Things to Do with Kids by Area

What each area actually has

Counted from this site’s own listings. The differences are larger than most people expect, and they decide what a wet Saturday looks like where you live.

Indoor counts places that are indoors or have a substantial indoor part. Pram-friendly means a pram gets to the part you actually came for, not just the entrance.

Reading the table

• • Central has the indoor options — thirteen of them, more than twice any other area — and almost everything there takes a pram. The gap is water: the council pool we list in the central city, Parnell Baths, is outdoor and seasonal, so a wet Saturday swim means driving.
• • North Shore has the most beaches, and about as many cafés as the city centre. The east-facing coast from Devonport to Orewa is the sheltered side, and it is the only area where you can plan a beach morning and a café lunch without crossing the harbour.
• • East is the thinnest indoors — one place. Its beaches are the calm kind, which makes it good with small children on a fine day and awkward on a wet one.
• • West has the fewest pram-friendly places, and that is the terrain rather than an oversight: its best places are bush tracks and surf beaches. Our listings put a minimum age of five on the three west-coast surf beaches.
• • South has no beaches on this site at all. What it does have is parks and two indoor council pools, which is why it holds up better in winter than the beach areas do.