Just after passing through the wardrobe at the Chronicles of Narnia Exhibition.

The Holiday Season has drawn me to my hometown of Melbourne and while most of it has been spent in the ‘burbs’ we are loving living it up in the city for a couple of nights.  The Melbourne Docklands is considered a developmental white elephant by some Melbournians so we did not venture there in our most recent trip to Melbourne.  This time we had our sights set on the Chronicles of Narnia Exhibition at the Docklands Pavilion so we headed out with dual purposes.  The first of these was to enjoy an interactive display inspired by the tales of C.S Lewis and brought to life by the Disney movies.  The second was to forge our own opinion of the Melbourne Docklands.

I have previously shared my reasons for being particularly fond of the Narnia Chronicles in a past competition post.  I am delighted that my four year old now shares my joy in the tales of Narnia after reading the “Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” at story time in recent weeks.  The Chronicles of Narnia Exhibition took us through the wardrobe into a snow-covered forest and then to a variety of exhibits that featured aspects of the Disney movies.  I initially had some doubts about the value of the Exhibition given its price ($59.90 for a family pass of four tickets) and its size, which is modest (we stayed there for about 1 ½ hours).   I left the Exhibition sold though on a number of counts.  Both my boys loved it which is obviously a plus.  Possibly more importantly my husband, who gets dragged to more than a handful of family activities that he would rather miss rated it highly.  He was a fan of fantasy literature growing up and the Exhibit floated his boat in a way that the cuter Disney activities don’t.   While the Narnia tales are for both boys and girls, there is a masculine aspect to the Chronicles of Narnia Exhibition that worked particularly well with us.   For example, I would not have guessed that launching a replica catapult was an amazing activity.  Dad and boys had no doubt that it was and similarly loved building castle arches and lifting swords.  So my recommendation would be that a visit to the Chronicles of Narnia Exhibition is definitely one to include dads on.

An icy waterfall at the Chronicles of Narnia Exhibition

As for the Docklands, while there was evidence of some failed businesses, and the precinct was quiet when we first arrived in the morning, by lunchtime it was a busy dining and shopping hub.  Other than the Chronicles of Narnia Exhibition the Docklands offered a host of family friendly activities including an ice-rink and carnival rides.  I also noted there were a number of our favourite dining options including San Churro Chocolatoria and the Groove Train.

The Melbourne Dockands. Deserted at 10am

Note:  The Chronicles of Narnia Exhibition has now closed.

The Melbourne Dockands are accessible via the free City Circle trams.

Disclaimer:  We received free entry into the Exhibition.

Check out some other photos from travel bloggers at Delicious Baby’s Photo Friday.

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