Numat designed, supplied and installed a custom poured rubber surface around Te Moutere Tuatara Island, the tuatara enclosure in the Animal Reserve at Queens Park, Invercargill. The work replaced the gravel path that led visitors up to the glass viewing wall.
A gravel path looks tidy on opening day, then ruts, scatters and washes down to dust. It is hard going for a wheelchair or a pram, and in Southland weather it stays wet for days. Invercargill City Council wanted a surface everyone could use in any season, and one that did more than carry people to the glass.
Numat poured that surface as one continuous piece, in muted natural tones chosen to sit quietly with the planting and the enclosure. Set into it are a custom tuatara, a trail of footprints, and a 3D tuatara sculpted by our rubber artisans, so the story of the living tuatara behind the glass carries on underfoot.
Project facts:
Client: Invercargill City Council
Location: Animal Reserve, Queens Park, Invercargill
Surface: 186 m2 of Pour’n’Play
Build: 15 mm TPV top layer over a 10 mm poured rubber shockpad
Design: custom 2D tuatara and footprint motifs, plus a custom 3D tuatara
Scope: surface design, supply, installation and site clearance
Photo Gallery – Before & After
Animal Reserve, Queens Park, Invercargill
Carrying the tuatara story onto the ground
The Council wanted the experience of viewing the live tuatara to reach beyond the glass. Numat’s design team built the concept around that idea: a 2D tuatara and a trail of footprints set into the surface, drawing the eye toward the enclosure. The colours stay muted and natural throughout, so the design reads as part of the landscape rather than against it.
The centrepiece is a 3D tuatara, custom made for this site by Numat’s rubber artisans. Hand sculpted in rubber, it gives visitors, and tamariki in particular, something to find, touch and remember on the way to meet the real thing.
Pour’n’Play is poured in place as one continuous piece, with a Rosehill TPV granule top layer over a recycled rubber shockpad. No joins and no loose fill means no lips to lift and no trip hazards, so the surface is wheelchair and pram friendly from the car park to the glass.
TPV also holds its colour where coated SBR and EPDM fade and chalk under New Zealand UV. Colour consistency that lasts is what keeps those muted natural tones true season after season, rather than greying off within a few years.
The surface is fully porous and free draining, so it sheds Southland rain and stays usable in and after a downpour. Open in any weather matters for a year round attraction this far south.
If you are planning a surface for a public, cultural or play space, send the Numat team your site details and we will help you specify the right one.
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