I've decided that I'd dedicate a few weekends to finishing up my travel posts. We've had such wonderful experiences that I think it's a pity not to share! I hope these posts will be useful to those planning their Sydney trips, especially those with young kids. You can find the whole series of my Sydney posts here, and also, on clicking my newly created link on my sidebar for travel ideas.
Today's post is about Powerhouse Museum, one of the more kid-friendly museums around. Despite having having heard that it is a good one to visit with the kids, it was only on our latest trip that we finally made it to have a look around.
Powerhouse is something of a science and design museum mixed into one. There is an eclectic mix of exhibitions, from the showstopping full-sized Steam Locomotive No.1 which greets you at the entrance, to the Strasburg Clock, to LoveLace, an exhibition on lace works by artists from over 20 different countries.
Most of these were, admittedly, not of much interest to the kids though I myself did enjoy looking at the historical artefacts and marvelling at the design and mechanical construction of the pieces. If you have young kids with you, you'd probably just want to head straight down to the Level 1 where the kid-focused exhibitions are. Specifically...
The Wiggles! (Man, hope that huge pic didn't scare you!)
This was a highly interactive exhibition all about the Wiggles. You'll learn about their personal histories, their backgrounds, how they got started and all the awards they've won. Well, maybe the adults in the group will anyway! I finally realised that there have actually been 2 Yellow Wiggles -- the original dude Greg Wiggle that you see in the billboard behind Noey in the picture above, and Sam Wiggle, the guy who was his replacement when he had to take time off for medical reasons. I did wonder why Sam Wiggle looked so much younger than the rest. Now I know that he was indeed younger!
The kids will be mostly entertained by video performances, games, as well as hands-on free-form play. There is also a stage with a holographic projection of the Wiggles performing in one corner that is pretty amazing. It really looked like it was a live performance at first glance! My kids were not huge fans of The Wiggles before we went for the exhibition, -- we have maybe 1 Wiggles DVD -- but they still enjoyed themselves tremendously.
As you would expect, it was very difficult to get them out of Wiggles wonderland, but I did manage to, in the end, by enticing them to check out The Magic Garden, a play space in the area next to the entrance to the Wiggles exhibition. Designed for 2-8 year olds, here the kids can play among pumpkins and mushrooms, chase fish in a digital pond or catch butterflies at the garden gate. Needless to say, they had fun.
We tried to go grab a coffee at the cafe outside before we called it a day at the museum, but we were a little too late. The cafe was shut, but the kids managed to enjoy a bit of play time in the playground outside before we had to head for home. I would imagine it would be a great space to have lunch or tea while the kids play. Maybe next time!
Overall, I found the Powerhouse Museum engaging, with good kid-specific exhibits. It's certainly worth at least half a day if you're in Darling Harbour!
If you ask me though, my favourite Sydney museum remains the Australian Museum, which wowed us two years ago with their Dinosaur exhibition, huge collection of taxidermied animals, beautifully preserved, engaging research area and play pods for under 5s. I was very disappointed that we could not fit in a repeat visit this year, but the next time we are in Sydney, we're definitely going back. Don't miss that one if you can!
No comments:
Post a Comment