Praneeta Mahajan
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Children’s Day 2023 was celebrated with great excitement in Hamilton over the weekend. There were varied fun activities and free offers happening across the city at Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton Zoo, Waikato Museum, Waterworld, and Central Library.
Te Rā O Ngā Tamariki, Children’s Day was celebrated throughout New Zealand on Sunday 5 March 2023, but Hamilton City Council doubled the fun this year, with events on Saturday 4 March as well.
Hamilton City Councillor Kesh Naidoo Rauf, who is Chair for Community and Natural Environment excitedly told Indian Newslink, “Hamilton celebrated Children’s day with numerous events over the weekend and it provided an amazing opportunity to celebrate our youngest residents and brought a weekend full of excitement and great vibrancy to Hamilton. Our visitor destinations, Waikato Museum, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton Zoo, as well as Waterworld all ran promotional activities over the weekend resulting in increased access, visitation and lots of happy families. Garden Place also had a number of varied activities.”
A weekend of fun
On Saturday, Waikato Museum held a children’s science fair, with some wonderful activities on site led by Kudos Science, and Legends Unleashed Dinosaurs of Aotearoa. More than 1400 guests visited the museum, with many there to take part in the activities. “Guests to the Museum gave extremely positive feedback, and it was clear they enjoyed these fantastic offerings, including the very realistic dinosaur puppets,” said the Museum staff.
Hamilton Gardens also saw fantastic visitor numbers on Saturday, with over 4500 people attending. The Arts Festival events continued into the weekend, and for Children’s Day there were Princesses Cinderella and Belle in the Enclosed Gardens, dressed and ready to greet the little ones and ‘Free Lunch Street Theatre’ offered face painting for kids. Both were extremely popular with a regular stream of visitors passing through the information centre looking for the characters.
On Sunday, Hamilton Zoo saw large numbers, thanks to their 50% off admission deal, with a line forming well before opening. One of the Zoo’s top three busiest days on record, BusIT provided a wonderful service with their double-decker buses. Hundreds made the most of the opportunity to travel by bus for free. With Wonder woman and Spiderman to entertain the kids, visitors were kept happy with great service.
Something for everyone
The Central Library is also got involved with a bunch of different activities for tamariki, including a scavenger hunt, LEGO, arts and crafts, race cars, PlayStation, giant piano, and so much more.
At Waterworld, there were fun activities like a manu competition, hydro slides, inflatables on the water, and kayaking and paddle boats. Kids had free admission for the day and accompanying adults paid half-price.
Talking to Indian Newslink about the successful weekend of activities, Mayor Paula Southgate said, “I love seeing our communities come together, and enjoy the many outdoor spaces and places our city has. Children’s Day was a terrific event, and I had great fun watching the entertainment and joining in fun activities such as dressing up as a superhero to support Barnardos, New Zealand’s leading charity for kids. A huge thanks to all who made the day possible, and all the families who came down to enjoy the fun. It was just wonderful seeing so many children playing together in the sunshine.”
With the sun shining and a great choice of fun activities, the young residents of Hamilton were in for a treat this weekend.
Praneeta Mahajan is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Hamilton.
