Anderson Park, 515 Kennedy Rd, Greenmeadows, Napier, 4112
Type of Course – Two big laps, one small lap
Shoes Required – Road
Things to know
A toilet block is close to the car park at corner Auckland Rd and Kennedy Rd, a children’s playground and skate park is in the same vicinity. Two further car parks are along Kennedy Rd and some roadside parking is available too. There is also a barbecue area.
Parking is free and there is space for motorhome parking.
Permanently marked
Low risk of cancellation
Cafe: Cafe Florian, in Greenmeadows New World supermarket.
Location of start:
The event starts near the skate park.
Getting there by public transport
There is no public transport available for this parkrun.
Getting there on foot
Starting at the Napier supermarkets follow Kennedy Rd towards Taradale for approximately 5.5km. Starting at McDonald’s Taradale follow Gloucester St towards Napier for approximately 2km.
Getting there by road
From the north: Follow State Highway 2 to the Napier Inner City exit. Turn right onto Kennedy Rd.
From Hastings: Follow State Highway 2, using the Napier inner city exit, turning left into Kennedy Rd.
From the city centre: Follow Kennedy Rd to Anderson Park.
The car park at the corner Auckland Rd/Kennedy Rd is the closest car park to the finish line.
Stats
First run: May 28, 2016
Inaugural attendance: 97
Record attendance: 161 (15/02/2020)
Course records
Women: Hannah Oldroyd 17:57 (24/02/2018)
Men: Chris Sanson 15:26 (05/01/2019)
The story behind Anderson parkrun…
Louise Shambrook, member of the founding team
My husband Philip sold the concept of parkrun to me.
He was in Bendigo studying for his Ph.D and parkrun launched there around the same time he arrived – July 2015.
He came home in the December and organised a meeting at Bay Espresso, Karamu Rd, inviting about 10 people who he thought might be interested in starting a parkrun in Hawkes Bay.
We’d first become aware of parkrun at a Regional Sports Organisers’ conference in Hawke’s Bay in 2013. We were busy running the Hawke’s Bay Trail Series and the Kaweka Mountain Marathon that we had recently developed and launched.
At that meeting Nneka Okonta had mentioned that she was looking to start a parkrun in Hawke’s Bay and was looking for support. We didn’t have any free time then but thought it would be a great opportunity to provide a good community event.
Roll on to late 2015 and this first meeting. There were 10 people there and they included existing parkrunners from England and Wellington, who now lived in the Bay, plus runners from various groups we knew, a gym owner keen to promote fitness and people Philip thought might have an interest in the project.
Everyone was enthusiastic about starting parkrun and so Philip returned to his Ph.D studies in Australia, leaving the group to run with the project.
Between us we put together the official parkrun paperwork, talked to the council for permission to use the chosen park and committed to volunteering in the first six weeks.
Early discussions resulted in deciding to try to hold the parkrun nearer Napier, thinking there was a large target population, including it being a popular tourist centre. It was a knock-out process to choose the location and after several rounds of voting Anderson Park was the winner.
Then started the negotiations and discussions with Napier City Council. It was a painful process, with little progress for weeks. It seemed that the junior or middle managers either could not grasp the parkrun concept, or were just unsupportive. Weeks passed and numerous meetings. It was looking unlikely that we were going to get council agreement. It was all very frustrating.
At long last we got to talk with a more senior manager at the council – they seemed to immediately “get it”, saying a group of volunteers want to hold weekly, free events, for the benefit of the community at no cost to and with no input from council – why wouldn’t we approve it – or words to that effect. At last! So Anderson parkrun launched 28 May 2016 – effectively almost six months later.
Anderson parkrun has recently celebrated its 4th anniversary and has a strong, enthusiastic contingent of parkrunners every week.
My first parkrun was in March 2016 at Bendigo, when I visited Philip over there. So, despite being one of the founders of both Anderson and Flaxmere parkruns, my debut was over in Australia about three months before Anderson was launched.
While in Napier…
Art Deco tours
National Aquarium of New Zealand
Ōtātara Pā Historic Reserve
Self-guided tour of the Sea Walls
Te Mata Peak
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