Blogs from Australian Capital Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 5

Although I am an Australian resident I still travel using my Swedish passport. My boyfriend and I have recently been thinking of going travelling for a while in the beginning of the New Year before I start working full time. As we were brainstorming trip ideas and getting itchy travelling feet I suddenly realised that my passport expires in February next year. The balloon filled with travel excitement started to deflate. My first thought was that I could simply renew my passport at the Swedish consulate in Perth. After many email and phone discussions I was told that the only option for me was to renew my passport in Sweden or at an actual embassy. In Australia there is one Swedish Embassy: in Canberra. So through pure bureaucratic forces I had to book a last minute ... read more

We felt we had to see Australian Capital as we were driving past it but everyone we spoke to thought we were crazy for wanting to go. Their viewpoint was supported by all the books and tourist information we've read which said that there was very little there. For this reason we decided to only spend half a day there. We left Sydney and immediately started having engine troubles with a warning light coming on, at first intermittently and then solidly. It turned out the light was for the water level. I checked the vehicle's manual and, when I couldn't find the water tank where it claimed it was, realised we had the wrong manual. I then opened the engine and looked but couldn't work out how to fill the tank. We limped on to a ... read more

Day 1 (15/10/2015) Left Cranbourne at 8.05PM to get a start & shorten the following day’s drive. Arrived Seymour at 10.35PM & camped near a 24hour service station. Day 2 (16/10/2015) Departed Seymour at 3.45AM. Extremely busy road with hundreds of semi trailers, but being a 2 lane highway in each direction made it an easy drive. Arrived Wangaratta at 5.10AM for breakfast. Caffeine need was high & it gave the necessary kick to get the body into second gear. Departed Wangaratta at 5.50AM. Stopped in Albury to get petrol: Unleaded $129.7/L 48.74L 379.5km 12.7L/100kms Arrived Gundagai at 9.35AM. Took some photos of the dog on the Tuckerbox & had a brief walk to stretch the legs. Departed Gundagai at 10.05AM. Had lunch 30km from Canberra under a nice shady tree just to freshen up before ... read more

Before we left Cowra, we stopped in to the Japanese Gardens and acquainted ourselves with the history of Cowra and specifically the POW camp at Cowra during World War 2. The POW camp was built to hold 4,000 prisoners and by 1944 was overcrowded. Italians, Koreans, Formosans and Japanese were housed at Cowra at this time but a plan to split the Japanese prisoners by sending lower ranks to Hay seems to be the catalyst for the breakout attempt. Early on 5th August 1944, the Japanese in B compound set fire to their huts and stormed the barbed wire perimeter fence. Over 300 Japanese escaped but they were all re-captured within a few weeks. The breakout attempt cost the lives of four Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese. Many of the Japanese committed suicide as they believed ... read more

We had a busy day today. We were up early and had a first stop at the AIS. We were broken into two groups and visited the major stadium, the volleyball, gymnastics centre, gymnasium and pool before spending 45 minutes in the activity zone. After that we headed to old Parliament House where we visited the original senate. Here we meet Isaac Isaacs, the first Australian born Governor General and Quentin Bryce, the first female Governor General, played by our students of course. After that we went to Cockington Green, a minute village and went for a walk around there fanatic gardens. We then headed off for the lunch outside the War Memorial. Following lunch we spend 3 hours visiting the wall memorial which finished with the last post ceremony with each school laying a reath. ... read more