2 minute read
Family Friendly Outing: Central Energy Trust Wildbase Recovery
By Natasha Napier
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You’re a first-time parent, baby is under a year old, you’re on parental leave, and you need to get out of the house! Where do you go? It can feel like a daunting decision. Palmy has so many great places and playgrounds suited for toddlers and above, but for infants it can feel like the supermarket is the only place to go to entertain them. Enter Central Energy Trust Wildbase Recovery. We jumped in the car and headed to the Esplanade, parking right outside the café. A few minutes later, with a delicious coffee in hand and baby in the carrier we wandered into Wildbase Recovery. Wildbase Recovery has both resident animals and patients, as well as a dedicated learning space. Entering the centre, you meet the resident animals first, including a free flight aviary. Baby was fascinated with the different sounds, smells, and sights all around. We spent time showing her where the sounds were coming from and letting her take in the space. The next area is where patients are kept. Not a lot for baby to see here as you need to carefully look through the camouflaged windows to see them, but it was great for us parents to learn about who was there and have a chat with one of the staff members to learn more about the patients and how they care for them. Next was the learning space, and as soon as you walk in the door you see tamariki (children) flying around all over the place with little gadgets, finding “tagged birds”. This is set up specifically to help kids learn about our native ngā manu (birds) and the role that everyone plays in taking care of our whenua (land). Exiting the centre we hung a left and checked out the arboretum. As we walked through, we slowly took baby through the different smells and textures of the plants. She really enjoyed the sound of the fishpond at the far end and was looking up at all the different shapes and lights from the canopy of the arboretum. The Esplanade is one of a few special spaces in the Manawatu. Yes, you may read this and think it’s cliche, “Everyone goes to the Esplanade ‘’ and you are probably right. But there’s a reason for that, and it extends beyond the playground and the train. The Wildbase Recovery centre in the heart of the Esplanade is one of those reasons, which as a family we adored and will continue to visit as our family grows and our tamariki are able to learn more and different things there. 8/10 would recommend again.
