where to take my son for a fun day out???

we have decided to start taking our oldest son out every week or so for some one on one time as he has to miss out on alot of that time being the oldest of 4 preschoolers
this week my plans are to take him on the train and bus to kelly tarltons(he loves fish) and if we have time go on the fairie to devenport.

next weekend dh is planning on taking him to demolition derby at waikaraka(sp) park.

i have thought of the museum.

i also thought of getting the aucklnad multi pass and using that but i think rainbows end as a bit to old for him and im pretty sure the sky tower wont interest him.

does anyone know of a good website or had an oouting they could recommend.

ambury farm is great! it's free, take a picnic and a few friends and make a day of it. It's in mangere.

train rides are fun stop off at a park and have a picnic.

story times at libraries are good too.

try the toy library, let him choose something HE wants to play with and he gets to be first to play with it...

Be careful how many of those outings you take him on now though cos with him starting school in a couple of months (that sounds kinda scary lol, doesnt seem like that long ago you text me saying he was here!!) he will suddenly lose those big outings... so like the others said, something smaller, but still one-on-one is better...

Oh and LF already said it, but butterfly creek! They have the new alligators if he hasnt already seen them! Plus the animals (go at the right time and he'll be allowed to hold/feed some of them) and the mini-train ride too. I wouldnt reccomend MOTAT for him just yet though, doesnt seem terribly suited for preschoolers, even B and his friend were a bit bored with some of it and they were 6 when I took them! Remind me to give you the earmuffs for speedway JIC, B has finally stopped using them!

I'll keep thinking about it and get back to you on some more ideas.

Instead of paying to go see animals are there any decent pet shops around? We take Daniel to a good pet shop here and he thinks its brilliant, loads of fish, rabbits, cats, dogs, mouse etc and its free. Theres always a couple of other parents in there with their kids

umm proberbly should add that samuel isnt like you average 5yr old he has a few issues that make finding activities difficult. he cant talk very well at all i know many 2yr olds who can communicate alot better than he can, i cant ask him what he wants to do.
his early intervention teacher suggested going with what he is good at or is interested in.

i proberbly should take him to the beach soon b4 the temp drops more.

A trip to the pet store is a great free day out. Lots of animals to look at. We can easily waste a good hour at the pet store. lol. Also a trip to starbucks or the closest coffee store. It is nice to sit and listen to their thoughts on life. My daughter calls it her chocolate coffee. She feels very grown up at 4 years old in the coffee shop.

Have you been to the wrights water gardens?

There's crystal mountain out West but that might be a bit of a drive for you. Go and feed the ducks somewhere, We took DD for a walk round Western Springs the other day, oh theres also the walk round the ports park at Mikano and walk round. Go to the playground at Cornwall park.

Umm someone mentioned fishing, take him sprat catching, we used to LOVE that as kids bread and a sprat catcher funtimes lol. Next to Waipuna they used to have that train track didn't they? Not sure of much out South sorry  don't really go out that way too much.

The zoo. Feeding ducks at a park. Lollipops / chipmunks.

Jake and his cousin both enjoy motat and they're only 2, so he may like it.

Theres a model train/car place out west too - montery park.

Everything else I can think of has been mentioned!

we do actually have quite i nice pet shop in puke and they have a great selection of fish, we use to go there alot when we lived around the corner from it.
swimming is a good one when i was pregnant with mason sam and rory took turns coming with.
im not sure if we have fishing line etc but dh has been sprat fishing so he must have something at his mums.

tin pin bowling is an interesting one im not sure what he will think of that but we have one local so thats an idea

bush walking... will look into that one i couldnt go coz for the next few mths i also have a baby in tow and i dont think dh knows his way.

oh those ride one model trains i used to go to those alot when my brother was little but i dont think we went to the same one twice does any one know where they are? i know rotorua has them but deff too far not that i havent been tempteds to go that far lol.