Pukekura Park is a Garden of National Significance, covering 52 hectares near the heart of

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

History

The gala opening of New Plymouth's 15 hectare Recreation Ground was held on 29 May 1876. During the day the first trees were ceremonially planted by Miss Jane Carrington, the daughter of surveyor Frederic Alonzo Carrington: an oak for Great Britain, a pūriri for New Zealand, a Norfolk Island pine for the South Pacific Islands and a Pinus radiata for America. The ceremonial spade used to plant the trees is held in the Puke Ariki collection in New Plymouth. The park contains a diverse range of native and exotic plants. Various easy walking trails cross the park and meander along the lake sides, taking in the features of the park. Among these are the picturesque Poet's Bridge, which was opened on 11 March 1884. There is also a man-made cascading waterfall and a fountain in the aptly named Fountain Lake. Row boats can be hired for rowing on the main lake.

Sports and music

Pukekura Park is a popular events venue.

Cricket

At the north-western end of the park is a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

ground, established in the 1880s which is noted for the beauty of its setting. The first game of cricket there was played in 1892. After the team's visit to play a two-day game against

in January 1936, the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

captain

Errol Holmes Errol Reginald Thorold Holmes (21 August 1905 – 16 August 1960) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Oxford University, Surrey and England between 1924 and 1955. A dashing right-handed batsman, Holmes believed that cri ...

wrote:

... when we went to the ground, we were struck with its beauty, and decided that it must be one of the most attractive that could be imagined. On three sides it was surrounded by high banks, giving it the facilities of a natural amphitheatre. The pavilion stood on the fourth side which, in turn, led out on to Pukekura Park, famous for its assortment of trees and banks of
hydrangea ''Hydrangea'', () commonly named the hortensia, is a genus of over 75 species of flowering plants native to Asia and the Americas. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Korea, and Japan. Most are shrubs tall, ...
s almost as big as houses, while, away to the south, rose the peak of
Mount Egmont Mount Taranaki (), also known as Mount Egmont, is a dormant stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is the second highest point in the North Island, after Mount Ruapehu. The mountain has a secon ...
, snow-capped, serene and splendidly aloof.

The ground has hosted

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

since the 1950–51 season, when the

Central Districts cricket team The Central Stags, formerly known as Central Districts, are a first-class cricket team based in central New Zealand. They are the men's representative side of the Central Districts Cricket Association. They compete in the Plunket Shield firs ...

was established and began playing some of its matches there. As of 2021, 55 men's first-class have been played on the ground, with the last match played in 2015. Central Districts men's and women's sides continue to use the ground in

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

and

Twenty20 cricket Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inning ...

competitions. The ground first hosted international cricket in 1982 when three

Women's One Day International Women's One Day International (WODI) is the limited overs form of women's cricket. Matches are scheduled for 50 overs, equivalent to the men's game. The first women's ODIs were played in 1973, as part of the first Women's World Cup which was ...

matches were played on the ground. A women's

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

was played on the ground in February 1992 and later in the same month a single men's international match, a

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

in the

1992 Cricket World Cup The 1992 Cricket World Cup (officially the Benson & Hedges World Cup 1992) was the fifth staging of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was held in Australia and New Zealand from 22 February to 25 Mar ...

, was played on the ground with

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

beating

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

in a high-scoring match by three wickets with four balls to spare. Zimbabwean

Andy Flower Andrew Flower (born 28 April 1968) is a Zimbabwean cricket coach and a former cricketer. As a cricketer, he captained the Zimbabwe national cricket team. He was Zimbabwe's wicket-keeper for more than 10 years and is, statistically, the greatest ...

scored a century during the match, making 115

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

. Three women's

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

matches were played on the ground between 2016 and 2018. Today the park can only host domestic fixtures because of the small boundaries and lack of international standard facilities.

Other sports and events

In August 2021, domestic rugby returned to the venue for the first time in 79 years when host

defeated

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

33–19 in the

National Provincial Championship The National Provincial Championship may refer to: * National Provincial Championship (1976–2005), original competition before reform into 14 sides * National Provincial Championship (2006–present) The National Provincial Championship, o ...

in a one-off match. Other Taranaki home matches will be played at

TET Stadium TET Stadium & Events Centre is a multi-purpose sports facility in Inglewood, New Zealand. It is one of the home grounds of the Taranaki Mitre 10 Cup side . The ground also plays host to local side Inglewood United F.C. and to the Inglewood & Ta ...

. On the eastern side of the park is New Plymouth Raceway, a horse racing course. Between the racetrack and the park is

TSB Stadium TSB Stadium is an indoor stadium located adjacent to Pukekura Park in New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand, with main vehicle access off Coronation Avenue. Events Events held at TSB Stadium include: * Basketball – Taranaki Mountainairs ( NZNBL ...

, a 4,500 seat multi-purpose indoor stadium which is home to the

Taranaki Mountainairs The Taranaki Airs are a New Zealand basketball team based in New Plymouth. The Airs compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at TSB Stadium. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as the Steelformers Airs. Te ...

basketball team of the New Zealand NBL. Near the southern end of the park is the Bowl of Brooklands amphitheatre, which commonly hosts music events. The annual

WOMAD WOMAD ( ; World of Music, Arts and Dance) is an international arts festival. The central aim of WOMAD is to celebrate the world's many forms of music, arts and dance. History WOMAD was founded in 1980 by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, ...

festival is held at Pukekura Park.

Serenity

Pukekura Park is also home to the popular Tea House on the Lake, which has been situated on the main lake since the 1930s. Pukekura Park is the venue for the annual Festival of Lights, which runs for free every year from mid-December to early February. It has daytime and night time programmes of events for people of all ages, and the festival itself transforms the park into an illuminated wonderland every evening. In 2007, Pukekura Park was the winner of the "Mayfair" spot in a nationwide competition for places on

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

's New Zealand edition of

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

References

External links

New Plymouth District Council website

Friends of Pukekura Park

Potted History of Pukekura Park
at the

Puke Ariki Puke Ariki is a combined museum and library at New Plymouth, New Zealand which opened in June 2003. It is an amalgamation of the New Plymouth Public Library (founded in 1848) and the Taranaki Museum (founded in 1919). Its name, Māori for "hill ...

website {{coord, 39, 3, 52, S, 174, 4, 46, E, display=title Protected areas of Taranaki New Plymouth Parks in New Zealand Sport in New Plymouth Cricket grounds in New Zealand Rugby union stadiums in New Zealand Sports venues in Taranaki 1992 Cricket World Cup stadiums Urban forests in New Zealand