Monday, 17 February 2014

Our Valentine Weekend at Sun City Resort

We took a Valentine weekend holiday recently to Sun City, South Africa. This was our second visit here. Sun City is a great family resort, including water parks, a casino and much more. While there, we enjoyed the beautiful water park, Valley of the Waves, Water World and the entertainment center, which is full of arcade games and restaurants, a movie theatre, giant maze, teen dance club and more. With Sun City being just minutes from Pilanesberg National Park, they will also help organize game drives, zip lining and other activities for you.

We stayed at The Cabanas, which is located at Water World on the beautiful lake. This was the first time that we had been here. We were told that this was the most family friendly hotel to stay at. It wasn't the nicest of those available at Sun City, but was very family friendly, so it worked out great for us. There are shuttles available that run all day back and forth between the hotels and parks, which is very convenient.

At Water World, you can enjoy water sports, such as jet skiing, a banana boat, parasailing, speed boats, and bumper boats. There is also a play park, large swimming pool, train ride, mini quad riding, miniature golf, an animal exhibit and Kamp Kwena Fort for kids. Since we booked a few days at the Cabanas, they also included our Valley of the Waves admission tickets and a large breakfast buffet each day. The breakfast was great. It included all things breakfast and even had a pancake bar. We were also able to admire a woman a few tables over eating her breakfast, with her pet monkey on her shoulder. The kids got a kick out of that. After breakfast, the kids enjoyed the play area right next to the restaraunt, which also had women doing Valentine crafts with them.

Valley of the Waves is a wonderful family water park. There are several locations that you can settle in at. There is a kid friendly area for the little ones, with small water slides and fun. There is the giant wave pool, with sand and all, which has a stage with a DJ and family friendly interactive games going on throughout the day and there is also and adult pool located at on top of a building overlooking the park, with a huge bar. There are a few SA popular fast food restaurants to eat at and also food, ice cream and beer stands along the paths. Even waiters that walk along the beach that can bring you any of these things. There are of course also some really great water slides. The Temple of Courage is a speed slide, which has a 17 meter drop down a 70 meter slide. There are also two body slides and two tube slides. My husband enjoyed the speed slide….many times.

And, don't forget the casino if you are up for gambling. It is located in the Sun City Hotel. There are tons of slots and tables to enjoy.

Overall, we loved Sun City once again and the kids have already been asking when we can go back. It's a great weekend getaway for the entire family.






 Matt surviving The Temple of Courage

 The beautiful lake behind our hotel at Water World

 Our family :)


 The swimming pool at The Cabanas
 Mini quad fun


 Kenley's first time EVER miniature golfing.




 Ready for our speed boat ride around the lake.

What a fun weekend! 
Happy Valentine's Day!

Sunday, 2 February 2014

Chinese New Year at The Nan Hua Buddhist Temple, Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa

Today we attended the Chinese New Year Celebration at the Nan Hua Buddhist Temple. This is the year of the horse. It was a truly beautiful place surrounded with nice people, great food, music, a parade and more. We really enjoyed it! Here are some photos from our day :)












 We were able to to write our wishes on the ribbon connected to a Chinese coin and toss it into the Wishing Tree.











 Fireworks
 Parade
 Tons of yummy Chinese food.











 Gia adopted a bamboo plant :)