New Edinburgh: Rainy Chipmunk Shootin'

In typical New Zealand fashion, the rain sets in on a Friday evening and doesn't stop until.... well, I don't know, it's still coming down. I think it's fasinating how much colder 5C (41F) can feel on a rainy evening vs a clear evening. Anyways, So like all parents with an active child, when a rainy weekend is coming up you go into panic mode on Friday night trying to come up with fun indoor activities that will drain the batteries of the energizer bunny! Saturday we had playball (see previous blog) and poor Simon had a cold and wet game of soccer. Bodie and I got wet ourselves, but at the local indoor swimming pool. Maybe I should blog about that one week. For now i will just say that the Moana Pools have todder pool hours where them and an adult get in for $3.50! Very good value! After a morning of playball and an afternoon of swimming we ended up with a zonked out kid in the car when we were going to eat dinner (of course). Luckly dinner was coming to our house (thanks Gi Gi and Jedi) and so Bodie just slept on the couch. Woke up 45 min later to eat a crab stick, get a bath and he was back to sleep for bed! Phew, one day down.

Saturday evening was a repeat of Friday night, or maybe a bit worse. What the heck is left to do indoors? The sun rose on Sunday morning, somewhere behind clouds and pelting rain. And i woke up racking my brain. What on earth are we going to do with Bodie today?! Then, Simon came up with a great idea! Chipmunks! hoot! I got out of bed with some spring in my step, made some pancakes, skyped my parents and then got in the car to head to Chipmunks.

What is Chipmunks? Chipmunks is an huge indoor playground (www.chipmunks.co.nz). It's a chain that they have all over NZ. Back in Auckland my coffee group used to meet up at Chipmunks on rainy days. Even though it is a chain, they are all different. The one in Dunedin, i have to say, is pretty cool! We got in there and within 30 seconds (i'm not exaggerating) I lost my child. haha. I think it took me around 15 minutes to track him down to show him our table. This particular chipmunks has the staple big inflatable slide and big contraption to climb up with tunnels and slides and ball pits. But it also has one of the biggest and most elaborate bouncy castles i have ever seen. And the REALLY COOL thing was this air nerf ball shooting room. It is so cool! You run around collecting these little nerf balls in a bag, meanwhile balls are going everywhere! Then you run up the stairs and find a gun and put the ball in and push a button and PHOOOO it shoots out. If any of you remember American Gladiators, they had a person at an air gun shooting at people? Well, pretty much just like that! It won't let you aim down (therefore those on the ground collecting the balls cannot get shot at directly). It's designed to shoot at the guns on the opposite side. You are behind the plastic with a cut out shape. If you are good (which Bodie turned out to be) you can aim and get the ball through the gaps and actually hit the person. But normally it just bounces off the glass and scares the snot out of you! I am unsure how long I played in there but it was so much fun! Although since i was one of two adults in there I got ganged up on and all the kids were shooting at me. Loads and loads of fun though!

A bit steep of a price on the weekends ($7) and unlike the one in Auckland, entry didn't come with a free coffee. :-( Never the less, a good way burn energy and kill 3 hours of a rainy Sunday!