of the area while you play at the bay.
Situated within Caroline Bay Park, this destination playground stands as one of the Southern Hemisphere's largest, making it a must-visit for families holidaying in South Canterbury. Bring along your bikes, skateboards, balls, and picnic gear to make the most of the surrounding amenities, including a paddling pool, tennis courts, basketball courts, bike polo, skate park, and a bike skills park.
This playground was a voluntary community initiative by "CPlay" to create a new destination playground at Caroline Bay - by the community - for the community, and officially opened 10th December 2023.
Let's play, have fun and create memories.
The new playground, surrounded by existing tennis courts, paddling pool, skate park and bike skills park, with view out to Caroline Bay, Timaru. - Photo South Canterbury Drone Photography
Come play at Caroline Bay playground
- A fun and free experience for residents, visitors and tourists.
- More sensory and accessible equipment and landscaping to suit a range of abilities, body sizes, and ages.
- More challenging and open ended and imaginative play equipment to stimulate physical and mental activity.
- Safer, stronger and more durable play equipment and surfacing.
- Year-round comfort with improved drainage, seating, tables and shade.
- A space to connect to our Māori and European stories, history and heritage, themed to Caroline Bay environment, and history.
- A place to learn through moving, communicating, noticing, interacting, wondering and experimenting.
- Over 40 play pieces including mahika kai areas with a mound in the shape of a tuna eel and a whare play house, 14.5m long shipwreck, 10m high lighthouse, floor is lava challenge, slides, trampolines swings, mouse wheel, 50m double flying fox, and the Timaru District's nostelgic yellow horse from the 1960s!
- The entire playground area is now one of the largest in New Zealand, 16,288.86 m2 (the largest at the time it was built), including the paddling pool, courts, bike skills park, and skatepark.
There's lots of play to be had at the bay!
Thank you to everyone who has supported the CPlay volunteers. Your contributionsthrough support, donations, supply and work, has helped create a playground where everyone can grow stronger, smarter, and happier together. Let's play!
It all began with creation stories, including Ara-Te-Uru, an ancestral waka, that once sailed past what is now Timaru, and wrecked near Moeraki. The passengers went ashore to explore the land, and turned into many of the landmarks of Te Waipounamu (South Island). Aoraki (Mount Cook) is at the centre of the Ngāi Tahu creation traditions of Te Waipounamu. In this story, Aoraki is on his grandfather Kirikirikatata shoulders. Pātītī (Patiti Point) and Tarahaoa and Hua-te-kerekere (Big Mount Peel and Little Mount Peel) were also passengers on Ara-Te-Uru.
Over 2 million years ago, Timaru's lava flowed from the Waipouri / Mt Horrible area to what is now the coast. The lava helped shape the hills and coastline and created reefs. The area was abundant in life, such as Manu (Birds), Kai moana/seafood (Fish, shellfish and crustaceans), and Rākau (Plants).
When humans began to explore these lands, the area became into a gathering place. It was, and still is today, an important resource to Māori.
Early Māori groups like Waitaha, Rapuwai, and Kāti Māmoe would collect food and other resources from coastal environments in the area such as Waitarakao (Washdyke Lagoon) to share and trade. Today, Arowhenua Marae (in Temuka) is the principal Māori settlement in the Aoraki region from the Rakaia to the Waitaki and back to the main divide. Mahika kai literally means 'to work the food’ and relates to the traditional value of food and other resources and their ecosystems, as well as the practices involved in producing, procuring, and protecting these resources and passing that knowledge on to the next generation.
With the arrival of Europeans, Timaru transitioned from a short-lived whaling spot in 1839, to a wool, grain, frozen meat, and fishing hub for South Canterbury from 1850s. The coast, however, was treacherous. A rough sea could spring up with little wind. Over 30 sailing ships lost their anchors and wrecked along the Timaru's beaches and cliffs. This led to the establishment of the life boat crews and rocket brigade, who rushed to rescue people and ships. Because it was difficult to reach the area, due to the wide braided rivers, Timaru needed an artificial harbour to be a viable shipping hub.
The new Port was one of only two independent ports in the country, being owned by the rate payers of Timaru. The port was an economic success and changed the way sediment flowed along the coast creating a new sandy bay where a narrow, gravel breach had previously been (Caroline Bay). This area was marketed as the Port Resort, and people have been playing at the bay for over a century.
2023 CPLAY COMMITTEE (alphabetical order) Alice Brice Grant Applications Lead | Brent Birchfield Corporate Fundraising | Chris Fauth Consultation, Grants & Design Team | Francine Spencer Cultural Liaison & Design Team | Graham Ward Project Manager & Design Team | John Rushton Design Oversight & Design Team | Leanne Prendeville Donations Secretary | Lynette Wilson Secretary | Owen Jackson (OJ) CPlay Chair & Corporate Fundraising | Roselyn Fauth Communications, Marketing, Web & Graphic Design, Research & Design Team | Sarah Mills Project Support | Vicki Gould Project Support | Louise Haley Events Co-ordinator & Project Support