Cool playground equipment

When we were in New Zealand the last time, we were struck by all of the playground equipment that we had never seen in the States, or that were now no longer installed in playgrounds we were familiar with. Largely this was due to the fact that they may have been considered “too dangerous” in the litigious US. Flying foxes (also known as “zip-lines” in the US) are one of the “extreme” pieces of equipment that we regularly find. The kids love them and are always keen to play on them when we come upon them in public parks throughout NZ.

Some of the other pieces of playground equipment are totally new to us. One is called the Rocktopus – an amalgamation of “rock” and “octopus”. William and Margaret have one in the “Adventure Playground” at their school, and there is one at the park where we go to play tennis a couple times a week. In the picture you can see that there are 4 seats that are made of tyres at the ends of the octopus’ “arms”. At the top junction of these arms, they are connected and balanced on a pole. Thus, the Rocktopus can be spun and rocked for a wicked ride, especially if the weight of the riders is uneven. Notice that there are no seatbelts or any sort of safety harnesses to keep kids on the tyres (which is why William recently came home with some scrapes on his face from “flying” off the one at school and landing in the bark on the ground). William also reminded us that 4 boys were able to raise the Rocktopus off of its pole (for fun), but had a bit of trouble relocating it in the proper position.

The other playground toy that has been a great source of fun is called the Supernova. I described this in a January blog called “After Dinner Walks,” so briefly, it’s a tilted spinning ring that can be run or walked along. These two pictures show the adventurers -- the second one I call “supernova collapse” as the “kids” jump off when critical velocity is achieved.