Family Friendly Outing: Queen Elizabeth Park

FAMILY FRIENDLY OUTING QUEEN ELIZABETH PARK

This edition’s family friendly outing takes us an hour drive away from Palmerston North. We didn’t even plan to go! We had wanted to visit Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre due to a previous review in this magazine. It was also one of those ridiculously hot days not long after Christmas, so the thought of spending a while in an air conditioned car rather appealed. The universe decided that Pūkaha was not going to happen that day, so we continued into Masterton, no idea what to do next. A quick google told us to go to the park. “Why not? We’re already here. It seems a bit sad that the main attraction in Masterton is a park though” Boy. Were. We. Wrong. This park has everything for everyone. I don’t believe it’s possible to go to this park and not find something you’d enjoy doing. Through a lot of trial and error of writing this, the best way to tell you seems to be a list. • There’s a huge playground for kids, well designed for prams, and a gated area of the playground for babies and toddlers. • Large areas of field for picnics and backyard cricket games • Lots of bridges for those toddlers that have obsessions with them • Mini golf - $8 for adult, $5 for under 18 • A really decent flying fox that I was very tempted to go on until I realised that I am way too tall and would probably KO myself at the end • A miniature train, full of coal, steam, tunnels - and only $1 a ticket! • Paddleboats for hire to go out on the

lake, starting at $16 for 20 minutes • A cafe, with icecream certified by my 10 month old to be delicious Funnily enough, being the sunburning machine that I am, one of the best things I liked about the park was the trees. They were very well placed around the park so that you could be on parts of the playground, have a picnic etc while being shaded. I am proud to say that I did not finish the day looking like a lobster (and some decent sunscreen helped a lot). If you’re wanting a day trip, this is the place to go. There’s no way you could be disappointed with your outing. I didn’t even say all the things that you can do at this park! There’s just that many options available to you. Pack up the fam and go enjoy yourself. 10/10 – almost considered moving to Masterton for this park.