Yesterday, Jacob and I celebrated 11 years of marriage. The weather on the day was quite similar to what we had on our special day all those years ago. We had decided instead of organizing a date night to celebrate, we would do a day trip instead with the kids. We had swimming lessons first up in the morning so we wanted to go somewhere that wouldn’t take too long to drive. We decided a Mount Tamborine day trip with kids would be a great way to celebrate our anniversary and explore a region we’ve rarely visited despite it being only a one hour drive from where we live.
The girls were excited about heading to Mount Tamborine. Esther asked if we needed our warm jackets in case it snowed. I had to explain to her that not all mountains had snow on them and there would be no need for jackets, but rain coats and gumboots would possibly needed with the wet weather.
I did a quick read up on possible things to do on Mount Tamborine, but didn’t want to structure our day. A visit to a lookout, a nice lunch, a stroll down the Gallery Walk and doing the Skywalk were part of our day’s itinery. As it turned out, we had the perfect day on Saturday and our loose schedule meant we did all we had wanted to do.
Our Mount Tamborine Day Trip With Kids
The girls were excited about driving through the farmland of Logan and the winding roads as we made our way up to the top of Mount Tamborine.
We wanted to make our first stop at the Gallery Walk which is a street lined with all types of shops, including the famous Cuckoo Clock Shop, but we missed the turn off and headed towards the top where the look outs are. After a quick look at a map we realized our error and drove back to where we needed to be. On the way we stopped at the hang glider’s lookout. The view was stunning, but the hilly embankment had me a little weak at the knees as it feels like you could literally drop off the edge of the embankment. No wonder it’s called the hang glider’s lookout.
Phoebe gave us all a heart attack as soon as Jacob put her down on the ground, she ran down the hill as if she was on the Sound of Music. I screamed to get a hold of her before she’d disappear. After that, we held her hand tightly.
Esther and Maggie sat down and enjoyed the view, pointing to other mountains they could see. It really is a fabulous spot to sit and relax.
We also had a look at the Earth Angel Sculpture which the girls wanted to look at before we made our drive back to the Gallery Walk.
Once we found the Gallery Walk, we parked at the end of it and made our way up one side. Our first stop was to the Granny Macs Fudge Shop where I tried Lavender and Rose Fudge and the girls took half an hour to work out what lolly they wanted to buy in the shop. You can’t visit Mount Tamborine and not buy some fudge. Jacob and I decided on pumpkin pie fudge and butterscotch and cashew fudge.
After a quick toilet stop, we decided it was time for lunch so we sat outside the Mt Tamborine Winery and had a delicious lunch. The kids were happy to munch on chips and their lollies. I couldn’t not have some bubbles to celebrate the occasion, even though lunch wasn’t very relaxed as the girls wanted to check out the wedding display and the water fountain nearby.
After lunch, we visited another fudge shop (and bought more fudge), the Cuckoo Shop and a few other shops on the way back to the car. There really wasn’t anything that took my fancy in the way of buying things. But if you like handmade, bric-a-brac type of stuff, you’ll love it.
Our last stop on the Gallery Walk was to this shop called Flights of Fancy which I had written off as some hippy, new age type of store. And boy, was I wrong. The girls were starting to go on about wanting to buy something and I told them I was reluctant to buy them more stuffed toys because we had a million of the things at home. We walked into this Flights of Fancy shop and the girls were captivated! There were 3 rooms decorated to the hilt which can only be described as fairyland, under the sea and the ultimate Frozen room. We may have spent a good 20 minutes in the shop as the girls went from room to room and checked out each room thoroughly, not to miss a thing. It took a while for the girls to work out what they wanted to buy as I felt we had to buy something after spending so much time in the shop. If you do go on the Gallery Walk at Mount Tamborine, you must visit this shop last with your kids. It will perk them up and they will love it. I became a little kid again as I looked at the displays.
The kids were excited by our next stop to the Skywalk. We got there about 3:30pm. The Skywalk lets people through the walk until 4pm as it closes at 5pm. It takes approximately 45 minutes to walk through.
The Skywalk is an elevated platform/bridge-like walk through the rainforest. It’s a 1.5km walk which includes forest floor trails, 300 metres of high-tech steel bridges tracking through the highest points of the rainforest canopy and a 40-metre cantilever bridge which offers a breathtaking view of the creek and rainforest below.
If you are a bit scared of heights like me, you might find the skywalk hard. Just don’t look down and always look ahead and up. The steel bridge does sway and you can see through the metal mesh floor of the bridge. The Cantilever Bridge sways the most and I had to grab hold of the rail to keep going to the end. I couldn’t handle the sway too much and to be honest couldn’t wait to get off it. But if you love heights and don’t mind walking on a structure that sways in the breeze, you’ll be fine. I should also mention that while it says the track and bridge is pram friendly, I’d advise against taking it if your 1 year old can walk. Phoebe walked the whole way and loved it. The pram would have been difficult to put push up the gravel stairs.
The Skywalk was the most talked about part of our day trip (and the Flights of Fancy shop, where Esther is determined to have all three of their bedrooms decorated to imitate the rooms at the shop!). A quick afternoon tea at the café and we headed home down the mountain where the four of us girls fell asleep while dad drove us home.
The girls now want to go for a holiday to Mount Tamborine, so we will probably spend a long weekend up there in the future and do some more of the rainforest walks and the glow worm caves. There are some gorgeous antique and art shops that I’d love to check out when we go again.
Have you been to Mount Tamborine recently? Got any favourite spots to share about?
