Giant lemons, inclinators and monkeys.

Our 3 days to Launceston were jammed packed with activities, and most of them at the Resort.  The boys were very excited by a few in particular, like the heated pool, the Putt Putt, the giant jumping pillow, the paddle boats, the pirate ship, the playground, the games arcade, the Lolly Shop..  ok so actually they were excited by pretty much every activity the resort offered.


We had a few other activities we wanted to squeeze in also though, so we had to balance our time between resort activities and sightseeing. The boys had never been to Cataract Gorge before, and the last time I was there was in 2004, so I was really looking forward to it.  We were also meeting a few other families at the Gorge, so there would be lots of children for the boys to play with (ended up 29 in total, and that was just the kids!)

Unfortunately the lure of the heated pool, jumping pillow and Putt Putt was putting a damper on the start of our day with moans and groans about the day's planned activity.  So in an attempt to get them excited:

Me: "There is something reaaalllly interesting at the Gorge".  I was referring to the chairlift, but upon seeing the chairlift I quickly realised there was just no way we could do that.  Firstly, it only has 2 seats, secondly and most importantly there is seriously nothing but a seat and a couple of (hopefully) well placed bars to keep you safe. 

Legoman:"A giant lemon?!"  He said in all seriousness.  Legoman loves to eat lemons, he has at least one a day and often has them in his lunchbox. It was then that I just gave up, apparently nothing but a giant lemon (or a heated pool) was going to impress him today.  Instead I fell back on the old faithful, "We're doing this because I say so, and you are going to enjoy it!".

 




They did have fun.  What's not to like about an 'inclinator' and a swinging bridge.  And don't let the name fool you, the inclinator is no thrill ride with a top speed of around 1km an hour.  The inclinator is the alternative to about one hundred steps down, so a natural draw card for children. 

 

 See what I mean about the chairlift?  Let me know if you see a giant lemon.

 As promised we hit the pool immediately upon returning back to the resort, and because it was pouring rain at that stage they missed out on Putt Putt and the giant pillow.  That was fine, as it turned out, they had completely exhausted themselves in the pool anyway and were actually asking to go to bed early that night.

On our last day we had several things to squeeze in before driving home again. Affectionately named "rainbow" by Oshawott and "sponge" by Voltorb, the giant pillow was the first on the list at 8.30am.  This was immediately followed by screaming at the ducks (Pichu didn't want to feed ducks), Putt Putt, and a trip to the shops.

Voltorb finally got his plush Tasmanian Devil that makes noise, he had been asking for that noisy thing since our trip to Mt Field where he had chosen a parrot instead (he wanted both of course).  We found a name train for Pichu, and the other 2 boys wanted to wait until the Muesum to buy something.  I just wanted some chocolate from the Chocolate cafe, but Pichu ate it.  Sigh.

Pichu slept through the entire Museum experience, which actually made it alot easier for me.  Until it came to the point where he woke up just before getting to the car and was not impressed to be getting straight back in it (or so it seemed to him).

The City Park cheered him up, even more so when he got to see Monkeys!  Monkeys?  Yes, Launceston has a big enclosure of Monkeys smack bang in the middle of it's City Park.  Apparently they had been removed for a long time during some darker times for the Monkeys, when they all had Herpes!

The drive home was mostly uneventful except for a general mood that had enveloped the car, a grumpy, short-tempered, tired mood.

I was nervous about getting out the D7000 poolside so opted for the phone instead. Pichu is captured in mid fall, but quickly snaffled up just nano seconds later, and I didn't even drop the phone!

And look at this cheeky little boy, I'm sure his Mummy and Daddy were around somewhere.   Doesn't belong to me.. nope!

Legoman getting a grasp on the physics of water.

That.

Mum.  Monkeys! (Oshawott)

Indeed.  And a few moments after I put the camera away the darn monkey's had a full on brawl didn't they!

I have some pretty cool action photo's of the boys on the giant rainbow sponge, so they require a 'special edition' photo post all to themselves tomorrow. 



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