Canberra, Australia Trip (Day 8)

23rd Feb 2019, Saturday

Last day of holidays....my dad gave us a morning call today and got us up for breakfast. By the time my sis and mi went down for breakfast (included in hotel stay), my dad and step mum were already downstairs eating. So we took our time to have our breakfast there. After breakfast, we went back to the room to watch TV first as it was still early to leave. We checked out the hotel around 9.30 am and my dad decided to head down to the airport (but the flight was around 1 plus) in case there was heavy traffic. Luckily, the car's GPS was able to route us correctly to the airport this time, so we did arrived at the airport earlier than expected. So we parked the car in the allocated lot and went to the rental car office to return the car (Finally off-work as navigator).

Hot Chocolate & Mee

After that, we went ahead to check-in our flight and luggage. Then there was nothing for us to do except to wait in the airport. We waited for around half an hour before we went in to the boarding gates. There was only one shop and three restaurants around, my dad said he was hungry and wanted to eat Thai food there. So we ordered some dishes to share while waiting for boarding. It was quite boring wait there, so i went ahead playing my pokemon go game (need to park pokemons in gyms). We boarded the plane to fly to Melbourne and it was about a hour plus journey.

Once we touched down at Melbourne airport, we had to run to the international airport and we had to pass the customs and security checks. My dad kept on chasing us to walk quickly, if not, the plane would fly off. We did managed to reach the gate without having the leisure time to shop around. But we did managed to grab two big bags of Nougats as the shop was just beside our boarding gate. There was a slight delay in boarding the plane and there were quite a lot of empty seats around. So mi and my sister went ahead to sit at those empty seats after the plane took off. We landed back Singapore safe and sound....and our family adventures ended with some good memories...^_^

Places visited:
Canberra Airport

Hotel Stayed:
The Canberra Rex Hotel
(Car park free)

Canberra, Australia Trip (Day 7)

22nd Feb 2019, Friday

Today we had to leave Kangaroo Valley and headed to Canberra, the capital of Australia. We got ready and said bye-bye to the cottage, goats, kangaroos and the pig. But we still drove to the town to buy the southern pies for the last time before we really leave the town. We drove to Nowra, another town which was about 30 mins away from Kangaroo Valley town. When we reached there, we headed to Hopper's Society cafe for breakfast. I don't like the one i ordered as it was having an ingredient (which was having a funny and spicy taste) inside. But luckily the hot chocolate was still normal.

After breakfast, we drove down to Stockland Shopping Centre which was a short distance away. So we split out to shop and buy our own stuffs. Mi and my sister went ahead to Woolworth and bought the snacks (to bring back to Singapore). After that, we shopped around the different shops till it was time to leave. As it would be a long journey drive, i bought sushi in case we were hungry in the car.
Then we drove out to our next destination, it was about 2hrs plus drive from our current location. As usual, we had to overwrite the car's GPS route (if not, will ended up longer duration and may even get lost). The drive was long and we were not able to see any rest point until 2 hrs later. We finally managed to get a toilet break and my dad was able to stretch his legs for a while.

TV room

Bedroom

Basin Area

We took some time to locate the hotel when we reached Canberra city but we finally reached the hotel around 3.30 pm. After which, i went ahead to do our check-in and we went up to our rooms. I was surprised by the room. There was a mini living room and a separate bedroom. Plus there was a lot of space for the toilet and bathroom. It looked like a mini suite...but too bad, we only had one night stay here.

Naval Ship Bridge

Memorial Hall

Memorial Hall Entrance

After we rested for a while, we headed out to Australia War Memorial Hall which was nearby. It was quite empty when we reached there. So we took our time to take photos on the armoury displays. Then we walked to the memorial hall where there was a memorial ceremony conducting 10 mins later to honour one of the many soldiers who had lost their lives during war times.  So we went into the gift shop to shop before the memorial ceremony started. After that, we waited for the memorial ceremony to start. There were a lot of people gathered around the hall and offering flowers. There was a officer introducing the life of one honoured soldier who had lost his life during world war I.

Juices

Dinner

After that, we stayed around the place for photo taking as the memorial hall was closing soon. We decided to go have dinner in the hotel itself, rather than to drive the car around the city (cos my dad had a long drive today). So we drove back to the hotel and went up to level 6 where there was a pub called "The Howling Moon". The pub had a scenic view of the city and mountains and we were able to get the sunset there too. My dad was busy on the phone (dealing customers' complaints), so we ordered our dinner first. We ordered a salad, beef steak and roasted pork belly dish with some juices. There were other diners having fingers food with alcoholic drinks and it was only around 6 plus.

The food took some time to arrive and the presentations looked yummy. But my dad was still busy on the phone, so we started while waiting for him to come back to the table. The food was nice, especially the roasted meat and were not salty. After dinner, we went back to our rooms to pack our luggage as going to fly back tomorrow.... :(

Places visited:
Stockland Shopping Centre (Nowra)
Australia War Memorial Hall (Canberra)

Hotel Stayed:
The Canberra Rex Hotel
(Car park free)