More than room for a city mouse
BY RHONDA MARKBY
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Caroline Bay now has its own mouse house. But don't panic, it's not a case of the rodents taking up residence.
The "mouse house" is the latest addition to the Caroline Bay playground equipment. It was named because the long internal pipe-like rotating structure is similar to the toys found in pet rodents' cages. The mouse house cost around $20,000 to install and completes the selection of new playground equipment installed at the bay for older children, council horticultural officer Peter Thomson said yesterday.
The advantage of the New Zealand-made toy was it could be used by a range of ages. Mr Thomson said young children could crawl through the pipe as it kept turning. Older ones could run inside it with the pipe turning faster and faster or brace themselves against it going head over heels as it rolled.
While swings, slides and see-saws never went out of style, Mr Thomson said he had been looking for something different to add to the playground equipment. The mouse house joins other recent additions to the playground of a large, steep slide suitable for adults, the rocktopus – a rocking, rotating, multiple-armed apparatus, and the space net climbing frame.
The only other new piece of playground equipment being planned in the district at present is a spaceball frame, which is being installed at Aorangi Park.
- © Fairfax NZ News
