Gold Coast or Numpty Land?

Our lovely neighbours have just returned from a week on the Gold Coast. Cliched or proven? Here are the pros and cons from their perspective:

• Sea World Resort - worth staying there, but insist on a toaster in your room before arriving ... or there's no way to cook your toast ... (whoever heard of a kitchenette without a toaster???)
• Be prepared to spend a lot of money. You may be staying at the Sea World resort, but expect to pay for Sea World regardless. Ice cream sellers had fists full of $50 notes.
• But at least when you spend a lot of it at Sea World, you know that they are using some of the money for animal rescue activities.
• Be prepared to queue a lot.
• You can't take your own food into the parks. This feels like a basic human rights infringement to me ... but is apparently true. Once you enter a park, you are sentenced to a day without food fit for human beings. (Although our neighbours did find healthy options in all parks visited.)
• If you take a teenager and a preschooler, you can expect to have to split up to service their different expectations.

I'm personally thinking that camping in the Deua is looking pretty attractive!

October Holidays: Jack and Ella's Top 5

1. A day on the farm and horse riding at Poplar Corner - even if it was snowing!
2. Up!
3. Zoocation - especially feeding the lions with tongs!
4. The man with the snake, lizards, but best of all CROCODILE at Jenny Wren Child Care.
5. Cockington Green

Yes, it's true, they were spoilt these holidays. I'm normally a big believer in kids needing to spend a lot of time bored and learning to entertain themselves ... but, with father away and mother having to work, a lot was turned on for them this time. At least they were heard to say things like "can't believe how many lovely things we're doing these holidays" ... which suggests they appreciated it all.

Kidaddle Camping to Deua

We are planning our first real family camping trip and we know where we're going: Deua National Park but specifically the Berlang campground. If memory serves me correctly, and it's been 13 years since I've been there, the campground is pleasant - two skips from a creek worth paddling in, and an easy walk away from "The Big Hole" where one might see a lyrebird at play. I've not visited Marble Arch so we might even take on the longer stroll.

The kids are thrilled at the thought and have two demands: that we sleep in real tents and have a real fire. Well the first is a dead cert with no more sophisticated equipment to our credit and for the second, if we go now - in Spring - we hopefully won't face a fire ban.

Kidaddle to Floriade and the Tulip Farm

Floriade is a more a fixture than an event in Canberra now and it is a thoroughly enjoyable kid-friendly outing but I did regret the absence this year of the sandcastle sculptures featured last year.

(The flowers are lovely but I have a secret confession: the shops are great too. )

Next year I am definitely going to check out the night markets. Too small children (for staying up late) and husband's absence have prevented enjoyment of this element of the festival up until now, but I am determined to get to it soon.

The fabulously complimentary Tulip Tops farm just North of Eaglehawk on the Federal Highway is a must for anyone who likes Floriade. One of the great things about Tulip Tops is the way you can view the flowers from above and better take in the vista. Floriade would also benefit from viewing platforms. I have puzzled over Floriade themes that would be more obvious if the viewer were able to look down or even across the beds.

Completely incidentally, Tulip Tops does Dutch pancakes, good cake and free sausage sandwiches in the tent at the bottom of the garden.

Both sites are worth the visit and we go to both year after year. (Oh and by the way - it's not compulsory to wear a floral dress and have your picture taken. It's enough to wander aimlessly.)

Kidaddle to Sydney

Tania's again got it covered - this time Sydney with a special focus on lollies.

Kidaddling about in Melbourne in October

The Planning Queen has very helpfully summarised all that's good with kids in Melbourne this October. And there's more than a few things to learn from her about marshalling a decent family life too!

Kidaddle like Tania

Worth checking out the travel with kids section of author Tania McCartney's blog. Her Tasmania Adventure series is a great read with lots of pictures for those of us wanting plenty of ideas, but she also covers Sydney, the Great Ocean Road, beautiful Bungendore, Japan and China and profiles things to do with the kids to get the most out of the experience (her blog/s on Memory Books).