Polly Woodside – Pirate Sunday, every Sunday in January!
Polly Woodside Pirate Sunday
When: First Sunday of the month, but during January it’s every Sunday!
Where: Polly Woodside, 2A Clarendon St, South Wharf
What: A day filled with action, adventure, fun and games to suit toddlers to 12 year olds
Cost: the regular admission fees, ($8 child, $15 adult, click here for more information)
Review
The Pirate crew on Polly Woodside were genuinely friendly and also fantastic at managing a decent sized group of kids of various ages through a range of activities… there was never a lull and each activity flowed seamlessly. The crew embraced their inner pirate and really seemed to be enjoying themselves. And so without skipping a beat both children and adults joined in the adventure.
We arrived at 10am with some friends – the perfect time for the first activity of the day, storytime. After storytime there was time to make a parrot, do some colouring at the craft table, have faces painted and get a pirate tattoo. Our next activity was to “abandon ship” so that we could partake in tug-o-war. While on land the treasure hunt was set up and on returning to the ship the children had to find 55 gold coins – and we were given a strict briefing about how this would be done to avoid smaller pirates being trampled.. and thankfully it was all very jolly! At the end of the hunt, each of the pirates were given a souvenir gold coin and then we went below deck to play a game of treasure chest toss (chocolate gold coins were the prize this time – so enthusiasm was high and sugar levels buoyed). We then returned to land for the quoits competition.
At this point it was midday and our little pirates started staging a mutiny… of the hunger kind. So we headed next door to the Boatbuilders Yard (discovered the section near the BBQ is a little more removed from the water’s edge than the boardwalk side of the building) and it was toasted cheese sandwiches for four hungry pirates.
The day’s activities continued after we left with walking the plank, more story time, two more treasure hunts and furling the sails.
The friends who joined us had never been to Polly Woodside and had some reservations that it might be a cheesy tourist experience – they were pleasantly surprised, and while we headed home for nap time after our toasties – our friends returned to the Polly Woodside for more! (The entry ticket acts as an all day pass.) The National Trust of Australia does an amazing job at both preserving and presenting this wonderful piece of history.
