Albany Lakes

I’ve always found the Albany Lakes to be a slightly surreal place. In fact Albany in general is surreal. Everything is spaced out over the land so you can’t walk from place to place, and it’s got these bloody massive traffic sewer roads and roundabouts that make it impossible to walk around without being taken out by some manus driving at 70… And then there’s this lovely park with lakes in the middle. It’s like the town planners went «shit, you know we’ve forgotten about people in our quest to faciliate mass traffic movement», so they threw this in.
It’s not an urban park at all in that it’s kind of disconnected from everything else in Albany, but once you’re in it’s rather lovely. There’s a nice boardwalk crossing the lakes that oddly reminds me of Pukekura Park in New Plymouth without all the trees. You can walk around the lakes. There are little decks to sunbathe on, and spots where you can stick your feet in the water — serenity in autopia. Also it’s a pretty sweet place for events. I remember constantly being here for the Rugby World Cup when they had live music and big screen showing the games — good times.
Now we just need the rest of Albany to develop like a proper town (i.e. not a series of widely spaced big boxes) and this park will fit nicely. Right now it kinda feels like a pleasant exception to the rule.

When you’re inside the busy Albany Mall, milling through the gaps of the hundreds of other people rushing around the shops, you can’t really imagine that right outside is a small patch of serene paradise. The Albany Lakes (I think it may be called Civic Park) are beautiful. In my opinion it’s exactly what you need after a stressful morning of shopping. There’s a bridge that extends over the middle of the lake and a small, soft flowing river that cuts through the grass. I’ve come here a couple of times on an average summer day to sit and enjoy the sunlight or take a wonder with my family. I’ve also been a few times when big events have been held here. This is definitely a highlight. Every once in a while there will be an event like the «The lakeside affair» which I remember vividly from 2010 or a spectacular fireworks display. At the end of last year I perched myself on the balcony outside Mama Loco to see Titanium perform on the make shift stage that was set up in front of the lakes. (My goodness I didn’t know so many screaming teenagers existed.) The fireworks display on this night was AMAZING. I think I could say it was the best I’ve ever seen… and I’ve been to the Rhythm and Vines festival four times! Such a fantastic night. I always make an effort to go along when there’s something happening here!