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Published: January 8th 2008
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It was an 8 and a half hour coach trip from Melbourne to Canberra which wasn't too bad as we slept most of the way. We were up at the lovely time of 5:30 and said our goodbyes to Simone and Guiseppe who were nice enough to get up and see us off. We were almost at Canberra and the driver pulled the bus over into a layby and announced that we had a puncture! He spent a while trying to undo the wheel nuts with no success, then as if by magic a guy in a tow truck pulled up next to us and had all the tools for the job! So after leaving Melbourne at 7am we arrived in Canberra at 3:30pm.
We were greeted off the coach by Gareth who is Joe's mum's cousin, which makes him Joe's second cousin! He and his wife Rosemary we kind enough to let us stay and took us out to show us all the sights. After a trip to the market we headed back to their house which is about 20 mins drive from Canberra. As we were pulling up the drive there was a group of Kangaroo's stood by
the dam. We were very excited by this as it was our first spotting of wild kangaroos! We were greeted by two very excited poodles, Mitsy and Jack.
For the first time in a while we had our dinner cooked for us and it was lovely. We had a glass of wine and spent the evening chatting to Gareth and Rosemary. Gareth is originally from Burnham-on-Sea and Rosemary from Yorkshire. We headed off for a great nights sleep after our 5am wake up.
Canberra is Australia's capital city, which was built after they could not decide between Melbourne and Sydney. The population of Canberra is only around 350,000 but the area in which it is set is really big. There are also loads of trees everywhere! We went up Mount Ainsley which overlooks the city and you can barely see any houses because of the trees lining the streets. After taking in the view of Canberra we were treated to lunch down by the lake at Canberra Yacht Club before heading off for a tour of Parliament. Unlike the Parliament tour in New Zealand we were allowed to take photos, so you can see what it's like. It
was a 45 minute walking tour though the Great Hall, House of Senate and House of Representatives. We also went onto the roof to get a view of the city and down Anzac's parade. There is also a piece of the Magna Carta on display inside the main building. All very interesting!
Being the capital city of Australia, there are lot's of international embassys around, so we drove around to take a look. Some of them are very impressive (China, India and Papua New Guinea), some rather dull (Britain, America and Canada). We ended up going past the American embassy a few times (we were trying to find India!) and probably got some attention from the secret service now that they have our fingerprints and retina scans from when we flew into LA! After that we went to the botanic gardens and took a walk through the Rainforest section, keeping an eye out for any snakes or spiders! We didn't see any of those, but back near the visitors centre we saw a few funky little lizards!
That evening we were invited for a BBQ around Joe's other 2nd cousin's (Gareth's brother) Micheal's house. Also joining us were
Gareths son Huey, his partner Noleen and their baby Rachel. After a bit of thinking around the BBQ, we figured out that Huey is Joe's 3rd cousin and baby Rachel his 4th cousin! Confused?! We had a great BBQ (veggie burgers for us!) out on the decking and spent the evening chatting about how much Burnham and Bridgwater have changed since Gareth and Micheal left. It was really good to have a family evening and we saw some old photos of Joe's family and even had a Santa-Kangaroo given to us by Micheal and his wife Lynn as a reminder of Australia at Christmas!
On a rather beautiful and sunny sunday we went to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve set in the surrounding mountains and bushland of Canberra. Sadly alot of the vegitation had been burnt by forest fires in 2003 however alot of it has grown back and it still makes for some spectacular views. We did the Koala walk but sadly couldn't see any Koalas, and also walked to the Platypus viewing but saw no Platypus! This was made up for after lunch by a rogue Emu on the road!
After a quick look around the visitor centre
we went to Canberra Space Centre! We didn't have any idea this was here but it is a satellite listening station used by NASA for relaying data and was used for the Apollo moon landings to relay communications to Mission Control in America as Australia was facing the moon at the time. They even had moon rock on display! That evening we cooked a meal of stuffed peppers (or Capsicum as they're called over here), roast vegetables and Jamie Oliver stylee roast potatoes! It was the least we could do to say thank you to Gareth and Rosemary for letting us stay and being so kind. The view from their house looks over an area of trees with a water filled dam, and while we were cooking a group of Kangaroo's came down and drunk from the water. This more than made up for our lack of Koalas and Platypus (Platypus's or Platypi?! Someone tell us!)!
We were sad to be leaving and Gareth took us out for lunch on Monday (which was reeeally good!) and we then visited the Canberra War Memorial in the afternoon. It's quite a sombering experience but definately worth a look. It was built
to commemerate the Australians who have lost their lives in conflicts around the world. All of the names are listed on a roll of honour around the walls of the memorial and it really puts into perspective the sheer amount of people who have lost their lives. Inside there are alot of displays and exhibits which we spent the afternoon looking around.
So Monday evening it was time to end our short stay in Canberra. Gareth kindly dropped us off at the Bus Station and we boarded our coach for the relatively short 3 and a half hour drive to Sydney!
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Kerry and Justin
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Happy New Year!
Hey guys, hope you had a good xmas and new year, we missed having you around! Miss you loads, take care xxx