It's winter, but not as we know it

As I write this it is day 5 of spring in the Sunshine State and already temperatures are in the high 20s and even early 30s.

I have nothing against blue sky and sunshine, but I do miss the rain, grey clouds and chilly temperatures. I have a couple of drawers dedicated to winter clothes and no chance to wear them. The locals though were spotted on occasion rugged up with scarves, gloves, beanies and puffer jackets like you wouldn't believe...and the coldest it has been is 5C...one morning !!

Anyway, I decided that while "real" winter was happening in the southern states that  it was time to go and get bone-chillingly cold; to remind myself what it was like. We booked a weekend in Canberra, but ended up with one night in Sydney as we couldn't get direct flights at reasonable prices.

familiar landmarks

a rainbow walkway

lived here for 10 years, never saw this building before !

look at THAT light

...and THIS building facade

terrace houses - my favourite of all time, will I ever get to live in one ?

rainbow bike outside an INDEPENDENT bookstore

check out that window box !

waiting for pizza, in an authentic italian pizzeria

corner Oxford Street & Crown Street

Convicts built this bridge, on the original roadway to Goulburn at Towrang

Bungendore houses, did convict ancestor Joseph Dickinson, the plasterer, work on these ?

The entrance gate to Willeroo, Lake George; place of birth of Joseph's daughter Sarah

floating sphere sculpture - reminded me of Welly, just a bit, capital city art

Little National - perfection

St John's Church, Canberra

School house at St John's, built by the Campbells to benefit the children of the Scots shepherds working his land and which looks like it has been transported straight from the Highlands

Great-great-great-great-great-grandparents

Rainbows in the spray

So as you can see - gorgeous days - definitely chillier than home, but not as freezing as we had prepared for. Also, not enough time to do everything or go everywhere, so next year we will be back...maybe earlier in the season too.

Canberra, a planned city, but is it part of my plan ?

So grabaseat had one of those deals a while back. You know, the hard to resist ones. So we bought tickets. But this time we thought we'd go exploring somewhere different.

March rolled around and we flew to Sydney, picked up a rental car and drove to Canberra. Never been there before - apart from a whistle-stop detour once. But only to the outlet mall to get food and find restrooms on our way back from a tiki tour from Nowra.

We'd done a fair amount of research prior to this trip, places to eat, places to stay, places to visit, how to get around.

Canberra is young city, just 104 years old in the form it is now. The area has been inhabited by European settlers (some free some not) since the early 1800's. The city as it is was designed, a planned city. People rave on about the roundabouts - I didn't find them that confusing. What did surprise me was the size of the city, for a small city, with a small population as cities go, there is a lot of wide open spaces. The centres of Belconnen, Woden etc look fairly close on a map - and are when you consider the sprawling chaos that is Auckland. But actually getting there on ring roads, means driving through vast tracts of unpopulated or industrialised land. There are possibly more direct ways, but we didn't find them.

We loved the CBD, the inner suburbs of Kingston, Manuka, Barton, Forrest, Braddon, New Acton. The sunsets, and the ever changing vistas across the lake. The orderliness of it's being. Canberra is shaking off the mantle of boring city, filled with stuffy public servants and becoming quite hip. Great food places, cafes, food trucks, coffee, bars can be found all around. It isn't super crowded busy bustling city either. The pace of life seems very relaxed. It is filled with great attractions, museums, art galleries, libraries, zoo, parks, parliamentary life, memorials, an arboretum. It is driving distance to the ski fields in winter, the coast, wineries, markets. There are many cultural events as well to appeal to all spectrums.

I could live there, I would in fact, if I could get myself a job. Direct flights back to Wellington - just an added bonus.

We fluked being the week that Enlighten was on and also the beginning of the balloon festival.