Canberra

Driving down to Canberra was like driving through Wales or Scotland.  When we drove through Oberon we stopped for a break at an interesting monument explaining their forestation policy.  We saw huge areas where the trees had all been felled and later on huge areas of tiny little trees followed by bigger ones etc not to mention the huge logging lorries.

Well the weather continued to improve and we arrived in sunshine but the next day the heavens opened.  We had booked a 1 bedroom cottage in someone's garden which was lovely - different to a hotel or trailer park.  Due to the horrendous weather we decided against the Canberra tracks routes we had originally planned on doing and stick to the three major lookout points over Canberra and then into the center to do Parliament House (old and new) and the Royal Mint.  Photos aren't great from the lookouts due to the rain.  

This being said we were glad we didn't stay in the blue mountains an additional day as they had hail storms and floods in Bilpin and Blackheath.  At least we just got rain!  Although we did have one very scary moment when we skated around a roundabout as the backend of the car slid over the wet tarmac.  Fortunately we were the only car there at the time and David managed to miss the pavement and kerbs each side.

All the lookouts were great but unfortunately they all had trees in the way - very irritating when taking photos.  

The Australian Mint was very interesting:

• They have started producing coins with King Charles on them and the $1 coin will be ready in December.  So we might get one in our change.  The others will be released next year.  We didn't know when ours were changing so couldn't tell them - rubbish English tourists that we are.
• They got rid of all their copper 1c and 2c coins before their Olympic games in 2000.  The coins were all melted down and used to make the bronze medals. 
• They therefore now just have 6 coins in use - 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c $1 and $2.  Very annoying that the $2 is the small coin as opposed to us!
• Originally Australia had £sd like us but in 1966 they went metric and chose the $ and c.
• They make all the money for several Australasian countries such as Cook Islands and Tonga.

We never made it in to question time in the new Parliament House, mainly because we couldn't find anywhere close to park and would have got drenched trying to navigate the long walkways to the building.  Instead we chose to do old Parliament House and see the "Speakers Chair" which was a replica of our old one (bombed in WWII) and made from the wood from our Westminster Hall and HMS Victory.  We had gifted it to Australia in 1926.

Sadly the House of Representatives (where the chair is) was shut to the public for renovation so no luck there.  The Senate Room was open though.  As were lots of other displays which we enjoyed.  They had offices set up as they were in the 1980s and one of the desks looked just like mine when I worked in London as a secretary, although not enough lever arch files for all the carbon copies you typed.  Really enjoyed it.

Next morning we awoke to brilliant sunshine again and so went back to Ainsley Lookout to get better photos of the parliament buildings and Anzac Avenue.  The war memorials along the Avenue are also very impressive.