Darwin

I have had a few days in Darwin at a conference - somewhere I have never been before - right at the top of Australia. It's a very long way away - four and half hours flight from Sydney so all day travel from Canberra - it just seems so unfeasible to my NZ brain that you can fly for so long entirely over land. Darwin doesn't have winter or summer, just wet and dry, and January is very firmly in the wet. It was 30 degrees and rainy every day, including some absolute buckets of rain. Luckily I didn't get caught in any - I was inside conferencing - but everything was damp.

This is me on an early morning walk still looking reasonably fresh. I was dripping and miserable by the end of the walk, but at least I got some exercise. 

Darwin is on an escarpment overlooking the sea, which is all very tropical and pretty, except it is PACKED full of saltwater crocodiles that will eat you quick as look at you, and if they won't get you the box jellyfish will. So you can't swim, except in the lagoon behind a seawall (crocs) and fine mesh nets (stingers). Or you can do what I did and have a dip in the nearby wave pool which is a swimming pool that has artificial waves every twenty minutes. It was peculiar but tremendous fun - more of a slosh than a wave but I'm up for that.

And here is the Northern Territory Parliament House - very tropical, look at those palm trees.