Norman Kirk Park is a recreational space on the east side of Kaiapoi which is a town in the Waimakariri District of Canterbury, New Zealand.

[10] The majority of preexisting trees remained along with unmaintained infrastructure including earthquake-damaged roads and disconnected streetlights making the land an involuntary park until October 2018.

Canvas asked locals for ideas about how the Crown could convert the residential red zone land within the Waimakariri District into public recreational, environmental, and cultural facilities.

[15] The next major development in the genesis of Norman Kirk Park took place on 15 June 2018 when the Crown officially returned the Waimakariri District residential red zone to local control by selling the land to the Waimakariri District Council for $1 and an agreement that any future profits from the land must be shared with the Crown.

[4] Old roads and other infrastructure were removed from the further Norman Kirk Park site in October 2018 and construction began for the creation of the sports fields and Beswick stormwater area.

[18] On 9 November 2019 the Waimakariri District Council was announced to be the overall winner in the 2019 Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP) Awards for the body of work that went into producing the ‘Draft Reserves Master Plan: Kaiapoi Regeneration Areas’ document and similar work addressing the nearby The Pines Beach and Kairaki residential red zones.

[20] As of 11 April 2021, Google Street View shows how the land that became Norman Kirk Park appeared in August 2012 when the area was still an earthquake-damaged residential neighbourhood earmarked for demolition.