Fairy Park, Anakie

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.