Hi-Gear Oasis 8 Tent

Despite my company having a pretty good year last year, the annual incentive bonus was not that good and will certainly not pay for our usual all inclusive holiday abroad. So for 2016 we are planning UK based holidays and predominantly camping which I am really excited about. Tina has finally come around to the idea of camping and the boys absolutely love the camping that we have done recently at Beavers/Cubs.

 

However as much as I love my Mum's old tent and it is perfect for garden sleep-overs and for Beavers, it is not big enough for a family of 5 on holiday. Therefore to convince Tina that camping holidays were a good idea we needed a bigger tent. We looked around at some inflatable tents which looked awesome, but the extra £500 premium just couldn't be justified when the only benefit is saving yourself 30-45 minutes in pitch time. So after looking around many camping shops we all agreed that we liked the Hi-Gear Oasis 6 which is a 6 berth tent and looked more than big enough for our needs. However for only a little extra you could get the Oasis 8 (8 birth tent) and so with a bit of arm twisting I conceded and we went bigger!!

 

The foot print for the new tents is around 6.75m by 5.5m and therefore would not fit in our garden. So the only way of having a trial set-up was over the local park. For our first pitch I think between me, Josh, Brandon and Tina we did a pretty good job and the tent went up very easy. I would say it took us around 40 mins from start to finish which isn't bad when you consider we had Holly jumping all over it as we were trying to put it together. Anyway the tent is amazing and so spacious. Its an absolute monster and resembles a marquee more than a tent. The middle roof section is so high that I couldn't reach the top to clip in the middle 3 bedrooms clips!!!! So when we pitch for real I will need to make sure I have something to stand on to be able to clip these in place.

 

The kids loved getting involved with the tent and Holly was rolling around and generally acting like a lunatic inside the tent. I think we would have liked to have kept it up a little longer to try everything out and check everything was OK, but the Park Ranger came over a got a but funny saying they have had a lot of illegal campers in the park and was concerned that we were going to camp in the park. Not sure where he got that info from as we have lived on the Wick for 15 years and I have never seen a tent other than a fisherman's tent in the park. I told him we were just trying the tent out to make sure it was all OK before holiday and he asked me if I would start taking it down!!! I said no because we had got so far and I told him we needed to finish it to make sure everything was OK because if not we had to get back to the shop within 4 weeks otherwise the whole tent would need to be sent off to the manufacturer which would then put our May camping holiday at risk. Honestly some people are such a jobs worth. 

 

Our new Oasis 8 all ready for 2016 camping holidays.

There is a side door coming out of both sides.

I went for a nice solid steel pole tent, I know it is heavier but my experience with the carbon pole tents hasn't been great.

We have 3 bedroom's inside which sleeps 2-4-2. The boys want the two end rooms so I guess me, Tina and H will have the big middle room. Note the top bedroom clips not in place as I couldn't reach them!!!!

So much space inside and Holly absolutely loved running around like a lunatic.

  

First picture of me and the kiddies with our new super giant tent. The canopy area at the front is really nice to have. Amazingly they sell a canopy extension for this tent as well!!!! Not sure we will need that.

 

This picture gives you a good idea of the size of the tent.

Joshua and Brandon standing in the front door area whilst I am inside sorting out the bedrooms.