Canberra

Canberra is such a big place, with so much to see and do, that I could fill many blog posts about it, but I won't.

We stayed at Capital Country Caravan Park which is still in NSW. Again, the decision was primarily price. We had thought about Cotters Camp but the weather forecast was predicting mid 30s so we decided electricity would be good. This caravan park had a swimming pool and jumping pillow. The pool was good to have on the hot days.

We went to the War Memorial which is something Greg wanted to do. I would have liked to do it too but I opted to do the whirlwind tour with Rory, with his attention span as big as a flea. I got to see snippets, and spent quite a bit of time in the kid's area, which is actually very good. The kid's area has “an underground bunker” the kid can crawl through, dress ups with various army uniforms, a submarine with interactive panels and a helicopter with realistic (very loud) sounds, plus more. Rory enjoyed the sights and sounds and pressing buttons and Tilda learned quite a bit reading various information panels. Perhaps the best part was finding Greg's great grandfather's name on the honour roll. Greg got to place a poppy there in remembrance of him.

A must do in Canberra with kids is Questacon. Given that I am arachnaphobic I spent quite a bit of time in their spider display to try to help conquer my fear. Tilda really enjoyed it as there was a lot of different things to do and interact with. Rory enjoyed it because there were buttons to press. He seems to have this overwhelming need to press something or touch something; so much so that in one shop he walked into he said “I just want to touch something!” in a very pleading tone. It's like a compulsion for him, or perhaps that is just all 2 year olds? The interactive area where there is the free fall slide and other activities for kids, is great fun. Kids learn without even realising it.

We met our old neighbours, as in they moved away quite a few years ago, for dinner one night. It was great to see Andrew and Sarah again as we still miss them. We had dinner at The Durham in Kingston and they served the best hamburgers we've had in a very long time, possibly ever. They were even better as we went there on a Wednesday night so burgers were $10 not $19.

Matilda's favourite part of Questacon was “mummy freaking out on the giant slide” which she then changed to “the area where you put scarfs in inlets into clear air pipes and you can follow their journey until they get shot out of a point up high on the wall”. Tilda spent ages there playing with that.

Despite a very busy morning at Questacon we decided to check out the Pods and Acorns playground at the Canberra Arboretum. While the Arboretum appears to be in its infancy, the playground which is purported to have cost $3 million, was definitely a highlight. We had to pay for parking so we only paid for an hour, figuring the kid were too tired to stay long. When we arrived we were the only people there. Not long after another family with 2 boys arrived. After a while the kids started playing together and we got talking to the parents. It turned out they are another family on the road travelling... and even better, we all clicked and they are lovely people. The kids played together so well and it was so nice chatting to Michael and Melissa that we ended up staying a bit over 2 hours. It turned out they were planning to head to Jindabyne, just like we were, and we both ended up at the same caravan park in Jindabyne, camping next to each other the following week.

That's Tilda and daredevil Rory climbing all the way to the top

We also spent a day at Cockington Green. For those who haven't visited this model village, every building is built to a 1:12 scale. They have a replica of the entrance building in 1:12 at the start so it gives you some persepctive of scale. The kids loved the fairy garden and we took may photos so that we could possibly replicate some of it at home in our fairy garden (that we never really started). Each of the buildings in the main section are replicas of traditional English buildings; some of them complete with hundreds of tiles hand cut to make roofs and other structures. All of the trees a miniature versions, rather than bonsai. The attention to detail is amazing. The kids enjoyed it all. Rory especially loved the train ride. My favourite part was looking at the building styles and the hidden quirky objects hidden in the displays – like Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kanobe fighting or Dr Who and the Tardis. In one scene a dog has run off with the butcher's sausages and the butcher is chasing him with a knife.

There was a lot more we could have seen and done. I would have loved to go to the Glassworks, Greg wanted to go to see the Tom Roberts exhibit at the art gallery and I think we would have all enjoyed the museum but our days were full and it was time to keep travelling. The good part is, Canberra isn't all that far from home so we can always go back and do the things we missed out on another time.

Best bits:

Tilda - “meeting Willow and Sakari”

Rory – “Willow and Akari”

Greg – “the War Memorial”

Therese – “some of the things I learned at Questacon (like what a St Andrew's Cross spider's egg sac look like as it turns out I've always wondered what they are when I saw them and now I know) and meeting new people who turned out to become friends”

Worst Bits:

Tilda – “ants in my bed”

Rory - “having to wait 90 seconds for the train at Cockington Green to reset” (paraphrased)

Greg – “ants that got into everything in the van”

Therese – “noisy buses and school kids jumping on the jumping pillow until 10pm”