Darwin - a beautiful harbour city



The great wave lagoon on the Darwin waterfront



Charlie reading about the bombing of Darwin Harbour

The watefront precinct Darwin

One of the WWII oil storage tunnels

One of the information board in the WWII oil storage tunnels

Jane outside Government House - a lovely building in a beautiful position

Charlie at one of the underground ammunition batteries at East Point

Charlie wrestling a crocodile at the marina - the new Crocodile Dundee maybe?

Waterfront properties at the Cullen Bay marina in Darwin

Cullen Bay marina in Darwin

Jane outside Buzz cafe at the Cullen Bay  marina - they have the "quirky" men's loo

Well we have spent some time in Darwin now and we are loving every minute of it.  The city is so easy to get around, apparently it was surveyed by the same person who surveyed Adelaide and is done in squares so we are finding it difficult to get lost (well I am anyway!!). 

One day we spent some time down at the waterfront which is a lovely area and there is a wave lagoon there which looks fantastic fun - might have to go back with my boogie board!!  The waves get quite high and the people in there are having a ball.  There is a small charge for the day - only about $8 or so but it looks well worth it.  There is also a large swimming lagoon alongside which is free.  These pools are all surrounded by a lovely waterfront precinct with cafes and shops.  We had a lovely coffee watching all the activities before we wandered around the area reading all about Darwin's part in WWII.  I never realised until we came here what an important part Darwin played in the history of the war so have learnt something this trip.

We also went to have a look around the WWII oil storage tunnels which were constructed in 1943 to protect Darwin's oil supplies.  Apparently they were all dug by hand but by the time they were finished the war was over as they took 2 years to complete!!  They are now a major tourist attraction.  After that we wandered around the Esplanade looking at all the plaques commemorating certain events in the war and ended up outside of Government House which is a beautiful white picket fenced wooden building overlooking the water.  From there we wandered on to the Darwin wharf where we had a lovely lunch of local NT barramundi and chips.

Shopping in Darwin is easy as with every city there is a mall with lots of specialty shops, cafes etc along with the suburban shopping centres but haven't spent too much time shopping as we are saving our pennies so that we can do some of the tours etc.  However its still nice to wander along the mall and listen to the buskers, have a relaxing (there's that word again) coffee and people watch.  The weather is just perfect at the moment, very warm and have had a couple of quite humid days.

On Monday we decided to go and have an "old farts" lunch at the Skycity Casino in Darwin.  What a great deal that was.  We both joined and it didn't cost us anything and with our membership they gave us $15 each to play on the pokies, a free drink (beer, wine, basic spirit, soft drink), plus $5 for keno and we also had a smorgasbord lunch at a cheap rate because we are "seniors".  It was a beautiful lunch with everything imaginable in a beautiful venue overlooking the sea.  We managed to win about $15 between us which we thought was ok although would have liked to have been like John in our caravan park who won $5,500 with his free money!!

After that we wandered down to the Cullen Bay marina - there's certainly some money there and some beautiful waterfront properties.  Had a drink in the Buzz cafe and then I did the "mum" thing and persuaded Charlie that he needed to go to the loo.  After going to the "fake" loo which is just a door and then an inner door which won 't open and standing there trying to get in, he found the men's loo.  Inside the urinal is up against a one way wall of glasss and as he's doing (or trying) to do the business, I'm standing on the other side of the glass waving at him as you can see out into the cafe.  He said it put him off - I wonder why????  All good for a laugh!!

Well that's probably all for now about Darwin - we will be leaving on Saturday or Sunday as we are going on a houseboat on the Mary River for 3 days and 2 nights with Lyn and Graeme so until I've got more to say Adieu from The Wandering 2s.