.......so after a count of 14 dead Kangaroo's, there was nearly a death of one or two humans during the journey up to Canberra from Melbourne. Allow me to elucidate:

Following Canberra, we were due to drive onwards to Sydney in preparation for New Years Eve, and with Sydney being totally rammed on New Years Eve, including both viewing venues and accommodation close to the harbour, General Commander Lestuzzi had worked tirelessly to book us into a very central hotel AND managed to get us tickets to the Sydney Zoo to watch the fireworks, arguably the City's best view of the displays (according to their flyer anyway). So when, and after a good 6 hours into the journey, Chiara turned to Joel and said "you remembered the Zoo ticket's didn't you....", well you can guess what happened. While we were approaching the nations capital, tired, wilting and somewhat moist under the armpit, the tickets were happily enjoying being sat on the cons kitchen table in Melbourne!! Cue some swearing, the banding around of a few ideas of how to blag our way into the Zoo, an irate and unproductive phone call to ticketek (Aussie equivalent to Ticketmaster) and some embarrassing silences. It was decided that poor old Chiara would simply have to fly to/from Canberra to Melbourne....rather you than me love, you deserve a medal!!!

Arriving in Canberra we were warmly welcomed by Joel's parents, Mark and Cecilia with a cold beer and the delights of the infamous Curtis 'Wokfest'! - Cecilia had worked magic with the Ken Hom oversized frying pan! So much so, that we had to sink several beers and even a few bottles of Champagne to celebrate the feat!

The next morning it was a reasonably late rise, and with the sun cracking the flags, we took off to spend the day checking out 'Canbo'.
Now we'd heard alot about Canberra from various people who'd "Done" the city, and I have to be honest, not many were too favourable. However, not ones for secondary descriptions, we set aside the prejudices that kept several descriptees safe and warm from the waters of individualism, and kept our minds open.

Canberra itself was created when Australia was made into a federation - the conflict between Sydney and Melbourne about who should be the new capital of the federation eventually lead to an agreement in which land somewhere between the middle of the two City's should be the new capital. So now we see Canberra residing as a purpose built city, in a brand new state (Australian Capital Territory) pretty much solely made up of the government of Australia, Parliament house and a whole host of governmental departments and foreign offices. Consequently, the greater populace in Canberra work in and around these departments.

With that in mind, the obvious first place to visit was......well, not Parliament house, but Mt.Ainslie which gives a birds eye view of the whole of the city. If you view any photo's of Canberra in magazines or on the net, 9 times out of 10, it will be photo of the city from this point which gives a great view directly up Anzac Parade, over the [man made] lake Burley Griffin, directly to the Parliament House.

Our next port of call was Parliament House itself on Capital Hill - a pretty impressive building, especially so when hearing the designers thoughts (some Italian dude) that the design allowed for the building to be built into the hill, thus preserving the shape of the hill, with the roof being grassed over. The wop quite cleverly designed the building to be very accessable to the public, who could walk over the top of the building, thus resulting in the government 'never being above the people' - an example of metaphoric equilibrium maybe our government could learn from!

So, after an hour or so checking out The Great Hall, the House of Representatives and The Senate of Parliament House, it was time to get ourselves off to the botanical gardens to 'punch' a cafe latte, grab some lunch, and view some wildlife. This was pretty descent, as Canberra (known as the 'bush capital') has loads of wildlife literally flying, running, slithering all round you from morning to night. A nice touch, that probably your average drunk backpacker wouldn't notice.......am I getting old??

So after a few circuits of the city in the car, it was pretty much the sights of Canberra wrapped up (that we'd wanted to go to). So it was time for, yet another, barbeque party (life was pretty hard at this point!) courtesy of the swiss family Lestuzzi.
So after more military-esque preparation from Chiara, it was round to Paul and John Lestuzzi's to meet what has to be said the tallest family, probably not only in the southern hemisphere, but the entire world!! This cons family could literally represent Canberra basketball team, they were that tall. The starting five, including Chiara, Paul, John, Biancha (and the absent Anna) literally saw Belle and me cowering timidly in the corner of the room for a good hour, afraid to speak! I jest of course, we did pluck enough courage to ask to go to the bathroom! I jest again, the team were incredibly friendly as we were invited into the bosom of the family for what was a great afternoon/evening drinking booze, eating too much, and swapping christmas presents (one of which was a pair of Australian boxer shorts which I gladly 'modelled' for the crowd).

The next morning, we woke again in the Curtis household, and today was the day Belle and I were going to leave behind our 3 t-shirts we'd been rotating since November, straighten our hair (well one of us), put on a pair of long legged pantalons and slap on a bit of lotion - for that day we were going to blow the flashpacker/backpacker swingometer wide open, by going for lunch at the Canberra Hyatt, the capitals premier [and interestingly enough, first] hotel.
A lovely afternoon with Joel's family saw us two eat food like it had gone out of fashion. Picture the lice ridden eastern europeans joining Micheal Caine's football team for the first time in Escape to Victory, and you see me and belle - simply in awe of what was on offer!

After the Hyatt, it was time to loosen the belt, and head over to the nearest RSL club (RSL: Returned and Services League clubs - Australians answer to the British working mans club, but instead of stale beer and a few flat caps in a smoky room, these places look like city centre flash bars but with the prices of beer being like working mens clubs - good times!!). At 'The Mawson Club' we met up with our friends Mark and Angela (Mark was Belle's mentor, advisor, drinking buddy and bloody good bloke while at Cookson in London) and we drank the night away discussing the finer points in life, one of which being the new bump in the belly of Angela, made by Mark - kids, go ask Mummy and Daddy how bumps in tummy's happen!

The hangover the next morning was soon extinguished by, and I admit, a shamelessly guilt free sleep-in. Some 5 hours since Chiara had set-off for Canberra airport for the Sydney zoo tickets, wee Belle, myself and Joel rose to be faced with the second Curtis signature dish, an 'Eggin' - a meticulously prepared fry up, complete with a range of home grown mixed herbs that each compliment a 'primary' item of this quite amazing breakfast platter. Beautiful!! So much so, that apparently only two dishes can be made at any one time - I was one of the lucky ones, mine came first!!!

In the afternoon it was off to meet Chiara at the airport, and make our way to Sydney. Time enough though to reminisce on our short time in Canberra and dismiss the reports of those who had berated the capital for being boring and lifeless. Admittedly not one for the young high haired backpacker who is only interested in beers and dipping Cecil in hot fat!! It is a place of genuine beauty, wide open spaces, a proud government office and the biggest Australian flag. All hail Canberra!!!