Day 69 – Happy Territory Day (Sun July 1^st)

After a lovely cooked breakfast in our cabin, we headed into town and spent the morning in the wave pool at the Darwin Waterfront.  They have made it really nice here, with the wave pool, grassed areas, units/accommodation, trendy cafes, and swimming beach. It’s all down by Stokes Wharf.

To enter the wave pool, we paid $12/family for half day, there are free boogy boards and tubes for use in the pool.

It was another magic day, a sunny warm 30 degree day with a light breeze. Sienna loved catching waves with the body board, and was becoming confident amongst the waves. Cam was a little more reserved, but still loved having a splash in the waves.

Sienna, bottom right riding the waves

Darwin Waterfront

Darwin Waterfront

After our fun in the sun, we drove out to Stokes Wharf and had our lunch on the jetty.

Lunch spot, Stokes Wharf Jetty

Tonight was a big night in Darwin, being Territory Day! The headlines for the paper, ‘We must be Crackers’ There is a fire ban on in the territory at the moment, but they waived this from 6pm, so everyone could let of their fireworks. People all over town and surrounds were madly buying their crackers today for Territory Day celebrations tonight.

We spent the afternoon and evening, along with everyone else it seemed, at Mindil Beach Markets. We arrived just before 4pm, and the car park was already filling up! But in saying that, the markets were not busy at this stage, which made it easy to find a spot to set up our chairs and table etc. We ordered our food before the crowds arrived, and enjoyed our delicious Asian cuisine before it all got crazy.

Mindil Beach Markets

By the time the sun was setting into the Timor Sea, the beach was alive with locals and tourists. People were starting to let their fireworks off from the city, and the beaches around Darwin before the sun sank below the horizon. It was an amazing site to see fireworks all around, whilst watching a spectacular Darwin sunset!

Once the sun had gone down, the countdown was on for the main firework display at 7.30pm, the atmosphere was full.  People were celebrating all over town, fireworks were going off everywhere, even out in the ocean. They were letting them off from boats and barges. The local radio station was broadcasting all afternoon live on the beach, and there was also a live band on the beach.

At 7.30pm the firework display had everyone in silence, it was a fantastic show and lasted about half an hour. It was awesome, we all loved it.

The drive home had us looking in all directions at more fireworks, from balconies and streets. We could still hear them going off around us when we were going to sleep.