Go-Zone Wairarapa will likely open later this week after engineers checked off its Building Code alterations on Friday.
The engineer’s report has been submitted to Carterton District Council [CDC], which now must sign it off for the business to open with full consent.
The adventure playground in Waingawa has been hugely popular in its first six weeks of operations, but it closed last Monday so owners Joe and Amanda Mitchell could bring it up to building code compliance.
The playground structure was first installed in March, but in June, engineers contracted by CDC said it needed additional bracing to prevent lateral [sideways] movement when children played at the top.
Last Monday, the Mitchells installed diagonal steel bracing and sent detailed pictures to the engineering consultants.
Amanda said the engineers sent through their report on Friday, checking off the alterations, and said now it just needs a final sign-off from CDC.
“We sent them pictures of all the work; they were able to make a judgement based on those, seeing we had installed the bracing where we were supposed to.”
“It was such a relief when the engineer’s report came through.
“When that paper comes from CDC, hopefully later this week, we’ll finally have that weight off our shoulders,” she said.
Amanda said she and Joe planned to hold a grand opening to celebrate once the full consent came through.
“It’s going to be very different from when we opened [in July],” she said.
“Even when we made the tough call to open without the council’s blessing, Joe and I have never felt like it was a real opening. It was out of necessity.”
Amanda said she was not entirely sure how the grand opening would look but said she and Joe intended to set a date after CDC signs off the consent and to have the playground blessed by local iwi.
“Now that all the work is done, its easier to just catch our breath and go from there; we can just think about running our business,” she said.
“We’ve had so many messages of support; from people we know and from strangers; we feel really supported by the community.”
