MORE VISITS TO THE PLAYGROUND TODAY.

 We had a pretty busy day at home today whilst we visited cleaning out the caravan and packed it away.  By the time we got these jobs done it was after 3.30pm so we decided to pack the kids up and head up to the zoo so that they could check out the latest edition to the Rockhampton Zoo.  The Meerakets have only been there for a couple of months and so  they were new for the children..

Unfortunately by the time we filled out all the covid information and got into the park, the meerakets had been put to bed and we found out that since Covid, the zoo has been closing at 4pm, so we decided that since we had less than 10 minutes until closing time, we would leave it and come back when we had a little more time...

As the children had been so good, we decided to take them down to the river bank to the Fitzroy Adventure Playground and let them have a play down there...

 We parked in one of the lower car parks and then walked up along the river and had a good look over the banks to see if they could spot a crocodile.  All a bit of a game but it was interesting to listen to their conversation and their imaginations working overtime...

Watch out Maxie, you don't want to be crocodile bait....

Our beautiful Fitzroy River

There was quite a bit of loud music coming from these boats moored on the river.  Fortunately for us it was music that we quite liked and it added atmosphere to our time at the Playground.  The boats had a couple of loud speakers mounted on their roof which boomed the music back to the riverbank.  The kids didn't seem to mind the music and were actually dancing along to it at times...

The kids were happy to run ahead of us and were keen to play on the equipment here...

This playground is part of the $36 million upgrade for the Rockhampton Riverbank, the Rockhampton Regional Council wanted to deliver a playground that would be a drawcard for the region and cherished for generations to come and they have done just that, as this playground is always popular.

When building this playground consideration of potential flooding means that the playground is set high on an embankment that is decorated with a custom rubber design in shades of green and the design ties in with the rest of the Riverbank Precincts innovative architecture.

The embankment is adorned with orange rubber climbing domes, beige and green mountaineering ropes and green climbing cleats that make for a fun and challenging climb up the embankment to the tree -house styled sky cabins.  The kids loved climbing up and down this. 

One of the highlights for the kids were the 7 metre above ground custom designed Sky Cabins which actually offer breath-taking views of the Rockhampton Riverbank.  They are decorated in the same pattern that is weaved throughout the riverbank, the brown, and green sky cabins allow kids to experience the thrills of heights safely, and the kids were up and down them and then slide down the humongous stainless steel slides.

 

Sky cabins

 There is also a designated play area with a KOMPan Mega Tower Play structure, spinner bowl and specially-designed Crocodile and Shark See Saw which the children also checked out...  The loved the Spinner bowl and both wanted to play on it.  Willow was pretty proficient at being able to spinner herself around but Max needed some help and enlisted both Steve and I to spin him.  The faster the better as far as he was concerned...

Thoroughly enjoying their time at the playground..

We were there till after 5.30pm.  The kids weren't too keen on going home but then there is never enough time to play in a playground....

Still if we wanted to have the kids in bed by 7.30pm it was time to head home for baths, tea and then the bit of a play and story time before we had to tuck them in.  It's been an good day....