Staycation on Vacation

​Tips to have happy holidays at staycation

The two-thirds mark from the school holidays is the place where parental despair usually begins. The excitement from the year-end trilogy of college finishing, Christmas and New Year is forgotten. The Christmas toys have already been broken or abandoned, with the exception of that one mistaken purchase you're now regretting.
You're beginning to feel guilty for wishing school would start sooner. Your teacher friends surely deserve a reliable break. Is it cruel and unusual punishment to lock the doors to make the small suspects to care for themselves outdoors? After the quantity of days of this will the neighbours call CYF?
The staycation happens to be more popular over these recessionary times of high petrol prices. The key is to never assume that staying in the home and doing nothing, or doing exactly the same chores you'd probably usually do, qualifies to be a holiday.
  • Doing nothing
​Would you even think about the luxury? - is perfect for parents but a tragedy for short attention span kids. It has taken several years to accept the belief that just because my understanding of a perfect summer would be a kid was obviously a box packed with novels, it doesn't mean the little suspects are going to be similarly entranced.
Hence their list, which I offer inside the spirit of weary solidarity operating parents of these dog events of summer.
  • ​​Ngatimoti's Firepit bike track:
A pump track, a couple of dirt jumps plus a new community barbecue. Grease, dirt, sausages: be the scent of summer.
  • Backyard fire with sparklers:
Can't recommend fireworks in midsummer, but sparklers around a brazier, beneath the watchful eye of responsible adults, can sneak in. Pair having a game of spotlight and in many cases putting up tents with the "camping in your house" vibe.
  • Motueka mini-golf:
​18 holes, five people, while using youngest being four, generated for hours of entertainment. Part in the fun is each hole was made around one in the region's attractions, so you have to find the ball through Split Apple Rock, in the Buller swingbridge and from the Motueka clock tower. At the end, the ball disappears down Harwood's Hole.
  • Free outdoor theatre:
If past years' shows are something to go by, Body in Space's annual summer production must be side-splitting fun for your family.
  • Explore a creek:
Ingredients: Old pairs of sneakers, sticks, snacks.
​Method: Watch out for blackberry and slippery snot rocks. Expect a water fight to use at some stage. You will get wet.
  • Day pass to Quninney's Bush:
​​This is is verging on cheating around the staycation concept, nonetheless it qualifies, when you will not be staying the night time. Ten dollars turns into a carload in to the camp to get a day to savor the waterslide, a superb swimming hole from the Motupiko River, flying foxes, a confidence course, a BMX track, a skatepark and lots of kids - potential friends for ones kids - roaming the leafy grounds.
  • Wild Tracks:
If you are Quinney's bound, it is a great detour near Tapawera. Owner John can be a classic Kiwi tinkerer that has created lots of terrain and obstacles that you should navigate in rugged four-wheel-drive buggies. The kids need to be passengers, needless to say, but where's the rule which says only children be able to scream with delight during summer?
Kids have to be six to ride inside the buggies, even so the youngest small suspect was thrilled to beat his mum inside a radio-controlled tank battle, navigating fun obstacles in the race to pop balloons. Huge fun, plus a highlight from the holidays to date.
If you do not get through all of these inside the next couple of weeks, don't panic. It's only 334 days before the next summer holidays begin. Start planning now.
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