Where the Hell is Fairyland Village??

Back in July, on a particulalry cold and wet Adelaide Sunday, we decided to head out for the day and explore our new surrounds. We had scoured the internet, Googled "things to do in Adelaide" and checked out the local paper and stumbled across a place up in the Adelaide Hills called Fairyland Village. Described as a "Theme Park, Party venue and Fairy shop, the park displays fairytales in life size theatrical settings using antiques and memorabilia. Set in the beautiful Adelaide Hills in the town of Lobethal, Fairyland village has been entertaining children, parents and grand parents since 1973. A delight for all ages." Sounds great right?? Emma was excited - "are we there yet?" was repeated every 5 seconds. After checking whereis.com and setting up the GPS, it appeared it was only going to take us about 45 minutes to get there.

So off we went. I'm not sure what happended or where we took the wrong tun but 45 minutes turned into about three and a half hours!! Luckily I had packed lunch for the girls. We kept driving up hills, down hills, past farms and through towns that reminded me of that movie "Deliverance". Where the hell were we?? At one stage I was laughing so hard I couldn't see the road for tears. Of course, I was the designated driver (as always!) and eventually nature called - I had to go to the toilet - quick!! "We'll stop at the next servo" offers Wayne....there was no "next servo". We kept driving. I was not stopping on the side of the road. Then, out of nowhere, the sign we had been waiting for - "Fairyland Village".

Now, when you describe something as a "theme park", one has images of Dreamworld, Seaworld, even Australia Zoo. Fairyland Village doesn't really fit into any of those images. And it appeared as though some of the theatrical settings hadn't been spruced up since 1973. But Emma was excited. So we were determined to enjoy the day. Unfortunatley, it was probably the coldest, wettest, windest day on record. Luckily, I had rugged up the girls in multiple layers and I personally was wearing almost every piece of clothing I own.

It's cold!!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

They even had a Spongebob display!

These were a little distrubing...

The 'Santa's Workshop' display

Anyway, despite the long, arduous journey, the miserable weather and the somewhat tired state of the displays, we had fun at Fairyland Village. We enjoyed a lovely devonshire tea, with homemade scones and we even went for a second look around before heading off home. It just goes to show that it's not all about the destination - the journey is half the fun!