Friday 18th April 2014

We decided on the spur of the moment, the day before, that we would head to Canberra to see Brenton over the Easter holidays.

So our spur of the moment trip to Canberra, involved a very early rise to get to the train station to catch our vline train to Albury in NSW. The train left late (as normal apparently) good job we weren't planning on getting the connecting bus because as we would have missed it by miles! The train journey was pretty long and uneventful, just scenery watching out of the window. We were sat next to some annoying kids that wouldn't stop talking. Not what you want this early in the morning!

We arrived in Albury and we had a little wait for Brenton to pick us up, so we went into town for a coffee and a stroll. It's a cute little town, not that much was open being the Easter holidays. Brenton came and picked us up and we were on our way to Canberra via the scenic route. It was an amazing drive once we were out of the towns and in the countryside, we drove through Kosciuszko National Park, where Australia's biggest mountain is found. The views were stunning, even though a bush fire has been through the area two years ago. It was a good drive, I'm glad we did this than fly and miss this journey, plus saved a ton of money! It was a long drive, there doesn't really seem to be any 'direct' route to Canberra! But we enjoyed the ride and we had a good catch up with Brenton as we last saw him over a year ago.

We arrived in Canberra quite late, but Brenton drove us around the city, not that I recognised much the next day as it was in the dark! But we did see all the monuments all light up and parliament so it was very pretty. Once we had a short tour we went to the chinese for dinner, which was yum! We are staying at Brenton's apartment, his roommate is over in Perth helping to search for the missing MH370 plane. Which is pretty cool, not the fact the plane is missing though. Brenton was also dog sitting for his sister. So we ended up having his apartment to himself so it was perfect timing!

We had an earlyish night so we can be up and ready for our day or sightseeing.

Saturday 19th April 2014

We woke up and got ourselves ready for when Brenton came to pick us up at 10, Brenton wouldn't tell us where we were going and that he had everything sorted!

So we drove up to Mt Ainslie and we got a great view of Canberra, down Anzac Parade to Capitol Hill. It was great getting a birds eye view of the city and seeing how things are laid out. It reminds me a lot of being at home and the air is so clean, compared to the city!!

So we drove back down Mt Ainslie and headed to the war memorial driving via Anzac Parade where all the war memorial statues are for each significant war that Australia and New Zealand have being involved with.

We walked inside and into the domed area, where there was beautiful stained glass windows, and along the outside every Australian solider that has been killed in service in each war. Several friends and family have put poppies next to their lost ones. It was very moving.

It was lunch time, so Brenton took us to an English pub! But it was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed some good grub and some beers.

Brenton then took us to Canberra's deep space communication complex, I didn't even know this existed! The Americans built this to use to communicate to the moon landing when the US was around the other side. I didn't even realise and it was pretty cool thing to learn! They don't use the original dish, but there is others that they use daily and they had a schedule up of what they were listening to next! They had some moon rock, which was all sparkly, I want one!

Our last stop for the day was to Tidbinbila Nature Reserve trying to spot a koala, they had a few but not wild ones. Just a few that had been rescued from the bush fires. We tried to find some platapuses too, but not lucky enough!!

Brenton had to work this evening so he dropped us off so we can get some dinner. We found a little Laos and Thai restaurant. It was pretty tasty.

We walked home and picked up some popcorn so we could watch a movie. It was really cold and I'm glad we brought our hats and gloves!

We watched a movie before heading to bed!

Sunday 20th April 2014

So we woke up and left the house at 10 again, and headed to our first destination, the tree museum AKA the National Arboretum! It was where a big bush fire came through and burnt everything, so they decided to plant trees here! Its actually a great idea. Prince William and Kate are coming here on Tuesday to plant a tree too.

They also had a mini bonsai tree's! Some of them literally looked like a mini forest! It was pretty cool how they 'groomed' the trees to grow the way they have! It was so fresh out and has actually reminded me of home. I wish we had come to Canberra earlier I might have stayed longer! I think Stu felt the same, I actually got a little homesick which never happens.

We headed to the visitor centre which told us how Canberra become Canberra. Canberra is the largest inland city and the eighth largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the state, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), 280 km south-west of Sydney, and 660 km north-east of Melbourne. The site of Canberra was selected for the location of the nation's capital in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's two largest cities. It is unusual among Australian cities, being an entirely planned city outside of any state. Following an international contest for the city's design, a blueprint by the Chicago architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was selected and construction commenced in 1913. The Griffins' plan featured geometric motifs such as circles, hexagons and triangles, and was centered on axes aligned with significant topographical landmarks in the Australian Capital Territory.

We saw the other designs put forward, the Dutch had rivers everywhere, the French one looked ridiculous, which isn't surprising! It was pretty fascintating, I quite like the design of Canberra, straight lines and circles etc for the OCD in me!

We headed over to Parliament, its very easy to spot it has a giant flag pole on top! The building was designed by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects and opened on 9 May 1988 by Elizabeth II. So we went in and looked at all the rooms where Mr Abbott sits down and makes up some ridiculous laws etc and they get passed here! We went up on the roof as well where we can look down to the war memorial.

We drove round the embassies and checked them out and try and guess the flags etc. It was pretty cool!

Brenton dropped us off National Museum as he was heading for the rugby so we had a wonder round checking out the exhibitions. It had a lot on offer, my brain had turned to mush after a while!

We decided to get some fresh air and walked round Lake Burley Griffin, which is an artificial lake, the river was flooded to create the lake. It was a good walk, and we crossed the lake to get to Old Parliament. There is an exhibition regarding past prime ministers and laws that have been passed etc. It was a good exhibition but too much information again! We walked down to the lake where there was hundreds of flags. We spent a good 30 minutes trying to guess them all while waiting for Brenton to pick us up. We finally realised that the names of the countries were on the floor!! whoops!

We headed back into the city for a drink and some grub!

Monday 21st April 2014

So our last morning in Canberra we headed to the botanical gardens and had a morning walk which was good. It was good seeing all the Australian fauna! We also spotted plenty of parrots squawking.

We also headed up to the Telstra tower for a good view of the city. It was a pretty good view, we didn't spend to long as we had our bus to catch!

We got some lunch and paid for Brenton to say thanks for everything! Before he dropped us off at the bus stop. The bus journey was long and we finally arrived in Melbourne at midnight and crawled into our bed before work tomorrow!