This Easter Long Weekend, instead of deciding to go away (to be honest we were tired and couldn’t bear fighting the traffic), we decided on a staycation in Sydney. What better long weekend was there to do this?

We kicked off good Friday with a day trip into the city; parking in china town we had breakfast at east ocean (one of our favourites for yumcha) and then walking trough china town into darling harbor.  Darling Harbour was bustling with the Hoopla Festival, we saw some amazing acts from Contortionists doing things to their bodies that was completely unnatural through to very entertaining street performers.  The children ran a muck in the playground and we left with two exhausted children.

The following day we braved the Royal Easter Show, we arrived first thing in the morning (which I would highly recommend) especially with two young children and my daughter thought we were going to a huge party, she was so excited to see all the rides and was dancing to the music as we entered the gates.  My son on the other hand, in seeing a ride that went upside down turned pale white, gasped and put his hand to his mouth. He was not having a bar of it!

As we left the mayhem of the carnival area behind we hit the equestrian precinct The horses were absolutely beautiful and our daughter decided she wanted one, at that very moment we walked past a pony ride – bingo. The next highlight was the milking barn.  We arrived just as the demonstration was about to commence, got to sit in the very front row and the children learned all about how diary products are made.  They even got to milk a cow!

Obviously you can’t go to the Easter Show without getting a showbag.  Before we left home we told the children they could have two showbags each and that they had to think long and hard about which ones they wanted.  For a four and two year old I thought this would be a challenge and to my surprise and delight they walked around (well shuffled because the showbag pavilion is always jam packed!) and carefully assessed each bag.  They got one ‘expensive’ bag and then chose a $6 Freddo frog bag each – WIN!

Before leaving the children got their faces painted by real professional special effects experts – it was the best children’s face painting I have ever seen.  The second day of our staycation was a huge success and fun for all of us.  Easter Sunday eve, here we come.

We awoke to the Easter Bunny – yay! Chocolate for breakfast, (this is about the only day of the year this is allowed to happen). The children through this was marvelous. So in our bid to explore Sydney further on our staycation we decided to go on a walk, this was not your ordinary walk. It was a full on Monster hunt from Cammeray to Tunks Park through the forest, over the gully and into the beautiful park.  The children loved this walk.  We searched for the Monsters footprints, checked under bridges for trolls, in caves for sleeping dragons. We saw wild mushrooms, exotic spiders, a family of water dragons and so much more. I would definitely recommend a Monster hunt near you! This magical adventure was actually invented by my husband – just goes to show it is the simple things in life that make a huge difference.

When Monday arrived we were all exhausted after our Monster hunt, so we piled in the car and went for a drive to Wollongong. The scenic route is absolutely beautiful. When we arrived we went for a walk along the beach, across to the marina and up to the lighthouse.  The view is so beautiful from up there, everything is so green and lush and you can see right up and down the coastline. As we drove home we were all singing and dancing in the car, laughing and having so much fun together.  This staycation was so magical. Not only did it give us a chance to explore some new parts of Sydney but also we were all relaxed and ready for the adventure.  There was no packing, no getting used to a new room (for the children) or settling into a hotel (all nice things don’t get me wrong) but we could relax in our own home and focus on our adventure ahead.

We all fell in love with Sydney again and we didn’t come close to scratching the surface.  There is just so much to do, bring on the next Staycation.