A couple of weekends ago we got to play tour guides for The Thinker’s brother and his family when they came to stay for a few days. They live overseas and haven’t been in our neck of the woods for around 10 years.
The choice for the boys was easy – off to the footy. For the girls, I thought long and hard. The kids’ ages ranged from 2 – 8 and I wanted something that everyone would enjoy (mum’s included). In the end I decided on a trip out to Anakie’s Fairy Park.
Fairy Park is marketed as “Australia’s First Theme Park”, although it hardly compares with what’s on offer in the theme park category these days.
But … it has fairytales and castles and toadstools in the garden and lots of nooks and crannies. And it has the most wonderful playground built in and around a miniature Camelot. Perfect for little girls (and boys) to explore
The main part of the park is built on top of a hill (a very windy hill) and houses little scenes from fairytales with mechanical characters. A paved path leads up and around the hill through a little village that kids just love to explore.
The technology in the displays is quite dated, but they are all quite well maintained and the grounds are immaculate.
The kids loved dashing between displays, racing to press the buttons that start the narratives and make the characters move. Their favourite part was the playground. The walls of the “castle” are full of tunnels and holes to peep through.
The girls loved zooming down the loooong slide. They clambered over the mystical dragons and snails. They even got chained up in the stocks for good measure.
Finally the cold wind became to much for us mums and we hauled everyone into the car. The kids, on the other hand, could have explored all day.
We took our girls when they were just four and they have been demanding to go back ever since! I seems the lack of technology and the ‘so kitsch it’s cool’ factor is a winner with my girls!
My girls have been nagging to go back too. You’re right – the kids don’t care about the tech. Their eyes were too busy popping out of their heads at the sight of castles to worry about anything else 🙂
I took my kids Jules and Nick and since then they kept bragging me