Reimagining Carrington Park
Last year Ka Pai Carterton facilitated the community co-design process that saw contributions from across our massive community networks, connecting and collaborating to reimagine Carrington Park as the shining jewel in our awesome Wairarapa crown.
Whiz bang designer extraordinaire - Catherine Hamilton from WSP - led the design process and channeled her extensive and multi-award winning design work from Margaret Mahy playground (Chch), redeveloped Pukekura Park (Taranaki) and Scotts Park (Akld) to give us something special that really represents Carterton’s uniqueness. Catherine led three community co-design workshops, asked a bunch of questions at community events, trawled through survey responses and took in feedback from every person who engaged - a fantastic task in itself.
Community Co-Design
All these ideas were woven together with an overarching mythological theme, as voted by YOU our workshop attendees, with a local Maori legend gifted by Ra Smith;
"Kōkopu, sometimes called native trout but definitely the white bait, are known as Galaxiid because they have the Galaxy on their backs.
Ranginui sent Rongomaiwhakateka, the God of comets, to bring peace. The comet bounced along the river and as it did, the Galaxy was imprinted on the backs of the Kōkopu.
Now Papatūānuku can see Ranginui closely as fish swim through its waters.”
Papa Tākaro o te Kōkopu
Over the last 6 months, the resulting dream big plan “Papa Tākaro o te Kōkopu” - has had project partners, Carterton District Council and park stakeholders work through logistics and revisions (where needed) to make this community dream a real possibility.
We're now at version three of the design - and Council has adopted the plan to enable our community to move forward and secure external funding with Ka Pai's support.
Papa Tākaro o te Kōkopu is intended to be a gift to our community, and with your support we aim to bring in funding from Ka Pai Carterton’s Community Led Development partnership with the Department of Internal Affairs, Lotteries and other identified grants to cover the cost of the design and build.
As Carrington Park’s landowners, CDC will partner with community in this project. They will be the contract owner and, once the project is delivered, will continue maintain the park and facilities.
NEXT STEPS
We're now going to rally the troops again and get going on this and we'd love your support!
To join the Friends of Carrington Park, get in touch