Day 147 - Wednesday 24 May - Fishing, shopping and being tourists

Day 147

Wednesday

24 May 2017

Darwin

6.30am! True, we were up at 6.30am as Paul had booked into a half day fishing charter with Arafura and he had to be at the Cullen Bay ferry terminal for 7.50am. I kind of stumbled through the morning routine before we bundled ourselves into the car and drove the 15min to the wharf. 

We located the tour operator then stood watching the wharf lock operate, allowing the boat passage to the Arafura Sea. Paul boarded the vessel with 8 others and off they went.

To start off my day I had decided that I would check out the largest shopping centre in town, Casurina Square. The GPS set a course that I followed and by 8.30am I was in the car park and ready to go shopping. 

The centre is much like our large malls at home and I was happy to wander aimlessly through the various department and boutique stores picking up a few bits but nothing too extravagant.

At 10.45am I left the shop and made my way to Stoke Hill Wharf. I wanted to check out the Royal Flying Doctor Service and WWII Museum they have combined in one centre in one of the wharf buildings. I paid my $26 entrance and then made my way around, starting with the first of two holographic movie. The first was of John Flynn, the man behind the beginning of the RFDS that was very informative.

I then checked out the virtual reality presentation of the bombing of Darwin, this was cool. With the goggles on you are completely immersed in the action. The chair you sit in vibrates and rotate so you can take in the full 360 view, it was the best part of the museum.

I wandered through the exhibit reading some of the information boards and watching and listening to holographic representations of key figures. Every 20 min there is a video and sound sequence of the Darwin air raid. You stand on a platform to watch and this moves around as the bombs are dropped and detonate.

I watched the second movie presentation of an American navy captain stationed in Darwin when the Japanese dropped their bombs on the 19 February 1942. It was again highly informative and interesting to listen to.

I finished my tour at the RFDS end, wandering through one of the planes and checking out the pedal powered radio transmitter used in rural homes to contact others for help. It was all highly informative.

I left the wharf and did a quick photo stop at the WWII oil tunnels before making my way back to Cullen Bay and collecting Paul and his bag of fish fillets. We returned home and while he went through and cleaned up the fillets, I had lunch.

We rang the AC people to find out about our part only to be told it was ordered yesterday and may not make it for Friday, so we decided we would book in until 31 May and hope everything was finished for then.

We drove back in to the city so Paul could try a couple more One Mile Brewery beers. After we parked at the woollies, we walked to Rorkes where a lovely, young American man served and entertained us. Paul was able to try the cider for free so he was happy.

We then walked down towards the waterfront, checking out the interesting old buildings and art along the way. We eventually made it to The Precinct and Paul had the Red Ale, which smelled of caramel. They also had a good selection of craft beers in bottles.

Remembering the Oyster Bar was having half price night we returned to the car and drove back to the waterfront, parked in the multi-story and then found a place to sit at the restaurant. They had 9 varieties of oysters to try and of course Paul wanted them all, so we had a bakers dozen and a drink and enjoyed the view as we swallowed the tasty morsels.

With entre complete, we returned home to cook up some of the golden snapper Paul had caught. He then organised with Darryl, to go fishing tomorrow, another early start.

We sat around for a little while and then made our way to the pool for a dip. Tonight we had it to ourselves that was nice. After the dip I had a shower before returning to the van to read and get ready for the day ahead.