The last hurrah!

Tonight is our final night with Andrew and the family and we decided to go out in style. We drove to Wildwood (that is what the town is actually called) to visit a good old fashioned American boardwalk. The boardwalk runs parallel to the sea and is a huge wooden structure that you walk along. There are shops on the road side of the boardwalk selling all kinds of junk food and trashy souvenirs. There are also 3 piers which have amusement rides on them.

We went to Pier One first and tried many of the rides. There were wild roller coasters and tamer rides for the smaller children (and me). We went on the log ride first. I can confirm that Andrew squeals like a little girl on the scary parts of the ride! We got wet but it didn't matter because it was so hot. The kids went on roller coasters while I held their phones!

The beach is in between the piers. It is 750m from the road to the beach along a long flat stretch of sand. At high tide, it is only a few metres to the beach.

Once we had tired of Pier One we moved to Pier Two. We timed things just right and came across a brightly coloured marching band. Poppy followed them doing cartwheels and front and back walkovers!

On Pier Two Andrew insisted on taking me up the Ferris Wheel - it was one of the biggest Ferris Wheels I have ever seen and it was a bit nerve racking. It was also a spectacular view.

The kids went on heaps of rollercoasters and other thrill rides while I watched from a safe distance. At 9pm we insisted on feeding them and walked back to the boardwalk to find a place selling something that resembled food. The"restaurant" we found was next to the paintball place. At the paintball, you could shoot a live human target! They had guys dressed in a ton of padding with helmets on dancing around the zone and you were encouraged to shoot them with paintballs. Only in America!

After dinner the older members of our party returned home while Andrew and I stayed on with the 4 children and supervised them on the rides. More outrageous rollercoasters and a few tamer rides as well. By 11pm we had had enough and decided to come home.

On the way out we passed 'The Guesser". For $5 a lady would guess either your age (to within 2 years), your weight (to within 3 pounds) or your birthday (to within 2 months). If she guessed wrong, you got a prize. She did not guess Poppy's birthday (she picked August instead of April) nor Oliver or Eva's weights and she guessed Mercina was 13 years old (how rude)! They each came away with a prize - which was worth less than the $5 we paid. Each child was happy to have a memento of their time at Wildwood Boardwalk.

So now our trip is almost at an end. Tomorrow we begin the long journey home. It will take us 2 hours to drive to Philadelphia, 3.5 hours to fly to Houston, 15 hours to fly to Auckland, 1 hour to fly to Wellington and 1.5 hours to drive to Levin plus all the waiting in between!Read more