Hastings pop-up pump track opens at Essex Crescent Reserve

Sixteen-year-old Quann Abbott enjoying the pump track that opened in Essex Crescent Reserve last week. Paul / Taylor

The pop-up pump track has moved to its third Hastings park since opening last December.

Napier has a permanent pump track, and with Sports Hawke's Bay and Parklife New Zealand, the Hastings District Council has brought a portable pump track to Hastings.

Together with funding from the Sports HB Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa fund, Parklife New Zealand is supplying the track as part of its mission to encourage communities to be "fit and social".

The 65-metre-long track comprises a circuit of hills and bumps, rollers, banked turns and features designed to be ridden entirely by scooters, skateboards and bike riders "pumping" to get momentum by up and down body movements, instead of pedalling or pushing.

Flaxmere Park was the first to host the pop-up track for a couple of months and then it was moved to Windsor Park for three months.

It will be at Essex Crescent Reserve for two to three months.

The HDC pop-up pump track is open in Essex Crescent Reserve, Whakatū and will be there for two to three months. Photo / Warren Buckland

The HDC aims to give all communities a turn and is looking into placing the pump track at Anderson Park in Havelock North next.

A council spokesperson said, "The location of the track has been decided by staff to try to cover different areas of the district."

Part of the decision-making process has been to locate the pump track in places where other facilities for kids have been disrupted - such as the skate bowl at Flaxmere and the playground at Whakatū.

The council is looking at a process for communities to request the pop-up pump track in their neighbourhood.

"We will inform the community when that is established," the HDC spokesperson said.

Hastings councillor and chairoman of the Great Communities sub-committee, Eileen Lawson, said the kids loved the pump track at Flaxmere Park and Windsor Park.

"Whether they're on scooters or bikes or skateboards, it's a great way for them to get out and use our parks that's fun, healthy, and free," Lawson said.