The Southern Hemisphere's Largest Playground
The Margaret Mahy Family Playground, Tākaro ā Poi, sits on the banks of the Avon River / Ōtākaro on the corner of Manchester and Armagh Streets in Central Christchurch, Christchurch, east of New Regent Street and Victoria Square. It is the largest playground in the Southern Hemisphere, open every day and free to enter. The scale of it is a genuine surprise: 2.5 hectares of colour, noise, and inventive play equipment spilling across a riverside setting that, a decade or so earlier, was part of an earthquake-shattered and empty city.
Rebuilding Through Play
The playground was one of the anchor projects in Christchurch's post-earthquake recovery plan, embodying one of the five principles the community chose to guide the rebuild: play. The design drew on ideas submitted by more than 6,000 Canterbury children in 2013. It opened on 22 December 2015 and won a New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects Award of Excellence in 2017. The layout is organised around Canterbury's four main natural habitats - forest, wetlands, plains, and coastal. There is a 130 m "story arc" pathway weaving through the site, drawing on the storytelling of two Canterbury writers: Margaret Mahy and Elsie Locke.
Margaret Mahy and Elsie Locke
Margaret Mahy (1936–2012) was one of New Zealand's most celebrated writers and a Canterbury figure. Born in Whakatāne, she studied at Canterbury University College, worked as Children's Librarian at Canterbury Public Library from 1976, and lived at Governors Bay on Lyttelton Harbour for much of her life. She wrote more than 100 picture books, 40 novels, and 20 short story collections, winning the Carnegie Medal twice, for The Haunting and The Changeover, and the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006, the highest honour in children's literature worldwide. She was appointed to the Order of New Zealand in 1993. Her playful, wildly inventive storytelling, full of magic and wordplay, is precisely the spirit the playground's designers were reaching for.
Elsie Locke (1912–2001) is less widely known but equally significant in Christchurch's history. A writer, activist, and peace campaigner, she devoted much of her life to causes including women's rights, nuclear disarmament, and Māori land rights. The land the playground now occupies was previously named Elsie Locke Park in her honour and was the only Christchurch park named after a living resident during their lifetime. Her name and stories are woven into the playground alongside Mahy's, along with Ngāi Tahu iwi narratives and imagery.
What's there
The playground is genuinely all-ages. For younger children, there are swings, sandpits, rockers, crawl tunnels, and low climbing structures. Older children and adventurous adults head for the three-tower complex, reaching 10 m high, with an 8 m spiral slide, a 22.5 m climbing net strung between two large masts, a 4 m climbing slope with stainless-steel slides, in-ground trampolines, and a double flying fox. The water play area, with water cannons, sprinklers, and a splash pad with controllable jets, is enormously popular on warm days.
The whole site is designed for inclusive access, with equipment and pathways suited to a wide range of abilities. Toilets, change facilities, shade canopies, picnic lawns, and food and drink retailers are all on site.
A Starting Point for the Central City
The playground sits at the eastern edge of a natural circuit of central Christchurch attractions. From here, following the Ōtākaro / Avon River west takes you past the Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial / Oi Manawa toward the Bridge of Remembrance, then through the riverside promenade to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens and Hagley Park. Along the way, short detours reach Cathedral Square, the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, and the Christchurch Arts Centre and Ravenscar House at the university end. It is one of the best walks in the city, and the playground makes a natural start or end point.
How to Get There
The playground is on Armagh Street at Manchester Street, in the central city. There is ample parking nearby on both sides of the river, plus easy access to the bus and the central city cablecar.
