Three Hastings families visit all district's 37 playgrounds in one week

The Dickinson children at Farndon Playground, one of the 37 parks visited by winners of the Parks Week competition. Photo / Supplied

Three Hastings families managed quite the feat - visiting all 37 of the district's playgrounds in one week.

Families were challenged by the Hastings District Council to visit as many of the 37 parks in the Hastings district and send in photos of children playing on the play equipment by March 15.

Three families who made it to all 37 playgrounds were awarded first equal prizes of $250 gift cards.

The three winning families were the Palmers, the Mitchells and the Scottons.

The Palmer children who were accompanied by their "very patient granny Cheryle" made it their quest to visit all the parks in three days.

Brayden, 11, and Bailey, 5, said their favourite park was Puketapu, "with its awesome flying fox", followed closely by the Haumoana Memorial Park playground

"They were amazed at how many parks there were and are looking forward to visiting many of them again," said their aunt Lena.

Fran Mitchell and daughter Amazon-Reign, 6, also rated Haumoana Memorial Park.

"My daughter and I had an absolute blast. We were introduced to some new parks and got to revisit parks we had not been to in a long time."

The Scotton family said it was "really good quality time travelling to all the different parks and going to places we hadn't been to before".

A fourth prize of a $150 gift card went to a family who was not far behind the first-place winners.

The children went to a lot of trouble to provide feedback on each of the playgrounds they did get to and are planning on writing about the experience.

"That sort of feedback is great to have," said council's open spaces planning manager, Rachel Stuart.

Hastings councillor Ann Redstone said the competition was about encouraging families to explore all kinds of playgrounds from small neighbourhood and rural ones to seaside playgrounds and premier play spaces.

"I really think we've achieved that. All of the families who commented on the challenge said it was a real eye-opener to see the sheer number and variety of places that we have to play in."