A Day Out At Rocket Ropes
This activity is not for the faint of heart or, as it turns out, for the 40-something year old mum of three who is still recovering from a knee reconstruction.
All posts tagged: birthday
An Evening out at: Power Plant
After a quick safety briefing and yet another reassurance for the Tweenagers that despite the dark clouds surrounding us it was very unlikely we would all be wiped out by a rogue bolt of lightning, we headed down a dark and forboding forest path into the heart of the Domain.
Watch out Splore, here we come!
“One day”, I told Miss almost-12, “you’ll tell your friends how cool your parents were taking you to a music festival” to which she responded with the ultimate in tweenagese – the *sigh* *eyeroll* combo.
9 Reasons To Give Kids Experiences As Gifts
It’s about making time to spend with each other, doing something we’ll all enjoy, or something we would never have dreamed of doing otherwise – creating memories to share and stories to tell.
5 Tips for Giving the Gift of an Experience
Giving presence is about spending time and creating memories with the special people in your life.
Give the gift of: Tiritiri Matangi
My sister loves nothing more than a good bush walk which made choosing a birthday experience for her fairly easy – we are a bit spoilt for choice in our part of the world. Of all the experiences I’ve given as a gift this year, this one was the most rewarding for both the gift givers and the gift receiver. There’s nothing like two days on a bush clad island full of the most beautiful birdsong to reboot both the body and the mind. Where we went We went to Tiritiri Matangi – a bird sanctuary on an island just off the Whangaparoa Peninsula. You can take a ferry from Auckland CBD which takes about 75 minutes, or drive to Gulf Harbour (where there is plenty of free parking, and a drop-off zone makes it easy to get gear from your car to the ferry) and pick the ferry up there for a quick 20 minute ride across the water. What we did Most people visit Tiritiri Matangi on a day trip, but there is …
Give the gift of: 48 Hours in (Roto)Vegas
Keeping the kids entertained during school holidays is never easy, especially when you’re self-employed. Being dragged to meetings or having yet another ‘movie day’ while Mum gets her work done isn’t what my kids call fun, so rather than bribe them with toys I promised them an experience focused totally on stuff kids want to do. Where we went For this, Rotorua is perfect. There’s plenty to do and lots of fun to be had for kids and parents alike, even if the weather isn’t great. What we did We found a package at Quality Inn that offered two nights’ accommodation plus vouchers for the Gondola and Luge, Rainbow Springs and the Polynesian Spa all at a price that made a fun-packed weekend away very affordable. Normally I’d be disappointed that the definition of a ‘family’ is 2 adults and 2 kids – but with Miss 10 away at Horse Camp we fitted right into that box. How it went We checked into the hotel on Friday afternoon. The room was basic, but comfortable, with …
Giving the gift of: Social Cooking
In our busy lives the most precious thing we have is our time, which is why this year I’ve decided to #givepresence instead of presents to everyone I know – young and old. Choosing an experience for my best friend was easy – something we both love to do is eat good food. Taking her out for dinner would have been way too easy and predictable so instead I took her to a place where you get to learn, cook and then eat your own tasty creations. Where we went I chose Social Cooking as they were located not too far away and offered a range of different styles of cooking. Plus they do vouchers which makes it an easy – give the gift then sort out which class to go to later. What we did We booked into the Celebrity Chef series to learn to cook MasterChef Dai and Dal’s famous Pork Larb – one of the few dishes to ever get 10 out of 10 from the judges. Just a word of warning …
Giving the gift of: Skiing
For some reason my kids have ended up with a passion for hobbies that are both expensive and very much unsuited to inner city living. Miss 10’s passion for horseriding can be fulfilled any time of year, and summer was perfect timing for Mr 8’s Monster Slide birthday experience. Miss 8, however, has settled on skiing. Now I’m pretty good at organising most things, but skiing in the middle of summer is a little out of my league. Where we went Thankfully Snowplanet is only a 30 minute drive north of us. What’s more they aren’t terribly busy this time of year so it’s easy to pick up a ski pass deal on Grabone. What we did We snapped up some $15 all day ski passes. You had to buy passes for a specific day so we chose the Monday after Miss 8’s birthday. It meant everyone taking a day off, but that made it feel all the more special and – given we still had to pay for boots, skis and other bits and …
Giving the gift of: Monster Slide.
There’s nothing Mr 8 likes more than water play, so what better experience to buy him for his birthday than tickets to the Monster Slide Festival. What 8 year old boy wouldn’t want to spend the day riding a 300m slip and slide! Where we went The venue for the Auckland Monster Slide event was changed from a central location to Whitford – a good 40 minute drive away. Still, the venue change was well communicated and was made for safety reasons. Plus they moved it to a vineyard which sounded like a fabulous idea. What we did We bought a family pass which gave 2 adults and 3 children 6 slides over a 6 hour period. I didn’t opt to upgrade to the queue jumper pass – in hindsight it would have been money well spent. How it went We arrived at 10.45 ready for our 11am entry. There was plenty of parking and the vineyard setting looked magnificent. Opening was delayed due technical problems but by 11.30 we were registered and in the …
Polly Unsaturated 