Day 36 – Drive to Canberra. For breakfast we went to the local shopping mall where we had the best coffee ever. It was just a chain (Oliver Brown) but the coffee was SO good. Brent had a long black and plain waffle (to his happy surprise it came with Nutella and ice cream on it). Bron had an iced latte and cheese and tomato toastie. The coffee was good enough it deserves a moment of recognition on the blog….
Bron had researched what to see between Sydney and Canberra so we took off on a detour to Fitzroy Falls. There were quite a few bursts of driving rain on the drive so we were a bit blah about a walk but it cleared up in perfect timing for our arrival. I love when we go somewhere not knowing what to expect and it exceeds expectations. This was one of those. The first viewpoint was about 300m from the carpark and had both of us saying ‘Woah!’. The canyon was awe-inspiringly large – photos don’t really capture it.
Again as we didn’t know what was going to be there, it was wonderful to discover a great walk – there was an out and back trail with things to see every few 100m. *side note; the temperature had also dropped and was about 10 degrees. These Canadians even wished they’d grabbed sweaters (which were buried deep deep in the packs) but LOVED the cool weather.
We went about 2km out to the Grotto then back – well worth a visit.
Another pleasant surprise arriving at our hotel which turned out to be RIGHT in a wine region. There are about 20 wineries within a few kms, and a free bottle of bubbly in the fridge waiting for us!
Day 37 – Culture in Canberra. Today we drove into the city to see the capitol sights. Canberra is very spaced out (a result of being a planned city I guess). Initially we’d planned to park once and walk everywhere which is a good tactic in most big cities, but in the end we found it easy to drive and found free parking everywhere. Our first stop was the Australian Mint where we took the free tour. It was quite well done and we saw part of the valuable coin collection and, most impressively, windows looking down on all of the factory floors. It was fun to hear $200,000 of coins being poured from a drum into a hopper. The coin presses can turn out about 120 coins per minute.
Next stop was the Parliament Building. There was some free parking in a garden about 20 minutes walk away so we chose that to stretch our legs.
We had lunch in the parliament café (along side many, many people in business suits). Brent had a pizza which was great and Bron had a vegetable roulade which LOOKED great, but was full of evil eggplant, cooked peppers, and arugula (for people who like that kind of thing, it would be awesome, for Bron YUCK).
To go into the sitting chambers we had to coat check all of our things including phone, sunglasses, etc. After a second round of security we went into the Senate Gallery for a few minutes. It was running, but not well attended. Perhaps about 7 Senators plus a few pages and the chair – full senate is 76 members – 12 equally from each state. Most of them were a) doing the crossword puzzle b) on facebook or c) shuffling papers around. Brent has decided he will come out of retirement to become a Senator.
The building was quite interesting. The roof is largely grass with an enormous flag pole and view in a direct line to the War Memorial and Mount Ainslie.
Some of the rooms were closed for events and there was a long wait to see the house of representative gallery so we didn’t do that (we think there was some contentious legislation being debated) but we still enjoyed our experience.
On the way back to the car we checked out the Old Parliament Building which had a beautiful rose garden.
After an ice cream stop (at Frujii desert laboratory – super delicious) we went to the War Memorial. The Tomb of the Unknown Solider was particularly breath-taking. All the interior of the building was completed with tile mosaics, and had depictions of people from each of the branches of the Armed Services – including the Nurses.
Our final stop was the lookout on Mount Ainslie.
Day 38 – In the morning we indulged in a coffee with coffee liquor that we got from Jaques in the Atherton Table Lands (way back in the Cairns days). We knew we weren’t going to drive anywhere today!
We spent a chunk of time planning the rest of our Australia accommodation and catching up on various chores. We go back and forth on wanting to be spontaneous but concerned about finding a good deal. As school holidays here are rapidly approaching (meaning things are going to get much busier) and we now have a good idea of the pace/style we most enjoy we have booked our accommodation until we depart for New Zealand mid-January.
When all the work was done, we borrowed a couple bikes from the hotel and ventured out on a mini wine tour. Neither of us had been on a bike in a long time so it was a bit rough going. Luckily the scenery was gorgeous and the temperature was a perfect 20 degrees.
Clonakilla Winery was excellent. Very friendly and informative staff – and we could try as many of the wines as we wanted. We each picked our favorites and got a glass + bottle. It was pretty blissful enjoying our wine on the patio with the backdrop of vines!
Brent And Bron Abroad 