Porritt Park Playground

Right in the heart of Thames, this one catches a lot of people off guard — you don’t expect a playground this good in a town this size. The upgrade they did here was seriously worth it, because the equipment is genuinely solid and the kind of stuff kids aged 4 to 12 actually want to spend time on. You’ll see them bouncing between different areas rather than circling back to the same thing every five minutes. Locals know about it, but visitors stumble across it and end up staying way longer than planned. If you’re passing through the Waikato and have kids in tow, don’t skip this one.