Monday, April 25, 2016

Canberra

We arrived in Canberra on Sunday 13th March and once again got a shuttle straight to the YHA which was superbly located, right in the centre of town.
We had been upgraded to a family room which was huge! It could have slept 7 people if needed... The hostel wasn't as big as the one in Brisbane, but was still very well equipped with a decent kitchen and dining area, pool/spa/sauna, and laundry facilities in the basement which we actually needed to use this time after a week on the road.

On Monday we had a walk around town and couldn't believe how dead and deserted the place was. There was hardly anybody around! We had heard that Canberra was pretty quiet, but this was ridiculous. It turns out that it was 'Canberra Day' and a public holiday, and all the locals had pretty much headed out of town to the coast for the long weekend.

Will spent the remainder of the week visiting colleagues at the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, which was a short bus ride away. Everywhere he has gone he has been treated to exceptional hospitality, and Canberra was no exception. This time his colleagues took both Will and I out to lunch on one of the days at Blu Ginger, a very good Indian restaurant. We were treated to a huge multi-course feast. We were so full that dinner that night ended up being a bowl of cereal each!
I enjoyed my time exploring Canberra. It has a sleepy laid-back type of feel to it. It seems more like a large rural town than a capital city! I enjoyed lots of walking along the shores of Lake Burley. The city is meant to be stunning in the autumn. I could well believe it as there are huge boulevards lined with old oak trees that would look amazing when the leaves turned. Some trees were starting, but we were probably 2 or 3 weeks too early.
Being the capital city, every second building seemed to have the word 'National' in it. I do like a good sculpture park, so enjoyed wandering around the one at the National Gallery of Australia.
Inside the gallery was just as interesting. The knitted policeman below was very cool.
I did make a point of checking out Jackson Pollock's 'Blue Poles' which the gallery was criticised for buying for 1.3 million in the 1970's, and is now worth close to 200 million... Here are a couple of other pics.
The National Portrait Gallery next door was also good to wander around.

Anzac Parade is a huge wide boulevard lined with war memorials of all the campaigns that the Australian Army has been involved in. The top pic shows ANZAC parade looking towards the Australian War Memorial and Mt Ainslie, and the second pic shows the other end of the street taken from the War Memorial, looking back towards Parliament House and Capital Hill.
I spent a good half day exploring the Australian War Memorial museum. It was very well designed with plenty of interactive displays. Despite being Australia's war history, a lot of it applied to NZ as well due to the strong ANZAC link between the two countries.
It didn't photograph very well, but below is the Eternal Flame in the Pool of Reflection.
The aircraft hall in the museum was impressive with lots of aircraft and vehicles on display
There was a very cool sound and light show which simulated a bombing mission over Germany.
After the museum I decided to go for a walk up Mt Ainslie. By now it was the heat of the afternoon (about 34 degrees Celsius) so pretty tough going. My reward at the top, however, was gorgeous views over the whole of Canberra.
I was kept company at the top by a pair of very cute parrots who spent the time chattering away to me.
So, that was Canberra done and dusted. Next (and final) stop on the Australian leg of our trip was Melbourne.

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