A water wall – crafted to encourage community participation during Invercargill City Council’s Annual Plan 2025/2026 consultation – has officially settled into its new home.
After the Invercargill City Youth Council ran a city-wide social media giveaway, Blue Duck Early Learning Centre Waihōpai was selected as the lucky winner, racking up an impressive 291 votes.
Room Leader – Pihi Sam Leonard said Blue Duck Early Learning Centre Waihōpai provided early childcare for about 90 children, aged from a few months old all the way up to five-year-olds.
The water wall would be shared across various classrooms in the centre, she said.
“We are really excited to encourage the tamariki to come out and have a play, have a tākaro, with it. Everybody’s going to have a great time with it,” she said.
Staff and whānau at the centre had really gotten involved in supporting the giveaway, and Blue Duck’s bid to win, she said.
“Everybody has been so excited about it, and it’s going to be a wonderful resource to help support the children’s learning,” she said.
“It’s amazing how such a simple thing can help build and refine all sorts of things, from their fine motor skills – tipping and pouring – through to supporting exploration through play, maths, encouraging tuākana-teina relationships where our older ones help to support younger tamariki. It also creates these conversations between all of the children. There are so many things a resource like this will encourage, and we’re so grateful to have it here.”
At the official handover, Parks staff led the tamariki at Blue Duck in a mihi whakatau – including karakia and waiata – before Youth Council representatives representatives Ella Rohan and Keira Reece gifted the water wall to its new owners.
The water wall was made by a member of Council’s Parks team, carpenter Christian Anthony, who told children and staff that he hoped they enjoyed the new addition to their playground.
Despite some wet and wild weather on the day, the little ones at Blue Duck were extremely eager to test it out.
“I’m really happy to see all of them playing with it,” he said. “When I made it, I never thought so many children would get to use it. I’m glad they don’t even care about the rain.”
Youth Councillor Keira Reece said the water wall had proven especially popular with tamariki during the consultation period, which closed in April.
“Our Invercargill City Youth Councillors really enjoyed seeing young children, and their families, interact with the water wall. It was a fantastic asset to help us kick-start the dialogue with our community during the Annual Plan consultation, and encourage people to think about the city they envisaged both for themselves and for future generations. The Youth Council was given the opportunity to decide what to do with the water wall, and members agreed to give it away to one lucky early childhood provider to ensure the fun continued. We really hope they enjoy it,” she said.
