Blogs from Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 5

Geo: -12.4613, 130.842We made it to Darwin on 23rd May. Still hot here 33 - 36 every day. We booked into Howard Springs Caravan Park which is about 20 km out of Darwin but it's like being at Gawler with the freeways and 100 km speed limits it takes no time at all to get into the city (not sure you can call it a city). Darwin is a city of suburbs and most of these are small with their own major shopping centres Big W, K Mart and Target. No big stores here like Myers. Lots of local fires that just start and burn for awhile. No-one takes any notice of them at this time of year. Adelaide would have water bombers lined up. The fires just burn the low grass and then go out!!! ... read more

Geo: -12.4613, 130.842SUNDAY, JANUARY 29I woke up and got ready to watch us pull into Darwin. The sun had just risen and we could see the skyline off in the distance. Beautiful morning. Glenn and I ate breakfast up on Deck 12. We made our way to go off shore. I was thinking about an excursion, but we decided to just grab a taxi.Once we got off the boat, we walked around the marina. I started getting a head ache. It was getting hot. Reminded me of the sweltering weather we had in Santa Cruz. Just so hot. We wanted to take a taxi to the wildlife park, but found that it was too far away. We did go into a 7-11 type store and Glenn used the ATM to get some Australian dollars. I also ... read more

Cullen Bay The tranquil marina flanked by waterfront mansions, executive apartments, restaurants and shops with a loverly grassed front beach area on the other side. We visited Cullen Bay twice, the first time was to eat at the Seafood and Steak Restaurant, where we gorged ourselves on an all you can eat buffet, Thomas eating so much of the chocolate fountain that he committed on the way home. The second time was to eat fish 'n' chips and sit on the grassed area to watch the sun go down. We visited a couple of novelty shops and enjoyed the setting immensely .... read more

Mindil Beach Sunset Market. We visited the Market twice. The market is held every Thursday and Sunday evening. The food is amazing, you can eat Thai,Sri Lankan, Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, Brazilian, Greek and Portuguese. There is also lots of art, clothes and craft stalls. We ate numerous dishes for dinner, from laksa, crocodile spring rolls, souvlaki , rice and noodles as the sun went down sitting on the beach. Our main purchase was mozzie coil holders in the shape of lizard and prey mantas. Regular Entertainment consists of a circus type performer with dog and a Mick the Whip cracker. Ally, Billy and Tom all able to crack a whip. On the final weekend of our stay in Darwin the V8 Supercars were in town and the V8 drivers were signing autographs. I was able to ... read more

Deckchair Cinema Operates 7 nights a week between April and mid-November. It shows a diverse range of Australian popular, foreign and family friendly films. Hot food and a licensed kiosk on site. Here we sat on the deck chairs drinking wine and beer with my cousin Merilee and watched an animated art film, 'The Boy and the World' under the stars, whilst the possums roamed the trees and the small lizards climbed the screen.... read more