Waitangi Park, a re-modelled recreation-space in Te Aro, Wellington, New Zealand, dates from 2005. It lies near Te Papa (the National Museum of New Zealand), Former Post and Telegraph Building and Courtenay Place. The facilities include a waka-launching area, a children's playground, a skateboard-zone, and a large grassy space.
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Numerous events have taken place at Waitangi Park, these include:
Wraight Athfield Landscape Architecture (WALA) won the competition held to design the park. WALA saw the design through to completion in 2005.
Wellingtonians formerly referred to the Waitangi Park area as Chaffers Park. Prior to 1855 the park area consisted of part of a gently sloping beach (Chaffers Beach), often covered in water from harbour and stream. On the north-east side of the park, redevelopment of the former Herd St Post Office into lifestyle-apartments and into a commercial space called Chaffers Dock Apartments has commenced[update].
The surrounding waterway (wetlands) have become a symbolic spiritual cleansing mechanism for the Waitangi stream, recently lifted from the stormwater/sewer and caused to flow through gravel and grass. The Waitangi stream flows through Te Aro valley from the hills to the sea. In 1855 an earthquake raised the stream several metres where it flowed along the marshy area now known as Cambridge and Kent Terraces.