Sandringham Reserve

To call this a reserve — or even really a park — is to give this patch of ground more grandness than it really deserves. A better way to describe this is a piece of waste land, too small to put a house on, that Auckland has decided to justify the existence of by putting some toilets on it and a sign that says ‘Sandringham Reserve’.
Luckily the council took one extra step in glorifying this awkwardly-​shaped street corner, and this is its saving grace. They put a playground on it and, although not large, it is a decent one. It’s that usual wood-​with-​primary-​coloured-​pipes-​and-​plastic set-​up that anyone who’s been to a park in New Zealand in the last twenty years will be familiar with, and it’s the only one in or around the Sandringham village, unless you’re willing to take your small children on a hike up to the primary school by Pizza Haven, and nobody will be keen on that, not children or parents. Good thing there’s Sandringham Reserve then, right?