2024 finally saw the return of Tagalad Reserve and its buildings to the Orakei Local Board’s governance.  Over the ensuing months some upgrading work was undertaken by Auckland Council on the main hall (kitchen upgrade, toilets upgrade, curtains, painting, etc) to prepare it for community use.

The departure of the Mission Bay Bowling, some ten years ago, also left the facilities on this reserve nameless.  After considering many new name suggestions, it was decided that the facilities on this reserve would be called “The Green, Mission Bay.”  It was felt this name reflected the community’s most popular reason/purpose for retrieving this property, and it was also a nod to the reserve’s past use and history.
In May 2025 the main hall and green space was opened for community use and it can be booked by community members.  The main hall has proved to be a very suitable venue for community events, family events, meetings, and activities.  Whilst the green space still resembles the two bowling greens, they have been used for children’s parties and outdoor activities. 

The focus for 2025 has been to assess all the community feedback the MBKRA has received over the past six years from meetings, surveys, and open days.  From your feedback we have now crafted a draft development plan to upgrade all the buildings and the green space so that all ages within our community can use and enjoy these facilities.   On 18th September 2025 the MBKRA formally submitted this draft plan to the Orakei Local Board for their consideration.  Currently this draft plan is with Auckland Council for their assessment, costing and feedback.  Recent Council elections and the advent of Christmas have slowed the Council’s response, but we are hopeful of their feedback in January 2026. 

​In the meantime, if you need a venue for a family or group function, a community activity, or a sheltered outdoor space, then do not hesitate to book some time at The Green – this is now the community’s place to use and enjoy.

​To all those community members who supported us in advocating for Tagalad Reserve (the old Mission Bay Bowling Club) to be returned to the community, we have good news to report at last.  It has been a very long battle, but it now looks like Tagalad Reserve will once again become a ‘usable’ public recreational asset.
 
Auckland Council’s long-awaited assessment report was finally presented to the Orakei Local Board (OLB) meeting on 21 March 2024, and it recommended Tagalad Reserve could be returned to OLB management for community use.  There are still a few lower hurdles to jump in the transfer process from Panuku to the OLB, but there is the expectation that this asset will be returned within a few weeks/months.
 
The report also mentioned that Healthy Waters (Auckland Council’s Stormwater Management Department) are working on a flooding/stormwater catchment assessment for the larger area, and want to review if Tagalad Reserve is needed for future stormwater development.  To aid this, no plans for the site beyond the next three years should be made until the stormwater catchment assessment work has been completed.  This, however, should not preclude the use of the buildings on this site once they have been upgraded and certified fit for public use.  Healthy Waters advised they do not support redevelopment of Tagalad Reserve due to its location in a flood plain.  This should ensure this reserve remains a green space long term to help mitigate flooding in the area.
 
The MBKRA would like to extend our very sincere thanks to the members of the OLB for their unwavering support and huge effort, over the past five years, to have Tagalad Reserve returned to their governance.  While this is not a ‘done deal’ as yet, we certainly acknowledge the process to date would never have advanced to the extent is has without the OLB’s involvement and perseverance.
 

One year on from our open day on Tagalad Reserve, this facility remains locked up and unable to be used by our community.  Please rest assured the MBKRA has not gone to sleep on this issue.  For this asset to be made available for our community and public use, it needs to be transferred back from Panuku to Orakei Local Board (OLB) governance.  The OLB have been working hard to make this happen, but to date have not been successful.  As there is currently pressure on Auckland Council to realise assets to meet fiscal shortfalls, we are keeping a keen eye on this property to ensure it is not included in asset sales.  Substantial community feedback has been received and collated on this property and this can been seen in the report on this page entitled Tagalad Reserve July 2022.

We also discovered earlier this year that vandals had broken into this property causing damage to the gates/fencing, damage to the walls of the smaller building and they removed a sizeable quantity of timber seating from the grounds.  This damage was very promptly repaired by Auckland Council and the security restored.

The Open Day on Saturday 14 May was a great success, with around 350 people attending, virtually all of whom felt strongly that the reserve should be retained. For reference, this is around 10% of the population of Mission Bay, so a substantial turnout.
Many people had great ideas about how the land and buildings could be used to benefit the community. We are still collating these, and will look to see how they can be incorporated into our proposal to the Council.
As a bonus, the coffee from the coffee truck, and the donuts from another stall were really good, adding to the success of the day.

We are holding an open day to allow the community in to the reserve to see for themselves what we have here. This facility has been locked up for more than 7 years, but we hope to change that soon. We want to turn it into a valuable community asset, and we are looking for ideas from you.

We will lay out some ideas for how this reserve and the buildings could be used, and we will provide opportunity for you to suggest what you would like to see here. To round out the experience, we will have mobile coffee , icecream and donut vendors, and have organised kids activities such as face painting, and activities.

​This land WILL be sold if we are not able to demonstrate to Council that the community wants to retain it and that we have a viable use for it. So it is really important that we get a lot of people along to show their support. We hope to capture this with an aerial photo taken from a drone of a huge crowd of supporters at 2pm, so please plan on being there for that.

There are 2 entrances: either from 9 Tagalad Road, or between 6 and 8 Nihill Crescent.

Organised by Mission Bay Kohimarama Residents Association with the support of Orakei Local Board

In order to keep Tagalad Reserve as a public ammenity, we need to clearly demonstrate to Auckland Council that the community is strongly opposed to selling the asset, and that they support our alternative plan. To help with this we have:

• launched an online petition to keep Tagalad Reserve as a community asset.  You can sign the petition here.
• set up a short survey to find out what people in the local community would like to use the reserve and the buildings for. You can take the survey here.

Please go to both these sites and help save Tagalad Reserve.

We are holding a public meeting to provide an update to everyone on our proposal, and the process we are going through with the Council. We will also be providing an update on the Proposed 8 storey development in Mission Bay which is going to the Environment Court next week.
​
7pm Tuesday 18 May
Selwyn College Theatre

We hope to see you there.

On 18 March Wanda Mountfort and Don Stock from the Residents Association met with David Barker and ​Jacqui Thompson Fell from Auckland Council's Parks and Places to discuss how to progress our proposal. They were very receptive to our ideas, although did raise a few concerns. They will be meeting with the Orakei Local Board in a workshop to clarify their position. We should hear back by early May. After that, we should have a much clearer idea of how we need to proceed to make this happen.

​We are planning a public meeting to update the community on this project on 18 May. Details including the venue and time will be advised later.

We were finally able to visit the property and check out the buildings. Despite having been told that the buildings were in poor condition and would need a large budget to bring back up to standard, we actually found them to be in almost perfect condition. The main building was, of course, very dusty after being unoccupied for so long, but apart from some issues with window frame paint seemed to be in excellent condition. Other buildings needed minor repairs such as new spouting, but likewise appeared to be in good shape.

We believe that the main building could be put to good use as a community meeting space almost immediately. Some upgrades would be required to get a building warrant of fitness before it could be rented out, but these are likely minimal, things like signage, fire alarms and extinguishers.

We now need to get the Council Parks and reserves team to get on board and determine what they think is required before the space could be used, and get it priced. Then we will help the Orakei Local Board put together a business case for the facility including how it could be funded.

​We continue to work on this, but it has been a slow and frustrating process so far, and no doubt will continue to be frustrating in the future.