Easter Eggsplorers: Blackgang Review!
It’s been a cracking start to our holidays at Blackgang Chine’s Easter Eggsplorers event, which will run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays this fortnight!
Like many Islanders, we’ve made a few trips out to Blackgang in the past, but we love that there’s often special, thematic events throughout the year to keep some of our visits that little bit different! And the Easter Eggsplorers did not disappoint. Tot is 2 and a half and Little Babe is 1 (with speedy walking legs!) so it’s the perfect age for them to just start enjoying the attraction for the imaginative land that it is!
When we visited this time, we were handed a ‘Quest guide,’ pencil and magnifying glass, equipping us for an epic Easter hunt with a Blackgang twist: Dodo eggs were what we needed to find! Hidden all around the park were gigantic eggs- each one with a symbol, translating to a clue word to complete the large-scale hunt! Mummy and Daddy enjoyed doing the clue word for our little ones, whilst Tot totally loved looking for the eggs (and they were hidden with a good amount of challenge, so it was a real sense of achievement! Older children would equally find it challenging enough, too!)
Little Babe was a bit clueless (!) when it came to Dodo eggsploring, but she instead found herself in awe of the characters roaming around and chatting to visitors. At Pirate Cove, we befriended a lively pirate and his mate, showing off the new ‘Timeboat.' Rafus Dodo was also doing the rounds with Lady Penelope, and we stopped off for some tales with 'victorian' explorers.
We spent lots of time down at ‘Explorer Digs,’ specially put on for Eggsplorers. A friendly ‘archaeologist’ informed the children whether they’d brushed up ‘rare’ bugs or not! (We found a rare, red dragonfly to take home with us!) Both our girls thought this was brilliant (any excuse to get sandy hands, hey,) so we spent a while digging!
The ride-on dinos were also around for the afternoon and, whilst Tot wasn’t sure she wanted a turn, we were impressed by the amazing, animatronic creatures: I kind of wish they’d had them for adults...!
Talking of which, as a kid, the dinosaur zone was always one of the best places to play, in my memory! Hugely improved since I was young (and with the dinosaurs much larger in size- and noisier!) the now named Restricted Area 5 was a big hit with our eldest, who- in her own words- was “not scared,” (she was last time she visited.) Instead, she insisted we name two of the dinosaurs ‘Tino’ and ‘Tony!’ There was slight trauma when a quaking dino was hungrily about to gorge on one of the Dodo’s eggs (not too much of a spoiler!?) but all was well with the world once Tot and Little Babe got to stand on the back of- erm- Tino!
We stopped off at the Chine Cafe for lunch, and our daughters delved right into their reasonably-priced dino lunchboxes! My husband and I dithered between paninis and pizzas (from the generous menu,) but opted for the latter because quests (and small children!) are a cause for hungry tums! And coffee. And a coke...
We felt the food and drink prices were good value for money and there was something for everyone (gluten free included- we noted,) and most of all, we were pleased with the taste of our very filling grub.
This stocked us up nicely for the afternoon where, despite a downpour of rain, we appropriately found ourselves in the atmospheric Underwater Kingdom (the crab is always Tot’s favourite,) and got a bit wet anyway on the gigantic pirate ship, where cannons galore – some firing water- had our toddler gallivanting and shouting at her sister that the pirates were going to get us! But that sums Blackgang up nicely, in our opinion, where it’s impossible not to get into the spirit of things, with all the imaginative areas across the park!
Finally, to finish off our Eggspedition, we searched towards the water slides and small rollercoaster, where we uncovered pretty cool potion-making as part of the Easter events, before we headed to front of house to hand in our cryptic clues: the girls got a small token of chocolate for their efforts! We also got to keep the pencils and magnifying glasses that were provided on entrance- which Tot likes giving herself a 'large eye’ with- and Little Babe is using hers to prod her dinner (don’t ask!)
All in all, we really recommend heading along to Blackgang this Easter break when the Eggsplorer events are on- we had such an adventurous day and we love watching our little ones so inspired by this life-size land of fun!
If you love the sound of this- and your family would like to go along to Easter Eggsplorers at Blackgang on the 10th or 11th April- then enter the GIVEAWAY on Mum on an Island Facebook page, for your chance of winning a family pass!
All you need to do is COMMENT on the Facebook post, telling us who you'd take with you!
The competition will close at midday on April 9th (2018,) and the family pass must be used on the 10th or 11th April (2018.) The family pass is for four people.
Competition T&Cs:
*Family pass = 4 people *This giveaway closes 9/4/2018 at 12:00 midday *Winner will be selected at random and informed in the afternoon of Mon 9th April *Prize winner and guests will need to use their pass on the 10th or 11th April 2018, subject to park opening times *Prize is subject to Blackgang Chine’s conditions *This competition is not associated or endorsed by Facebook.
