On Jerry's last day we packed in a full
day in town. First we visited the World War II oil tunnels, which although were worth a look as far as it's significance to Darwin's history, it's presentation and self guided walk were a little underwhelming.
From here we visited the Darwin Museum, which both kids and adults alike loved. Matt was immediately taken with the bird and shell displays which line the walkway up to the first level, and upon reaching the first level we were greeted by Northern Territory's largest caught crocodile "Sweetheart". Zach so entranced by this, he watched the video presentation twice, even then, having to be coaxed away as we thought watching it a third time was overkill. Drool was dripping from Josh's gaping mouth as we entered the featured display on fishing. There were wall to wall displays of lures, flys, hooks and reels as well as pictures of large Barramundi caught. In this exhibit the other 3 kids were more interested in the Indigenous spears, baskets and nets as well as the bottled specimens of sea snakes, fish and baby dolphins. Abbey was intrigued by the sound room in the Cyclone Tracy exhibit. As you entered a pitch black booth a reenactment of the sound of the cyclone started, before wandering around the partitions depicting photos, newspaper reports and memorabilia. While the adults were taking all this in, Abbey spent her time racing around to the sound booth time and time again. The underwater exhibit was fun as there were many fish, turtles, rays and sharks we had swum with at Ningaloo Reef, bringing back some awesome memories. Although Darwin's Museum is significantly smaller than Melbourne's we were all impressed with it, Jerry even commenting to Nick that he was impressed at how the kids embraced the museum and didn't say "I'm bored" once.
We headed over to the waterfront for a cool drink and some lunch. As we were walking down we noticed marquees set up, jumping castle and inflatable water slide. The kids were pretty excited by the sight of this, so we set off to discover what was going on. It was a festival celebrating NAIDOC Week. Naively I asked if it was just for Indiginous people, to which I was graciously told NAIDOC week is to be celebrated by everyone. We wandered from marquee to marquee, picking up show bags, mugs, pens, wrist bands, hats, drinkbottles, stickers and leaflets from the various organizations involved in support, education, training, social and work needs of the Indiginous people of the Northern Territory. We enjoyed a good few hours here watching a tribal dance, cooling off on the water slide, lunch and face painting before having to take Jerry to the airport.
Darwin's airport is literally only 10 minutes out of town, unless there is a taxi on fire causing all 3 lanes of traffic to come to a complete halt. We did a U turn as soon as we could and set off on another route. This too was congested with "peak hour" traffic, causing all matter of tension in the car. Abbey was crying as she was "busting", Nick was getting frustrated with the traffic and wanted to go down the left hand emergency lane, while Jerry was quietly stressing about whether he would make check in time. Finally we made it to the airport. Nick and Jerry raced over to check in while I parked the car and dealt with Abbeys issue. Thankfully, Jerry did make his plane, with just minutes to spare, (although I wonder if the whole scenario was Nicks ploy to keep Jerry here longer if he did miss his plane), and we sadly waved him goodbye, thankful for Tim & Joys generosity in sending Jerry up to spend time with us.
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