5 Indoor Activities for Kids
As the weather gets colder and wetter, we’re spending a lot more time indoors. Fortunately, Auckland has plenty of indoor activities for kids. Here are my six and eight year old’s top five at the moment:
Jump Avondale - There are three Jump locations around town: Avondale, North Sore, and Takanini. I’ve only been to the Avondale location, but it was by far the nicest, cleanest, newest trampoline park of all of the other trampoline parks I’ve been to. It was so large that there seemed to be better crowd control on the weekends and the older kids weren’t quite as crazy as places like Gravity in Mt. Wellington. Like the other trampoline parks, you sign up for an hour jumping time, and during peak times - like weekends and school holidays - it is a good idea to sign up ahead of time.
2.Megazone Laser Tag - There are three Megazones around town, but by far the most popular one is the Mt. Wellington location, mainly because in addition to laser tag, it also has a huge variety of arcade games (and prizes) bumper cars, and glow in the dark mini golf. As a parent, I find all of the flashing lights and noises painful, but for your average eight year old, it is the greatest thing ever.
3. Extreme Edge - Like Clip n’ Climb, this place has kid-friendly, self-belaying climbing walls. There are about 15 options equally distributed among easy, medium, and hard walls to climb. Extreme Edge also has a decent set up for adults to do regular climbing gym activities with a belaying partner. Extreme Edge was a lot of fun, but requires a fair amount of parenting intervention to clip kids in and out of the climbing walls. Be prepared to spend the entire time with your child so they can actually do the activities.
4.Inflatable World - There are three locations for this one, too: Brown’s Bay, Mt. Roskill, and Manukau. I’ve been to the Brown’s Bay and Mr. Roskill locations, and both were extremely popular (and exhausting) for the kids. The Mt. Roskill location seemed a little sketchy at first as it is right next to an Asian food market that is aggressively protective of its parking, but once inside, it’s a kid’s paradise. Fortunately there is plenty of space for the kids to run around and parents to sit. Two notes: bring socks and hand sanitiser.
5.Sea Life Kelly Tarlton’s - I am absolutely shocked that this one is still on the list, but my kids associate visiting the aquarium with things you do on a rainy day. It’s almost an expectation that if the weather is bad, we check out the fish. It is the only place on my Annual Passes for Kids post that we still have an annual pass to. I can’t tell you how many afternoons I’ve spent sitting at the submerged cafe while the kids run around.
I know we’ll be hitting up one - if not all - of these activities over the upcoming school holidays. Are there any places you love that we should try?
