A VISIT TO THE TREE HOUSE PLAYGROUND...

 Looking for thing to do with the children whilst they are holidaying with us on the Sunny Coast has been made a whole lot easier since I have found the "Sunshine Coast Kids" facebook page.  They seem to almost daily feature a park, bushwalk, or place or activity that you are able to do with your children over the holidays.  It's been a great source of places to take them... places I did not even know existed.  Places that even we as adults have enjoyed exploring...

Since our grandchildren and my friend Barb's grandchildren have had such a great time playing together, we decided that we would meet  at Aura, a new community estate close to the highway at the Southern end of the Sunshine Coast, for a play and morning tea at the Tree House Playground.  The pictures on the facebook page looks amazing, and not only did they have a large playground there, but also a water play area and a jumping pillow.

On the way there, we drove past another playground that looked pretty good and Max really wanted to stop at it.  When I told him we couldn't that Moppy had a better place to visit, he was not convinced and told me the other place would be boring and that he really wanted to stop at that playground..  He whinged for another block or two about the place we were going to would be "very boring" until we arrived and he saw the playground and bless his little heart, his first words to me were, "Wow Moppy you were right, this place is awesome".  He couldn't get out of the car fast enough...

Some people have the most wonderful imaginations.  Who would have thought to put a huge pink tree in a playgound made of old bikes.  It really added to the eye candy, which was already pretty good I might add, to make this park so appealing to the kids...

The Aura Treehouse playground is a riot of colour and whimsical design and is a certainly enticed our kids to engage in play. The main Treehouse multi level play structure has two main structures joined by a rope bridge that is high above the soft fall surface below. 

There are multiple slides and different ways to access the structure including via a rope bridge at the top of an adjoining slope, or via a more challenging ladder climb within the structure itself. 

It features 3 different tunnel slides as part of the treehouse at different heights and lengths, so there are options for children who prefer to play things a little safer and more thrilling super slides for the old and  braver kids

The tree top structures are decorated with brightly coloured leaves and butterflies which encourage climbers to look up and focus on what’s above them rather than the ground far below.  There are cubbies at different heights inside the trees as well.  Just an awesome and well thought out playground...

Awesome playground

Also within this section of the playground are 3 swings – a toddler swing, a traditional plank swing and a basket swing.  There is soft fall under the swings themselves but it’s surrounded by  wood chips which is something to be mindful of.

 

The girls found some cardboard to use for sliding...

 

 Adjacent to this main playground is some lawn and a small nature play section.  Pumping the water would be a little difficult for the younger children.  To get a good flow of water you needed and adult to pump the water but once the water started it soon filled the little dams in this area.  I loved too how it had dam levers to allow the water to flow and fill as required.  Unfortunately this area was not under cover.

 

There is also a jumping pillow here which was very popular  with our kids.  Although I must admit, all age group kids would love it.  Whilst we were there, there were quite a few other children using it as well aging from toddlers to almost teenagers.  Appartently the pillow is only inflated though from 10am until 5pm daily.  The good thing though is that the jumping pillow is under a shade sale and surrounded by sand. 

The bonus for me as I watched the kids was that there was timber seating surround the playground and near the jumping pillow but the downside is that you cannot see one play area from the other.

Steve supervising the children whilst on the jumping pillow

There was also lots of fun and functional artwork around the play area as well.   There is a bike rack topped with an inedible bright pink sky high bicycle sculpture and several murals on walls around this space, adding a sense of fun and playfulness.  The treehouse itself is also topped with an array of multicoloured translucent leaves with butterfly and bird sculptures hidden through the leaves.

Willow and I had lots of fun with some of the artwork...

The playground here entertained the children for a good couple of hours before they were ready for morning tea.  In fact I think it was the adults who were ready for it before the children and we did have a little difficulty getting them off the play equipment to have something to eat..

Morning tea at the playground

Fresh scones with Jam and cream

It was well and truly lunch time by the time the children had finished playing and had their morning tea.  They were then keen to extend the outing and go for a swim, but it took some swift talking on the part of the adults to convince them that it would be better to wait until later in the day when it wasn't so hot to go have a swim...

We finally convinced them when we all promised to meet up again at the Mooloolaba Spit at 4pm for our swim.  

The only negative for this park, would be the lack of sheltered picnic tables etc.  It would have been great to have had a shelter area with tables so that families could come and have lunch or morning tea and sit in shade whilst the children played.  Most of the wooden bench seating they did have was out in the sun.  

John and Barb left and Steve and I and the children decided that we would take a drive around Aura and check it out whilst we were down this far.  We actually came across another awesome park not far from the park we were at.  

This park was a Peddle Park and the kids were REALLY keen to try this park out also.  We had to promise to bring them back another day to have a play on this really AWESOME park (according to Max).

Even has working traffic lights on the track...

Aptly named, Pedal Park is a fantastic playground surrounded by an authentic bike track and has a distinct bike theme. The track has a tunnel, speed bumps, bridge, genuine road signage and REAL traffic lights. While the traffic lights are on a timer, they change from red to green regularly. It’s quite novel. Popular among young riders is the hilly section, they loop around to go again and again.

Pedal Park, themed around cycling, features a “learn to ride” bike circuit, along which, young riders encounter a range of different terrain including a tunnel, timber bridge and crossings over a dry creek bed, speed humps, traffic lights, road signage and much more. The bike track encircles a central playground, featuring slides, swings, see-saw and, a 7.5m tall cube tower climbing structure that stands atop a 2m mound; the colourful landmark can be seen throughout the neighbourhood.

In the centre of the playground is the bike tower, home to two very large, super slippery, metal tunnel slides. The larger being quite the heart starter. To get to the top of the tower there are three levels, each is a maze of ropes and matting to scale.

Back down on ground level the play area is partially shaded with a soft fall base. There is a spring loaded see-saw, two swings (one is a toddler, the other is a standard), a climbing wall and another smaller, fast metal slide. A large open green space for ball games sits between the play area and a full-sized basketball court.

The bonus that this park has over the tree house park that we had just come froms was the two shelters with table and chairs, BBQ, bathrooms and water bubblers. As the park is only new, there are plenty of trees planted, but they are yet to mature so shade is scarce. The bathrooms are next to the BBQ.

Defintely a park we are going to go back and revisit but next time we will come prepared with bikes and scooters so that the kids can really enjoy it.  We may even pack a picnic BBQ lunch as well...