A Day Out at Enlightened Hyland Park

This year, we wanted to take the children out to a light trail! There are quite a few large light trails that aren’t too far from us, but as the children really love going out to Hyland Park, we figured Enlightened at Hyland Estate, would make for an interesting one to visit. Enlightened is an annual lights festival, but we had never been before, and this year, the website stated it was bigger and better than ever – which sounds pretty good to us!

Enlightened has a few different ticket options, with cheaper off-peak tickets, and it is worth noting that despite having carpark metres, the parking for the evening you go on is included in your ticket – you do not need to go and pay it if you are directed to a space by the people running the event! Once we had parked up and slipped into our wellingtons, we got ready to hit the trail! Outside of the light trail, there are a few food stalls, selling the classic light trail foods of hot dogs, chicken, and some sweet treats. We decided to grab something on the wall out – opting for Dutch pancakes, which were eventually pancakes cooked on a Takoyaki grill. These were soft, they were yummy, and we enjoyed them a lot more than we thought we would! They came with different flavored syrups you could have on them, along with whipped cream and powdered sugar. What a decadent treat!

Once we got onto the light trail, we were handed a bunch of little tags that we could make wishes on, for later, and then set off. We went through the classic light tunnel, which was super fun to see and take pictures in – a staple at these sort of light events. One thing about Enlightened – the lights are bright. They are some of the more vibrant lights within a light show that we have seen before. There didn’t seem to be a big theme that went with the whole place, but instead, lots of little sections that were truly magical. One of the first areas we walked through had light bouncing across a number of disco balls in the area, while another had us walking around huge moving spot lights, in a field of rainbow trees. Everyone really liked the look of these colorful trees, which seemed to be a big favorite amongst the group.

There were a lot of different lights, from small lights in the bushes to a few stand out light sculptures that are perfectly set up for pictures. The field of light up deer was fun for Robin to count, where as the W or maybe V or maybe M light that changed color was one Amelia really enjoyed taking a look at. We ended up making our way along super lit up bushes, through the path, to a big fairy area. Small fairy houses lined the sides of the trail, with cages that had reflections of dancing Tinker Bell. A few of these cages didn’t seem to be working due to the light rain earlier, but most were pretty good and really impressed all three of the children. This was another area that seemed quite themed, as apposed to just having light. There was actually a big fairy book that Robin was able to read out to everyone at the end of the fairy trail, which she was very proud of!

We continued on, seeing trees that sparkled with lights, a video playing on a huge screen showcasing a humming bird fluttering about, and made our way to the Make a Wish area. This area of Enlightened was probably the only area I really had complaints about. Up until this point, everyone had been pretty distanced. If you were watching the humming bird show, which had you standing right on the path, people just automatically gave you space and waited before watching themselves. The Make a Wish area was beautiful, but the moment we got in, the lady at the back who’s job was to monitor this section started yelling at everyone to keep moving and hurry up and push in. We are a big family, that needed to get all of our wishes, write them down with one pen, and then tie them up. She continued yelling to keep moving, about every 30 seconds, which really made the experience far from ideal. Either way, we got all of our wishes up on the walls, snapped a few pictures, and made our way out.

Towards the end, there was lights signing 7 Days of Christmas on the house at Hylands Park, as well as a giant tunnel of lighting up squares, that mystified the children. Then the trail spit you out at the start, in case you wanted to check out some of the food stands! Overall, we had a great time at Enlightened and found that the lights themselves were top notch. The trial was really well maintained and easy to walk as a result. We had been having rain that whole week, but the ground itself wasn’t slippery or muddy, and the plastic areas were really done nicely. We will probably find ourselves going again next year too.

This post is apart of our Blogmas series, with each and every post being about Christmas or Winter.