Western Park tree falls across Ponsonby playground in Auckland
A large tree has come crashing down at a playground in central Auckland.
Photos from the playground at Western Park in Ponsonby show the large tree snapped at its base and spread across the ground behind the twin-tunnel racing slide.
The tree came down just after 2pm on Tuesday, according to a man who sent photos to the Herald.
Cameron Cruise, who lives nearby, told the Herald he was relaxing at home with his flatmate when he heard “a loud bang, crack, thunder, kapow and the house started shaking a little bit”.
Investigating the noise, he discovered a “huge tree had fallen and actually landed in the playground in Western Park and taken down part of another big tree”.
“There was debris everywhere, branches scattered. A bench was actually hit by the tree as well, but luckily there were no kids or anyone,” Cruise said.
Cruise noted the nearby Auckland Girls’ Grammar and a creche and Freemans Bay Kindergarten on the other side of Western Park.
He understood kids from the nearby preschool often used the playground.
“I’d say, given another half-hour, 45 minutes, there’s probably a good chance there would have been kids there.”
Another resident described the sound of the falling tree as “phenomenal”.
“Trees are always falling down around here. I really wonder how much notice the council is taking of the state of the trees,” Frans Nieuwdorp said.
“They’re really, really old trees ... they don’t look that healthy ... the council does come in here, they do lots of pruning in here. They seem to be on to it, but some of these trees just look knackered.”
Auckland Council’s Urban Forest, Arboriculture and Ecology manager David Stejskal said the large cypress tree came down near the playground and flying fox.
“The report from site is that the playground was not impacted, and no injuries have been reported.
“Our arboriculture contractor is on site, with a council arborist on the way to assess the fallen tree and a neighbouring tōtara.”
Fire and Emergency New Zealand could not immediately be contacted.