Chipmunks visit!
Earlier in the week, I
took my children to a large famous indoor play centre, the Chipmunks!
What is Chipmunks?
Chipmunks is a franchise
brand name for large indoor kids play centres. It is a play centre combined
with café business, where you pay entry fee for kids to play, and once you enter
parents could enjoying a cup of coffee and other café food. It is a great place
to be, to entertain kids on those rainy gloomy cold days.
On the left is the play area;
right is the café area with purple and yellow chairs.
Where can I find Chipmunks?
According to their
website, they have 13 locations in the North island of NZ, and 5 more in the
South island (checked in 2017). Out of those, 5 are located in Auckland region.
They also have locations in Australia and Indonesia.
You can check on their
homepage for more information.
On the above website, you can also find
administration fee information, and also send enquiries about holding birthday
parties there.
The
place is busy on Saturday and Sundays…!
For this occasion, we
went to the Chipmunks in Tauranga. It was cloudy day looking like it could
shower any time, and it was Saturday morning. So we expected that the place
would be rather busy, and we were right!
We entered the premise
around 10am and at that time, half of the tables were empty; the place did not
seem all that busy. However, we noticed that there were reserved table. Later
we found out that there were three birthday groups on that day, and the place
got busier and busier!
Inside
is huge! Enough space for kids to bounce and run!
The kids play area is
very spacious. When you enter, straight away you see a large air-filled slide
where children could bounce and roll.
Hard to see in this
picture, but there is a huge slide at the back! I would love to give it a go
but no adult is allowed, sorry!
Main play area has a
large slide and three story climbing area too.
Air-pressured sponge shooting gun – super exciting for all boys and
girls!
The favorite area for my
boys is the shooting arena, where you can use one of air pressure gun to shoot out
soft balls made of sponge-type material. The ball is about the size of kids’
fists, and it is soft. You pickup those balls, put it in a air gun, and push a
button. Then you hear the “Shhh!!” sound and your ball will get shot out
flying.。
The air-gun looks really
large for kids and looks really cool!
Balls fall in the area
underneath, and there little children are usually running around collecting
some balls into a bucket or a bag.
A lot of fun just picking up balls too!
What
to watch out for at the Chipmunks
Chipmunks is a café business,
and it is not allowed to bring your own food and drinks. Instead, you have to
purchase food and drinks there. They sell chips, nuggets, pizza, muffins and
other variety of food you could eat for lunch.
They serve coffee too; a
mum could probably enjoy a cappuccino while her child is playing in the play
area if he/she is old enough to play by him/herself.
On the other hand, if you
are bringing a little one, like preschool age, then you probably don’t want
your eyes off them as it can be a bit dangerous with larger kids running and
playing wild.
They do have an area
especially for kids under 5, but even then a close supervision is required as
it could still be dangerous if 2 year-old get bumped by a 5 year-old. Staffs
are busy at the café and they do not have staff on watch for the play area.
Under 5 play area! They have a ball pool
and some more toys inside!
Birthday
party at the Chipmunks!
One of those days, I would love to plan
a birthday party at the Chipmunks! It requires booking ahead of the time, so
you will need to know when you want to hold it, and how many other kids you will
invite.
That is a bit difficult for us as we don’t
normally know which weekend we want to hold birthday parties, so we haven’t got
around to using this service yet. But it would be an awesome party without
doubt. You could organize food and gift packs, and even a visit from the famous
Chipmunk!
How much does it cost to use Chipmunks?
The administration fee on
entry is dependent on the day – e.g. if it is on the weekend, or if it is on
school day, and the location (each location seem to have slightly different
price plan).
The Tauranga franchise we went to;
1～2 year olds $9.90
3～11 year olds $12.90 for non-school day,
1～2 year olds $9.90
3～11 year olds $12.90 for non-school day,
And 1 – 11 year olds $9.90 for school day
Supervising adult don’t get charged. The
entry fee is one-off payment at the start, so it would be more for the money if
you come in early and play for the whole day.
Recommendations about Chipmunks
We have been to three Chipmunk
locations, but all are busy on the weekends. Especially on the day with bad
weather, all parents seem to think of the same idea….
But even on those days, it is quieter in
the early morning, so my recommendation to go first thing in the morning as they
open up.
It gets really busy around 11am-12pm, but
some families who came early in the morning will leave without having lunch
there, so it does calm down a bit in the afternoon compared with the peak time.
This time, we spent good three hours.
Kids had chips and hot-dog munch meal sets, and I enjoyed my latte. It seemed
though that even that was not long enough for my kids…. They were ready to play
more!
