Israel and Eila perch on the Kowhai Park turtles that have supported little visitors for many decades. Photos / A Alatimu
Israel and Eila perch on the Kowhai Park turtles that have supported little visitors for many decades. Photos / A Alatimu
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Kōwhai Park is described as a “memory-maker and multi-generational pleaser” on the Discover Whanganui website.
You can bet your giant octopus it is.
My memories of the park date back to the mid-1960s, when the world was big and the play equipment was new. Those feelings of being exquisitelyexhausted after hours of sliding down dinosaurs and whales have never left me.
Driving up from Levin, we would check into a motel (I can’t recall whether it was the Riverside or the Riverview) and spend a few days visiting the local attractions.
But these days, she gets to experience the park with her own children, who enjoy the same features their grandmother did 60 years ago.
And they get the bonus of enjoying all the attractions that have been added over the decades.
On our last visit, we first enjoyed morning tea at a popular Whanganui cafe known as “the Lallow House” to three-year-old Israel.
On his little legs, he found crossing the Whanganui River from Dublin St a bridge too far, but he rallied when he spotted the park’s big pumpkin.
His sister Eila (16 months) chattered excitedly at the sight of Humpty Dumpty sitting on his wall, but I’m not sure if she loved or loathed him. He is a wee bit creepy with his winking eye, but how good is it that he’s still there after all these years?
I bless the visionary Whanganui Jaycees who built the durable and quirky creations and the city officials who have seen fit to maintain and preserve them over the decades.
A 1961 newspaper clipping recently shared online shows a photo of Cedric Story, a “monster builder” on loan from Auckland Zoo, casting the whale.
The article mentions plans for a rocket ship, turtles, a sea serpent, an octopus and a dinosaur - visions that became realities for generations to come.
Eila and Israel Alatimu inside the Kowhai Park whale slide. Photo / Liz Wylie
In the present-day park, my grandchildren scrambled inside the belly of the whale slide and Israel, who has recently discovered echoes, made his little voice big inside the chamber, with Eila adding backing vocals.
He then confidently tackled the dinosaur slide while I detached Eila from the leg of an unsuspecting woman she’d taken a fancy to before we headed for the merry-go-round.
I don’t recall the carousel from my childhood experience, and I’m sure I would have because it’s pretty special - a deluxe version of the roundabouts seen at other playgrounds.
I don’t know when it arrived at the park, but it was recently refurbished by Whanganui District Council and spins like a dream. It also provides shelter from sudden showers, as we discovered on one recent visit.
As we climbed aboard, a couple of young shunters offered to spin us around, and a lad aged around 10 asked if we would like to go “fast”, “slow” or “medium”.
That’s another nice thing about Kōwhai Park (and Whanganui in general) - there are a lot of nice, middling-sized humans here who like to be helpful, so a shout-out to local parents and schools for that.
Alex had walked home to get the car as the children (and their grandmother) were beginning to flag and there was not enough energy left for a homeward journey on foot.
After she got back and we headed for the carpark, I felt a burst of nostalgia for my long-ago adventures at the park.
