Where the rainbow ends
The opening of Rainbow’s End Adventure Park at Manukau City Centre, 1982.
Bruce Ringer
For many people, particularly youngsters, Rainbow’s End, represents Manukau City Centre, conveniently sited as it is on Wiri Station Road near the motorway exit. But just how long has it actually been there? Rainbow’s End celebrated its official twenty-fifth anniversary in December 2007.
The first stage of the Rainbow’s End Adventure Park was opened on 17 December 1982. There had been another entertainment venture on the site previously, the legendary but short-lived ‘Skatopia’ multi-level skateboarding complex, but Rainbow’s End was aimed at a wider market.
The new roller coaster at Rainbow’s End, 1986. (Photographer, Gwen Anderson. Manukau Research Library, ‘Manukau Yesterday’, photo album, ALB: I, p. 5)
View large image (785KB)
The initial attractions included mini golf, racing cars, bumper boats, and an indoor stadium with a wide range of video and electronic games. On Good Friday 28 March 1986 the $5 million roller coaster ride was also opened. It was officially baptised 100,000 rides later, on 18 April, when Prime Minister David Lange squeezed into the front seat of one of the cars. (He went around twice and came back for more on a private visit the following day.)
David Lange at Rainbow's End, 18 April 1986. (Fairfax Media)
View large image
It wasn’t all gold at the end of the rainbow. Prior to the opening of the park, no thought had been put into noise control, and in the first few months complaints from neighbouring residential areas were fast and furious. In 1989, in fallout from the share market crash, the then owner Argus Questar declared bankruptcy. Three years later the amusement park emerged from insolvency with a new owner and new hours, but all the old attractions.
In August 2001 the 18-storey ‘Fear Fall’ was installed. This was and is, perhaps symbolically, the tallest structure in Manukau City.
For more information: see 
Manukau’s Journey.
Publication record: first published in Connexions, no. 93 December, 2007, p. 10. Revised and updated for publication on the Manukau Libraries website in September 2009.
Copyright © Manukau Libraries. This text may be freely used for the purposes of private study or research and for non-commercial publication provided that the author and Manukau Libraries are duly acknowledged.
back to top