Canberra Part One

When the kids said they really wanted to go to see the snow, we decided we'd also visit Canberra. Hubby hadn't been for a very long time, I'd been more recently, but still at least 11 years ago. We both especially wanted to visit the War Memorial due to some family history research I've been doing.

Where we stayed

I found when I was looking for accommodation in Canberra that it was pretty expensive - especially as we were looking for some kind of self catering set up so we didn't have to eat out every night. So I started looking outside of Canberra itself.

I found Crestview Tourist Park in Queanbeyan. It was cheaper than anywhere else I'd seen in Canberra & wasn't too far away. We had one of the Villa Cabins. We wanted something with linen included. The cabin was large enough for us & had a decent kitchen area - including a full oven & stove. We found it a bit cold unless we ran the reverse cycle air conditioning all the time but then we do come from a much warmer part of the country! There was free WiFi, but we had problems connecting & staying connected to it unfortunately. 

Overall we enjoyed our stay. It was quiet - it's not on the main road & even though we were close to the road there wasn't much traffic noise. We'd definitely stay there again, though if it's during winter we might request a few more blankets!

Where we ate

We did so well with our self catering that we didn't eat out at all! Which is pretty good for us. We did have coffee once - from Coffee Club of all places!

Where we went

We already knew where we wanted to go before setting out on our trip. Cockington Green, Questacon & the Australian War Memorial were those places. We did a bit of shopping as well. The kids enjoyed all the places we went to. Miss 12 had been on a Canberra excursion & had been to them all then.

Cockington Green

Cockington Green is basically gardens full of miniature buildings, people, trains etc. It has a quaint old fashioned air about it. There is an international section that shows off a variety of traditional buildings from other countries. A small train goes around the park at various times that you can get a ride on. 

Our kids enjoyed wandering around looking at the different displays. I'm always fascinated by the size of the gardens - in the immediate vicinity of the buildings, they are to scale.  The garden was quiet (it can be busy with school groups) & we didn't stay a long time - it was pretty windy & cold.

There are places to eat & shops nearby in the Gold Creek area - we looked around, but most of the shops were closed the day we were there. 

Questacon

Questacon a pretty cool science museum where pretty much nearly everything is hands on. The kids had been previously with my parents, but I had never been. Mr 11 & Miss 6 were happy running from display to display trying everything or at least trying to work out how things worked. Miss 12 was a bit less co operative, but it was more due to the background noise rather than being disinterested in what was going on. She especially loved when we were in the area where there were some experiments done for the kids. Oh & the earthquake room - all the kids loved that!

Outside I loved the Fallen Leaves sculpture. It really sounded so much like the wind blowing through leaves. (I did try & upload a video, but couldn't get it to work).

The kids loved the zylophone & lithophone made out of rock that were outside. Miss 12 followed the letters in the book on the lithophone to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Again there's a lot of school groups that go through Questacon we didn't find it to be a problem until we went into the gift shop. The kids are well managed by the staff, but it was pretty crowded. We just waited until a school group left to have a look around.