Leanyer Waterpark
This was rated our favourite by all of the family. It has 3 giant waterslides, a fantastic kids splash pad and a very large pool. The three waterslides are blue, yellow and red. They are all enclosed and twist and turn many times as you go down. The blue was the slowest, followed by the yellow. The red slide is for going down in pairs on an inflatable ring. It is completely black inside which adds to the fun of it. Tilda was quite worried at first but once she got over her fears, she had a fantastic time! We all did. Rory of course couldn't go on them, so we took it in turns with one of us supervising Rory and one of us on the slides with Tilda.
The kids splash pad was amazing! It is pretty well covered, so you don't have to worry about getting burnt, although with our very fair skin we still covered up with rashies and sunscreen. There were 3 kid friendly slides, which included 2 speed slides next to each other (and having gone down one myself, it sure was fast for its size), and 2 curly enclosed slides. There was a tipping bucket that tipped out an absolute truckload of water (too much to let Rory go right under where it emptied), and all of the slides were connected by a climbing area. There was also waterguns, a large mushroom with water pouring over the top, another structure with smaller tipping buckets and an assortment of other play items. Rory had an absolute blast on this. He loved the speed slides and soon got up the courage to go down face first on his tummy. Many bigger kids using it marvelled at him because he is still so short and looks way too small to be doing things like that. Tilda loved all of it and was particularly drawn to the curly pink slide (the biggest of the slides on the kids splash pad) but spent most of her time on the big slides. We went back again 2 days later for Greg for Father's Day. It was so hot it was hard to figure out what else to do, and really, he and I are still pretty much big kids at heart so it was a LOT of fun to us too!
One of the days we were there a large group of Indigneous kids turned up after school. I have heard a lot of negative things about Indigenous kids in the media, and I have to say, these kids were some of the nicest, kindest there. One older boy stopped to pick Rory up and make sure he was OK when he fell over. They made room for other kids when the tipping bucket was going to tip so everyone could enjoy it. I think we often forget that the media always portrays the worst imaginable, working to sell sensationalised stories, and overlooking the fact that the majority of Indigenous people, kids or adults, are nice, kind and considerate people. And as we all know, you get the ratbags, lowlifes and other not-so-nice people in every race, gender etc.
The large pool (I didn't get a photo) was pretty cool. I don't know how deep it got as I only stayed in the shallows with Rory, but it starts of at 0 depth and you can wade out deeper and deeper. It isn't covered
The first day we were there for 2.5 hours. The second time we stayed for 3 hours! We were all stuffed by the end of it.
Palmerston Waterpark
Palmerston waterpark is different to Leanyer. It has a giant speed slide with 6 slides next to each other so you can race against other people, a young kids splash pad and an older kids splash pad. The speed slides at this waterpark are SO MUCH FUN!!!! But the rest of it not so much. The little kids splash pad is not much fun for kids over the age of about 3-4, unless they are not confident in the water. There are some holes that spray up water, some pipes that form a water tunnel with different pressured sprays and a 30cm deep little pool with a small (about 1m high) waterslide into it. Rory is such a rebel he almost got kicked off the kids slide. They had a rule that the kids must slide down sitting up only. After being at Leanyer and learning to go down face first, this was waaaay too tame for Rory and he kept persisting on going down head first. The lifeguard kept warning him and in the end we had to take him off it before he got into trouble. Still, he enjoyed running through the water, but it just wasn't as full of fun and adventure as Leanyer.
The older kids splash pad was pretty lame. It had 3 water guns you could turn to hit people with, but not the kids on the other guns, and a tipping bucket. This tipping bucket isn't as big as Leanyer but I am guessing it is the reason for the older age restriction.
The redeeming feature of this waterpark, other than free which means you really can't complain, is the speed slides. These slides are totally awesome and we had a great time on them. Again, one of us rode the big slides with Tilda while the other supervised Rory, but it was great. We calculated that Tilda climbed the 14m+ stairs over 30 times, by the time she shared her times between Greg and I. You got so much speed up on these that it was hard not to become airborne. On one go, I pushed off with my feet at the top and by the third hump, I got so airborne that I didn't hit the slide again until it flattened out in the lead up to the fourth hump. I got the wind knocked out of me and hurt some ribs and my back, not to mentioned scared myself a little, but gosh was it fun!!!!
Tilda met a boy and the pair of them had a great time racing each other, trying to see who would win. Tilda beat him every time and it was so funny hearing the pair of them dissect the race and why he had lost/she had won. Towards the end of our time there, it had gotten busy so I sat down the bottom to watch Tilda and her new friend, his brother and 2 other boys all race each other. In this race, Tilda's new friend beat her for the first time... he came first, Tilda came second and the boy's brother could not believe she had beaten him. It was funny to see his face and hear him say over and over “I can't believe you beat me!”. Tilda was beaming and it was a great way to finish the day.
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