Last Day at the Top End

Today is our last full day at the “Top End”, what Aussies call the Northern Territory.  It’s hot and humid here, with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees lately - a bit too hot for a couple of Kiwis.  And there are just two seasons here, the Wet and the Dry, so we’ve been told.

So what should we do on our last day in Darwin, we wondered?  There was plenty to choose from, and we were quite keen to join a coach tour and see the WW11 sites when Darwin was bombed.  Then there was the Hop-on, Hop-off bus that travels around the city.  But after a mammoth 14 hours on the coach the previous day when we visited Kakadu National Park, we were all coached out.  So we started the morning quite calmly, with a leisurely cooked breakfast at the hotel’s Tree Top Restaurant.  And because we had booked the previous night, we got the Early Bird booking special with $6 off each.

Next we had to attend to some laundry duties – after all, just because we are on holiday, the washing still needs to be done.  We had used the washing machine the previous evening, but then found that another guest had used all four of the driers at once for her large load, and they wouldn’t be free for another hour.  There was no way we were going to hang about all hours of the night.  So morning time was drying time.

My laundry assistant

We got chatting to another couple also attending to their laundry, who told us they were having a tenting holiday for 6 months.  Every now and then they spend a night or two at a motel or hotel for a bit of R&R.  They were going home soon to buy themselves a new caravan, and continue on their travels around Australia.  Robin had a great time chatting to the husband about the differences of caravans, tow cars, and roads between Oz and NZ.

In the end we decided to just have a lazy day at the hotel, it really was too hot to do much else.  We spent the afternoon frolicking in the pool.  OK, not exactly frolicking, just sitting in the water cooling off.  Then relaxing on the deck chairs, sipping on cool drinks.  This is the life!

We spent the afternoon in the pool area

Nice and refreshed, we are now looking forward to having dinner at the Darwin RSL tonight.  We've checked it out, and it’s close enough to walk to from our hotel.  Then tomorrow, we are on the move again, and flying to Brisbane.