Waipuna Park – An upgrade of the existing playground has been completed, with new swings, a barbecue, water fountain, accessible picnic table, seating, a new a 3x3 basketball court, and a new concrete pathway that starts at the northern end of the park, running alongside the middle sports fields on Kaitemako Road and into and around the playground and basketball court. Cricket nets will be installed at the northern end of the park in the next few months, after the sports fields have been upgraded. Work is currently underway to join up the existing footpath at the northern end of Kaitemako Road to the new pathway.
Oteki Reserve – new swings, seating, an accessible picnic table and shade sails have been added.
Johnson Reserve – new, natural play equipment constructed of timber and rope has been added at the southern end near the Meander Drive entrance and new seating, picnic tables, rubbish bins and a drinking fountain have been installed. Works to upgrade bridges and widen connecting boardwalks began in August 2024. When the boardwalk and bridge renewal is nearing completion, works to replace the wastewater pipeline running through the reserve will begin and are expected to be completed by April 2025. Learn more about Johnson Reserve Renewal Works.
Keam Reserve – a new playground has been installed and includes a wave slide, ropes, ladder climber, spider nets, wiggle walk, and a junior play unit with slide and steering wheel, and an accessible picnic table, seating, and shade sails.
Riverstone Park – new shade sails, a picnic set, and a bench seat have been added.
Maungarangi Reserve – new shade sails and a bench seat have been added.
Riverstone walkway – new bench seat added.
Waioraka Reserve – a drinking fountain has been installed.
Other parks improvements – being planned and will be communicated soon.
In general – we’ve planted a number of trees across all parks in Welcome Bay, for shade and amenity.
Longer term improvements projects across Welcome Bay:
For the longer-term projects, we are still working on refining the list, and then we’ll start the design by working with key stakeholders and the wider community to design and deliver the larger scale parks improvements, where we have budget.
We’ll update this webpage with the refined list when we’ve completed it.
You identified many ideas for improvements that are important. Some improvements would need additional funding from Council if they were to go ahead. We are working through the process of identifying opportunities for future funding of unfunded improvements.
Project background
Through Council’s Whakahou Taketake Vital Update (2020), and this year’s Long-term Plan, we heard loud and clear that you value your parks and want to see more opportunities to enjoy them. Some of the things you told us were that you’d like better playgrounds, more cycleways and walkways, opportunities to play basketball, more greenery, and spaces that work well for lots of different people, with more seats and picnic tables.
We have funding to improve parks within Welcome Bay and we are embarking on an exciting journey to work with you to provide better open spaces.
All improvements will be consistent with the Tauranga Reserves Management Plan (TRMP), which sets out how we manage and develop our reserves in Tauranga. They will be designed to incorporate inclusivity and accessibility, Te Aranga Design Principles (a set of Māori design principles which foster and guide culturally appropriate design processes and design responses), and crime prevention through environmental design.
What’s out of scope?
Waipuna Park sports investment – this project won’t include significant sporting investments on Waipuna Park. Larger scale projects on Waipuna Park will be looked at through the work we are doing to plan for sport and active living opportunities in the city.