Te papa tākaro hou ki Te Kapua Park nears completion

Te reo karanga o tō tātou kui maunga ko Pihanga ki āna mokopuna kia takahi atu rā koutou ki te papa tākaro hou o te hapori nei. E ngā mokopuna, maranga ake, takatū mai ra, nau mai, karanga mai ki Waipapa ki Te Kapua.

It was all hands on deck at Te Kapua Park recently, when playground specialists from local kura came by to check out the new papa tākaro (playground) and lend a hand with landscaping work. Tamariki from Te Kura o Hīrangi and Tongariro School helped Council’s parks and reserves team to plant native grasses throughout the papa tākaro garden beds and Tūrangi Co-Governance Committee Co-Chair Te Takinga New said it was great to see the mokopuna of Pihanga taking ownership of their papa tākaro by getting involved.

Mr New says Ngāti Tūrangitukua gave the theme and story of the papa tākaro around the Tongariro River and the connection to Te Kapua Park, and it was great to be able to incorporate play equipment to the associated stories. “For example Tūmoana is a old fishing ground and the play equipment there is like a hīnaki (fishing trap),” he said, “and the water play area signifies what once was the Hīrangi Stream, so this papa tākaro will become a learning environment.”

The papa tākaro has been a partnership between Ngāti Tūrangitukua and Taupō District Council and will be opened to the public in the coming weeks. Project manager Pete Bradshaw says the papa tākaro will be a real asset to Tūrangi and thanked the community for their input and designers Bespoke for incorporating that into the playground design. “Ultimately Council budgeted a total of $1.12 million for the project, so it was great that we were given this level of resourcing. Marama Isherwood our Southern Lake Taupō Engagement Partner did some great work with our community on what they’d like to see and we’ve worked hard to incorporate that.”

We had originally planned to open it in August, but we really want this playground to be the best it can be so we are going to be doing a little more work on some of the play surfaces. This will take a little extra time but quality comes first - and it is very exciting to be so close to completion.”

Kia tū hikitia, kia tū hāpainga i ngā kaupapa ki runga ki ngā hau rau o Taupō Moana.