Indoor playground ready for action
NOW the red tape has been worked through, the ribbon can finally be cut to open an Oamaru cafe’s longawaited indoor playground.
In 2016 Anna King, together with her parents, Bruce and Angela Blackie, took over the lease of the prominent Harbour St space, owned by the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust and now named the Harbour St Collective Cafe.
At the time they planned to open a indoor children’s playground, but those plans were quickly scuppered when the rear of the building where the playground was planned was closed, as it did not have the facilities available to cater for large numbers, Mrs King said.
‘‘For us, the big thing is the toilets . . . It was something we had to do to have more than 50 people in here. We had to spend a lot on toilets to open the whole building.’’
Now that had been completed the rear of the building was expected to open next week, pending a final tick of approval from the Waitaki District Council.
Mrs King bought the playground — which features a threelane rolling slide, inflatable slide and small obstacle course — from Lollipop’s Playland in Auckland on Trade Me before the cafe opened, and it arrived in pieces with no instructions on how to build it.
‘‘It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle with some poles.’’
Fortunately, Mr Blackie, Lindsay Moore and a few others took the job on to build the ‘‘fiddly bits’’ and add safety netting.
‘‘My dream for Oamaru was to have somewhere you could take children to play that was dry,’’ Mrs King said.
‘‘There was just nowhere in Oamaru to do that.’’
She was relieved after a ‘‘stressful’’ three years and was excited to see her plans come to fruition.
‘‘It’s going to be a big part of our business. We want to do kids’ parties and themed parties, so what it can do for our business is big.’’
Next to the playground will be a seating area for parents to relax and babies and toddlers to play.