Canberra - The Nations Capital

After we said goodbye to everyone and Esmee had a swim in the river with Poppy the dog, we headed as far south as we could go. We spent the whole day driving, and ended up in Wollongong at about 7.30. We sneaked into a caravan park because the office was closed and we had run out of options. The cool thing about driving to Wollongong was stopping at a look out over the ocean and watching the hang gliders jump off the cliff. I would rather sky dive than hang glide I think. The fact that they just run and jump off a cliff to me is terrifying. We also went along a bridge than hugged the cliff edge to the sea. In Wollongong we went to see a historic blowhole. It was a bunch of rocks where the waves would roll underneath (kind of into a cave), and there was a hole at the top where the water would be pushed out like a whales blowhole. People have been killed in there, because you get thrashed and pushed around a cave that is filled with water. I don’t see why you would go in there to be honest, you gotta be stupid. They had a pool that was built into the rock pools. The pool was salt water, and Esmee being as keen as a bean jumped in for a swim.



Esmee and I

After Wollongong we headed straight for Canberra. On our way to Canberra we stopped at yet another waterfall! I didn’t know that Canberra was actually in its own small state called Australian Capital Territory. Kind of bizarre really. On our way to Canberra we passed a lake that had completely dried up. Once we arrived in Canberra we set up camp in a caravan park and Esmee, Camiel and I had a dip in the pool. It was hot and the pool was cold which was nice and refreshing. Afterwards we headed up to see the Government Grounds. Everything in Canberra looks very new. The mall, the government house was new and modern, the museums, the hotels, everything looked like it was built just yesterday. The government house was nice - form the outside. We then drove down to the International Flag display and spotted New Zealand. Then we hunted round for ages looking for a pizza place - we simply could not find one! We drove through the whole city and saw nothing. Eventually we asked some locals who directed us and we finally found a pizza hut!



Government House


International Flag Display

The next day we went to the National Science Museum. It was a hands on museum where you could play and interact with the displays. It was fun. They had an earthquake house, a roller coaster stimulator, and even a small free fall. We spent a few hours there and I learned a lot. We then went to a park and had lunch in the shade out of the heat. The art gallery had an exhibition on that included some of Van Goughs art work from Paris. Mum wanted to see it, but it was expensive so we flagged it and jumped in the car to go south.


At the National Science Museum

There are two main ways to get to Melbourne. You can either go around the coastline, or through the middle winding through the national parks. We took the inland way and headed for Kusciouszko National Park.

Home in a week!
Fem
xox