7 family activities in Queenstown that won’t break the bank
If throwing yourself head first into canyons doesn’t suit you or your bank account, don’t worry. There’s still plenty to do in Queenstown.
If throwing yourself head first into canyons doesn’t suit you or your bank account, don’t worry. There’s still plenty to do in Queenstown.
Organise the entire trip to suit yourself. It doesn’t matter what you plan or how much fun you think it’s going to be for them, it’ll suck. You’ll suck.
Now, my kids are fairly experienced travellers. They’ve packed for camps, weekends away, ski trips and trips around the world. So I thought I’d give them a go at packing their own daypacks for Splore. What could possibly go wrong.
“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.
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.
Having all of my kids birthdays in the same month makes it so much easier to give them all the gift of an experience by planning a fun family weekend away. So we chose Christchurch, which for Miss almost-11 meant the chance to turn her Sunday morning TV into reality by being in the What Now studio audience. What we did We travelled to Christchurch on Airpoints, booked a cheap motel and signed the kids up to be part of the What Now studio audience. To do this, simply fill in their online form with the date you want, and they’ll get back to you to confirm your place. And better still, it doesn’t cost a thing! How it went Having to be at the studio at 7am makes for a pretty early start, even though we were staying very close by. And if you don’t know your way around town, the studio can be a bit hard to find, especially in the dark. But we arrived early enough to follow other people to our …
You really are spoiled for choice when it comes to wildlife adventures in Dunedin, however we chose to visit the Royal Albatross Centre because it’s the only place in the world where you can see these amazing birds from the mainland. What we did We made a booking and, as we had a rental car, we drove ourselves out there. Getting there without a car would be tricky. It’s a 32km drive from the city, and a 3.5km walk from the nearest bus stop on the peninsula. We booked on the tour and while it was quite expensive at $100 for a family of five, all proceeds go to maintaining wildlife on the peninsula so it is for a good cause. How it went We arrived in time for our session, but of course the kids took one look at the café and decided they were starving and could no longer go on without being fed instantly. Our tour time was easily rescheduled and so we sat down to a leisurely lunch before meeting the …
A couple of weeks of a simpler life are good for the soul – yet so many people make camping so much harder than it needs to be.