Elephant Park tells the story of Elly the elephant who is feeling a bit tired and run down.
A little boy invites her home for the weekend and, with his dad's help, Elly receives a makeover and a new lease on life.
Author Melanie Koster was inspired by the way renowned writer Margaret Mahy often blurred the line between fact and fiction in her books.
"My early childhood was spent on the West Coast but when we came over to visit family in Christchurch, my sister and I would meet our cousins at Bishopdale Park and spend hours playing on the elephant slide.
"When we moved to Christchurch, I was delighted our new home was a quick bike ride from both the Bishopdale Library and 'Elephant Park' as we called it.
"Having spent many happy hours playing on the slide as a child, I had fun imagining what this inanimate object might do or say if it had a voice," Koster said.
Thus Elephant Park came about, and 21 months from the first germ of an idea the finished book, illustrated by Jenny Cooper, was published with Scholastic NZ.
It wasn’t until after publication that Melanie discovered the origin of the famous slide - it was the brainchild of Alida Pickard, who had come second in a local schools’ competition.
"Bishopdale was a new subdivision back then, so they were developing a sports ground and a playground.
"There was a competition for children in the area to submit ideas for what they wanted, and as I have a passion for elephants, I decided to make a paper mâché elephant with the idea of it being a slide or for climbing on.
"I was delighted when they picked my elephant as second place. I received a Canterbury Savings Bank Account with $5 as my prize - plus my elephant got built, with a slide going up and over top of her. I was very proud.
"I watched her being built and loved that she sat at the front of the park where we could see her every time we drove past. Over the years my son and then my grandchildren have played on her plus many of my friends and their children and grandchildren." Pickard said.
Thousands of children have whizzed down the slide in the 50 years since it was built in 1974.
