New play boat planned to replace Wakatere

A more child-friendly and high-value play structure is part of a new concept being planned to replace the end-of-life Wakatere boat at Thames' Porritt Park.

"The old play boat, built by the Lions Club of Thames in 1969, is at the end of its useful life," says our Council's Parks Manager Derek Thompson. "Over the next few years the decks and other components will need replacing to bring it up to modern playground standards," he says.

Instead of spending an estimated $50,000 to upgrade the Wakatere, the Thames Community Board felt it was better to put that into new improved equipment.

"While we know some in the community will miss the boat, we had to weigh up the cost of keeping it, along with input from young people about what they want in their playground," Mr Thompson says.

The Wakatere will still have a presence in the playground, with parts of the old replica, such as the smoke stack, being used to create a new and improved Wakatere replica at the other end of the Queen St playground.

The Thames Lions have been involved through the redesign of Porritt Park, including even the earliest discussions about a replacement play boat, with the concept currently being developed for consultation with a focus group.

“The changes suggested in Porritt Park will give the community a place for young people to enjoy which is safe and user-friendly,” says PDG Michael Kemp, President of The Lions Club of Thames.

"To find that the Council [was] actually interested to involve the school children of the town and other interested parties to be a part of the planning, design, and the final activation of the designs…I was very very impressed," he says.

Potential features of the new boat include a mouse-wheel representing the paddle wheels and additional features adding more play value. There will also be a place for a storyboard detailing the history of the real Wakatere, the Lions involvement in the original play boat, and other park history.

Our Council has been working with students from Thames primary schools, who spent months vigorously engaged in workshops with Council on exciting new designs for the busy playground. We'll be presenting the next stage of concepts to them soon.

Meanwhile in October we'll start building the new Thames Skate and Scooter Park. The park will have half pipes, an open, street-style based design developed with input from its future users, and family-friendly green spaces from which parents can watch their youngsters play. A pump track is proposed as a possible future extension to the skate and scooter park.

All of this work ties in with the recent enhancements to Porritt Park which includes the new toilet block.

Part of the Active Thames 2018 project

This is an initiative by our Council, together with the Thames Sport and Education Community Trust and involves three pieces of work:

1 - A new indoor sports facility in the Thames High School Grounds. This is a full sized gym which will be built beside the existing gym and will be available for the wider community to use.

2 - The new skate and scooter park to be built at Porritt Park.

3 - Multi-sport pavilion/clubrooms development at Rhodes Park.

Thames Community Board has also allocated funding for a feasibility study for a regional swimming pool for consideration in the next Ten Year Plan.

Active Thames spokesperson Mary Hamilton is thrilled physical works are gearing up to begin. "We'd like to thank the amazing sponsors (local and national) for their backing," she says.

"It is as a result of all these supporters' willingness to back the three big Active Thames Projects that the town will soon be able to offer so much more to its active residents young and not so young."

You can see the growing list of sponsors here.

Next steps

Construction of the Indoor Sports Facility will begin on the Thames High School grounds in the next few months, thanks to fundraising commitments, detailed designs for construction, consents and approvals now in place, along with arrangements with the Ministry of Education.

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