Tuesday 30 August 2022.
Highlights: The Wedding Cake (Parliament House), Hop On Hop Off bus tour, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Bicentennial Park at sunset.

Both Kara and myself were a little worse off for yesterday’s big walking day in hot and humid, probably a little worse for Kara. Today was to be an easy day of the Darwin Hop On Hop Off tour bus. I did first have to deal with an unfortunate situation at home organising replacement options for my cats, but thanks to family and friends this was fixed.

The bus circuit started near our hotel and was close to the Darwin Parliament House, know locally as the Wedding Cake (full of nuts, fruits and alcohol!). Next door was the Supreme Court building. Tickets purchased we first did a full loop of the Darwin on the Hop On Hop Off with the commentary providing some good insights.

On the second loop we first stopped at the Casino and proceeded to quickly loss some money, lesson learned it was time to move on. Next stop that we got off at was for the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. While this Museum houses many exhibits we focused on Aboriginal Art, Cyclone Tracy, and old boats of Darwin displays.

Cyclone Tracy was incredibly destructive on Christmas Eve 1974. In the end 30,000 locals out of 40,000 had to be evacuated to the south given how much was wrecked. This cyclone lead to long term changes in construction and even wharf management practises.

Feeling the heat and humidity we decided to skip the War Museum and ride the Hop on Hop Off back to starting point but as they had an extra stop we got to see even more of beautiful Darwin.

Back in the central Darwin area we did a little shopping which included an ice cream store that just after we were served had a heap of customers walk in. Very nice ice cream that tastes even better in these conditions.

Once at the hotel Kara took advantage of the swimming pool and eventually we both went up to the Executive Lounge for very impressive ‘finger food’ and beverages. Nice little extra.

To finished out our stay Kara suggested going over to Bicentennial Park for a sunset call back home and to enjoy the shoreline. It was a spectacular way to sent the early evening.

Now for The Ghan!