Of Tree Adventures (Jan 2012)

A couple of days ago I was able to have a Father-Son day with my 9 year old. I love these opportunities to hang out, talk (well... listen to him talk incessantly about Minecraft), and be boys.Of course, at this stage, we’re still being boys and not liking girls. Sigh. I am working on that with him. It's taking some time. Apparently girls are a bit stink. Personally, I quite like them. Just so you know.Anyway, the lad wanted to return to Tree Adventures. We’d last visited there over a year ago, and he’d been measuring himself every week, concentrating really hard on growing taller, so he would be able to do some higher, more challenging courses.If you don’t know what Tree Adventures is, check out their website. It’s an outdoor recreational business, nestled amongst the pines of Woodhill Forest. It involves ladders, bridges, swings, nets, flying foxes, helmets and carabiners and not a little physical exertion.We arrived ahead of our scheduled booking, but they were running behind. A busload of holiday programme kids who were scheduled for 10am, arrived at 10:40 and then had food, before getting processed, trained and set loose, much to the irritation of the absolutely fantastic staff.I need to mention that it is very important you book, otherwise you could be waiting a while or not get on the courses at all.After an interminable wait in which the boy got twitchy and impatient, we got kitted up and harnessed and went through the safety briefing and practice course. Then we were off.If you are uncomfortable with heights, this is either torture for you, or it’s a great place to safely conquer your fear.I love how my son makes it a competition. He took great delight in making the obstacles move, swing or bounce, making it more challenging for me to get across.There were a number of times when I heard “Oh, this may be too hard for you, Dad”. Cocky beggar.We were probably climbing for about three hours. Three hours of fun, smiles, and bonding. Tree Adventures is an amazingly great place to explore.The highlight? It was so rewarding when I dropped him home to have him hug me, and say “I really like spending time as just us. Thank you for taking me”.I like knowing that I’m doing a good job with him.- S