Located just 90 minutes west from Sydney, the World-Heritage-listed Blue Mountains has some of the country’s most breathtaking natural attractions.
The temperature during the Winter months is quite cool, averaging at around 50 C. During this time, groups tend to opt for indoor activities or if they do decide to venture outside, do so during the day whilst the sun is high in the sky. Summer days can be quite mild at around 180 C; however, we would still recommend rugging up at night. Outdoor activities work well during this time and regardless of the time of year – with the right attitude and the appropriate clothing (layers!) there’s no reason why groups wouldn’t love an explore around the local sights!
We’ve put a list together of our top team building ideas for the Blue Mountains for your next conference offsite:
Blue Mountains Explorer
The Explorer is an Amazing Race / Treasure Hunt style of program based around the local area surrounding your conference venue. The event is an action-packed 2 – 4-hour adventure that takes in all the sites of the Blue Mountains (including the Three Sisters) where each team is driven around the area in a minibus undertaking team challenges. Speed is not always the deciding factor with a strong emphasis on route selection, problem-solving skills and team effectiveness at each of the activities.
Teams of delegates will aim to find various ‘roadblocks’ hidden around the local area. Each team has a mini bus and driver who follow clues to find the roadblock activity sites. Awaiting the groups at each station are team-based activities that range from Laser Clay Shooting & Archery to Wine & Chocolate Tasting.
Upon completing each station, teams are given the next clue to their next destination. This event usually starts at the conference venue and finishes either at an off-site dinner location or back at the conference venue.
Scenic World Challenge
The Scenic World Challenge is an event designed specifically for groups conferencing in the beautiful Blue Mountains. The event takes place within Scenic World – a popular tourist destination that is home to the famous: Skyway, Cableway + Railway rides.
Delegates will be divided into teams that compete to outscore their opponents at various challenges spread around Scenic World. Teams will aim to score points at 4 Roadblock Activity sites strategically positioned around Scenic World so that the teams must ride Skyway, Cableway + Railway to reach these destinations.
Delegates will be given a daily pass to use all Scenic World experiences: Skyway, Cableway, Railway and Walkway to transport the teams between the various challenges. The event will be tailored to suit your outcomes, time frame and the venue to ensure the Scenic World Challenge exceeds all expectations. We will work in conjunction with Scenic World to ensure the event is appropriate for the logistics of time and numbers moving through the “rides”.
Roadblock Activities options include: Number Triangle, Nailed it, Eddy the Egg + Shape Shifter
Mini Olympics
The Mini Olympics is a fun activity that provokes competitiveness and plenty of laughter and doesn’t intimidate participants who may be lacking in sporting or physical prowess.
The event involves teams rotating around various sports such as Volleyball, Frisbee, Catapult Firing, T-Ball, Team Tennis, Dodge Ball, Kick Tennis, Sand Scrabble and many more. The options are endless and only dependent on the venue and the size of the group. Activities will be tailored to suit the location.
Each team participates in all of the activities and team scores are tallied to provide an overall winner. In a ceremony at the conclusion of the activity the winning team is presented with Olympic style gold medal medallions.
Laser Clay
Experience the thrill and excitement of shooting clay pigeons as they fly through the air.
This dynamic and interactive activity uses authentic 12-gauge shotguns that have been converted to fire laser beams. Clays with Omni-directional tape are fired from the launcher – when the shooter scores a hit the beam is reflected back to the gun and registers a hit on the electronic scoreboard.
This activity is very popular and loads of fun for males and females of all ages, fitness levels and ability.
Escape
Can your team escape? This exciting Escape the Room challenge is the ultimate team building event that will test the sharpest minds. Each team is “locked” in a room with a set time frame in which to escape before the world as we know it ceases to exist. Teams must follow the clues, solve the puzzles and unlock the secrets to ESCAPE!
For teams to be successful they must communicate, think outside the box, work together, admit to their mistakes and believe they can succeed. All this under extreme time pressure as each team has only 90 minutes to uncover the 8-digit code that will ultimately allow them to escape the room.
This event can be tailored to suit any size group by adding more rooms for more teams. We recommend each team is between 8 – 12 people with each team requiring 1 room. Rooms can be conference rooms, hotel rooms, offices, boardrooms etc. Pinnacle requires 30 minutes in each room prior to the event to set up.
Grape to Glass
Discover the sommelier within! Pinnacle can provide you with your very own Hunter Valley Winemaker who is willing to divulge the secret ingredients and methods required to get the perfect wine from “Grape to Glass”. This unique and hands on activity will have you smelling, swirling and spitting as teams learn to create their very own winning blend. However, the taste alone won’t make you a winner…how often have you bought a bottle of wine based on the sexy label? Teams will also compete to create the greatest label that best reflects their fabulous drop.
Design and flavour are of paramount importance if you want to be the days “Grape to Glass” winning team… But of course, the competition wouldn’t be complete without the perfect sales pitch to your thirsty audience. A bottle of the winning blend complete with winning label design will be distributed to every member of the group to drink as they wish.
Helping Hampers
Give back to the community in this amazing working bee event. Delegates are given the task of turning a room full of boxed toys, dry goods and gifts into hampers for needy families. Pinnacle provides everything from the contents to the hampers to the wrapping and individualised cards to be written by your delegates to the family receiving that hamper. An overwhelming sense of pride and achievement will fill the room as the charity partner presents a thankyou speech on behalf of the families.
Pinnacle will liaise with you to ensure that the event is tailored to your company. We can include your products and we can partner with your preferred charity group to ensure that the event has maximum impact. Often companies like to include the delegates beforehand by holding a charity drive within the workplace to include more toys and alike ….. the options are endless.