The mist sweeps down off the mountains and the lake just vanishes. The day has turned flat grey, there’s an unusual dampness in the air and visibility is down to nothing useful. You’ve got the children with you and hours ahead to fill. But, as it turns out, there are worse places for wet weather to happen because Wānaka has endless activity options.
Read on for our favourite places to take the kids when outdoors is off the agenda.
Puzzling World: architecture designed to mess with your heads
Stuart Landsborough started building the original maze in 1973, and the place has been quietly expanding its mind-bogglingness ever since. The succession of illusion rooms, tilted architecture, and perceptual challenges works genuinely on adults, not just children, so everyone gets to feel discombobulated. This disorientation is the whole point, and on a drizzly afternoon when you’d rather be absorbed in something odd than standing in a gift shop, it earns its place.
Allow two to three hours. The café is good if you need time out from the seeing is not believing halfway through your session.
Best for: Most ages, though children under five can find the illusion rooms more alarming than fun.
Book ahead: Usually fine to walk in, but call during school holidays.
Cinema Paradiso: its name isn’t an accident
Most cinemas are not worth describing. Paradiso is an exception, and not because of the programming. It started life in an old church, which gave it a character that the current Ardmore Street premises has managed to keep. You’re seated on sofas and proper armchairs rather than stadium seating, there’s a vintage Morris Minor sitting in the stalls of one screen, and the intermission actually happens. The three screens run current releases and niche movies, catering for all ages and tastes.
The cookies arrive warm at the break, baked on site, and they are very good. Go for the pizza if you’re seriously hungry.
Best for: Any family whose children will sit through a film; works just as well as an adults’ evening out.
Book ahead: Worth booking, particularly weekends and peak weeks.
Read the Wānaka Restaurant Guide
Basecamp Wānaka: when the crags are wet and the kids still need a climb
When the bike trails are too damp for traction and the original plan involved actual rock, Basecamp is the redirect. The Clip N Climb setup is well-designed for children from around five up, auto-belay across a number of themed walls including one in near-darkness, and it reliably does what a wet afternoon needs to do, which is use energy. And plenty of it.
Climbers in the group should look at the main wall. Thirty routes on twelve ropes, enough to keep someone with real technique busy for an afternoon without running out of a challenge.
Best for: Active families; Clip N Climb from around five, main wall for all levels.
Book ahead: For Clip N Climb, especially Saturdays.
National Transport and Toy Museum: where you’ll lose track of time faster than the kids
The scale of this venue will catch you off guard: 600 vehicles, 20 aircraft from the 1930s through to the 1990s, 60,000 toys… Head for the hangar with the aircraft in it first before you tackle the other delights.
Remember that this isn’t a curated heritage institution with interpretive signage and gift shop theatre; it’s an enormous private collection that was eventually opened to the public, and we think a visit still feels more like a rummage, which is the right way to experience it.
Once you’ve exhausted the exhibition, allow plenty of time for the gift shop: it offers a vast selection of Lego kits.
Best for: Everyone, but especially families with broad age ranges and people who like engines.
Book ahead: Walk-in is fine.
Realm VR: stepping outside Wānaka
This venue does exactly what it says it does, providing immersive experiences, billed as “the ultimate escape from reality”. In plain speak, this is full-room virtual reality, which you experience on your own or with up to eight others, with a sensible range across ages and comfort levels.
We think this spread works well if your family has divergent interests, say the kids want something active and immersive, and you’re maybe happy to watch from the outside. Sessions are booked in advance by slot, so it rewards a bit of planning.
Best for: Eight and up, and groups where one experience needs to work for different kinds of people.
Book ahead: Yes, a day or two ahead in busy periods.
Crossfire: where everyone gets their aim right
Not strictly indoors, but Crossfire runs most of its activities under cover and the drive out to Criffel Junction takes just ten minutes. The setup is a combination of claybird shooting in purpose-built booths, a small-bore rifle range, archery, a 220-metre golf driving range, and an (outdoor) eighteen-hole mini golf course. Crossfire works well for families with a spread of ages and interests.
The claybird shooting tends to get the most attention, and the rifle range has a reliable habit of producing results nobody in the group predicted, although these activities are age restricted. Packages are available if you want to combine two or three activities, a good option keeping everyone entertained for a half-day.
Best for: Mixed groups, families with older children, and anyone who wants something active without being outdoors in the weather.
Book ahead: Yes, especially for groups or packages.
SITE Trampoline: jumps and a headstart for powder carvers
This venue isn’t your average trampoline park, but more a place where you go to get better at skiing, snowboarding and skateboarding as well as jump to your heart’s content. Coaches are on the floor during structured sessions, and the trick libraries on their website give a sense of how seriously they take the development side of it.
If the weather turns when you’re in the middle of a ski or snowboard trip, a structured session here on a down day is more useful than it might first appear. For children who want to bounce for two hours on a wet afternoon, it works just as well.
Best for: Children from around three up for Mini Bouncers; older children and adults for freestyle sessions; skiers and snowboarders wanting to work on technique off the mountain.
Book ahead: Yes; check the booking page on bad-weather days as they open earlier when the forecast is poor.
Choosing the right place to stay for all weathers
The venues above cover most of what a wet morning or afternoon needs. But choosing where to stay is a completely separate matter, and one that is well worth thinking through before you arrive with the kids and there’s a run of low cloud rushing in.
Some of what we look for when we match families to a property:
A kitchen that has been taken seriously. Not the holiday rental minimum but a proper one with space and right equipment allowing you to cook together or feed everyone without orchestrating restaurant bookings in bad weather.
Rooms that separate. The dynamic in a holiday home where everyone ends up in the same room by mid-afternoon is familiar and not always fun. A property where children have floor space for a game, or a room of their own to retreat to, makes a long evening indoors a different proposition for the adults.
A covered outside space. The Southern Lakes rain isn’t always cold, so having access to a covered deck or veranda keeps the day from shrinking entirely to the interior. A wet afternoon can still involve a barbecue, with the children moving in and out, and having some sense of being in the landscape rather than stuck indoors.
Read our guide to where to stay this year
A proper screen setup, in its own room. A projector with blackout, separated from the main living area, gives children somewhere to disappear into a film without the afternoon becoming one undifferentiated communal experience. Several of our properties do this well, and it’s the kind of thing children remember about a trip.
Broadband that actually works. Practical rather than atmospheric, but for families travelling with school-age children, or where remote working is part of the trip, it matters. Properties that have done this properly tend to have taken the same approach to other things.
A note on planning
All seven venues are within easy reach of central Wānaka. If you are staying with us and the forecast changes on you, get in touch and we will sort the bookings. Or if you’d like something just for you, check out our tailormade experiences. A different day from the one you planned is often, in the end, a good one.
You might also like
Our top Wānaka Winter Family Adventures
Tips for a summer family holiday in Wānaka
For your accommodation and itinerary needs in Wanaka, contact us today. We have some fantastic holiday rental homes perfect for small and large families. Get in touch: 021 762 694 or stay@releasenz.com