NT & WA Trip 2013: Darwin

Well what a great past 5 days we have had in Darwin! Great place & yes I/we could definately live here. Not exactly sure how a wet season would go, but this dry season stuff is our kind of thing! Warm, hot days & balmy nights! I still say I could spend dry season here & the rest of the months in Vic. People are friendly enough, we have managed to navigate out way around easily & think we have it down pat for the time we have been here.

So, it all started on Tuesday when we got to the Big 4 at Howard Springs, its about 23kms out of Darwin, but has everything we needed for a relaxing time to base ourselves. Our site, very large & right across from the new bathrooms & the childrens Splash Park. The kids went straight over to the splash park while we set up! The afternoon was spent going to the info centre & shopping at Casurina (its Darwin's closest to a Westfield!).

Wednesday we went on a double decker bus tour of Darwin. It was a great way to familiarise ourselves with the main attractions of Darwin. We stopped & got off at the waterfront & took the kids for a swim at the Wave Pool. Lots of fun to be had there! We also went & had a look around at the Mall. It was late afternoon & we came back to the park & the kids spent more time at the pool & splash park.

Thursday was my cleaning day! A day where I cleaned the van inside & all over. Changed & washed bed sheets & got rid of all the dust & dirt! Trent & the kids spend a good couple of houdrs or so at the pool. In the afternoon we went to the Darwin's defence experience museum. It was full of great info on how the war came to Australia, but in particular, Darwin. There was a great short film on the morning of the bombing of Darwin

- very interesting. Lots of stories from not only military people but also civilians who took part in the war. On the outside there were other buildings full of memrobillia, guns that were used in the war, military uniforms, communication devices that they used and many other items. It was really worth going & now we all know so much more. The late afternoon & evening was spent at the Mindil Beach Sunset Market. One word: Awsome! Loved it here & we all had such a good time. The food was to die for! Every culture catered for. Phe had Pizza (of course!), Maurice & Flick did too! I started with a crape & ended in a rice dish. Trent had a variety of diferent things too! Yum! The Ice cream at the end of the night was pretty good too! There were of course normal market stores too but it was the food that got us! Watching the sunset on the beach was lovely too. And the entertainment was good fun. We watched a fire show - the kids loved this. Trent & Pheobe had there hands at whip cracking! And Trent did his good deed for the day. As we were walking back to the start he noticed a little boy wondering & then a few minutes later saw a mum talking to the police. He put 2 & 2 together & lead the mum & police to the little boy! Got a handshake from the boys in blue for his trouble!

Friday morning was a day of catching up on some school work for Pheobe & time for Maurice & Flick to play with leggo & keeping themselves amused. Once the task of 'pulling teeth' was over the the homework complete we had some lunch & then spent the afternoon at the pool! 3 hours or so can go so quickly when we are all having so much fun! We took a drive out to Gunn Point, as far north you can go from Darwin. a great beach & camping spot here. Friday night we went & checked out the Palmerston Markets. These are very similar to the Mindil markets but more 'family' orientated. The entertainment was more for children rather than the variety that we had the night before. We decided to have dinner at the local Tavern & watched the first half of the Cats v Nth Melb game on Fox. Back at the van for the 2nd half & I won't say anymore about that.

Gunn Point

Today we got organised & headed into town early. We took the kids to the croc cove. A croc show right in the middle of town. Kids thought it was great. They even had their photos taken while holding a baby croc! We saw big crocs get fed, we saw the croc that starred in the original crocodile dundee movie. The reptile house was great fun, spotting all the didferent animals. We got some time with the man who did the turtle talk & got to pat/feel a turtle. There was a fish feeding show & we even got to see a reptile show where we saw a snake catch a rat & eat it!

On the way home we got some groceries & home to put them away! Then, it was back to the pool for a couple of hours to end the day!