Recently, my husband and I took my younger siblings on a trip to the Mornington Peninsula. It was a Christmas present for them and it was so sweet to see how excited they were to come down to the Big Smoke from the country and hang out. We fit in a few things: watching Winter Olympics (nine-year-olds are incredible harsh critics) and local beach visits (who knew discovering rock under your feet instead of sand could be so exciting?). But the main outing was a trip to a few lovely kid-friendly places on the Mornington Peninsula.
Ashcombe Maze provides hours of entertainment
I’ve written about our first visit to Ashcombe before, but it’s actually way more fun with kids. They get so darned excited about solving the mazes! The younger three were literally running through the maze trying to solve it. Walking was not an option. The maze also has a challenge for kids to find a collection of gnomes and fairies throughout the gardens, which was a big hit.
Another benefit of the maze is that it’s really close to the beach, if you want to take a quick dip. We went down to have a picnic lunch there after the maze. There were rock pools, replete with crabs, starfish and transparent shrimp. Although we were planning a quick stop, we ended up rambling for quite a while.
It doesn’t get more kid-friendly than a strawberry farm
Sunny Ridge strawberry farm lets you pick your own strawberries which was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed hunting for the best berries, comparing to see who had the biggest/reddest/smallest. Eating sun-warmed berries straight off the vine was a real mood-booster.
I expected it to take a longer than it did. In the end I think we were only picking for about half an hour. Given we had a bit of time, we stopped off at the cafe to grab an ice cream. They make their own strawberry ice cream and sorbet there, which the kids rated pretty highly. If the adults in your party would like something caffeinated, they can provide that, along with various other delights, mostly strawberry-related.
Full of strawberries, we bundled everyone into the car and headed home. After picking strawberries and running through mazes, they were pretty contented on the drive. I’d absolutely recommend both places if you’re looking for somewhere to take your kids (or someone else’s). Both places are close together, but they are about an hour out of Melbourne, so worth factoring that in, especially with younger ones.
