Fly to Darwin

Up at 3 am, ready to be picked up at 3.45am, it as a very early start today. With an outside temperature of around 7 C it was a tough decision to get out of bed, but nevertheless we did and after picking up a couple of other elderly couples along the way (one with a surf board), the shuttle bus got us to the airport it’s time to spare.

We had an email warning from Virgin last night suggesting that their expert meteorologists had advised that flight interruptions were likely, our flight left on time. Destination Darwin, but with a stop over in Brisbane. There were a few issues at Brisbane airport that delayed our connecting flight, but we arrived in Darwin only 15 mins late. to our delight the temperature was around 28C but quite low humidity, and a very pleasant change from Sydney.

Our transport to the Hilton was waiting for us, and after we collected our baggage ( last one of the carousel) we were on our way. 

Once settled in our room, we decided to go for a walk to check out the area around the hotel. Just down the road is Government House.

Government House

And nearby is Parliament House and the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court

Parliament House 

Apparently Parliament House is known locally as the "Wedding Cake", as it is white, square in shape and is full of fruits, nuts and alcohol.

The Hilton is quite close to Smith Street Mall, a CBD shopping area with a good selection of pubs and restaurants. Also, the main tourist information centre is nearby.

Smith Street Mall

We are pretty tired, so after a good walk around the area we head back to the hotel to relax, until around 5.30pm when we headed back out for a pre dinner drink and to search out a suitable dinner venue.

It seems it is Happy Hour everywhere in Darwin, so we had a drink a a couple of nearby pubs and the settled on a Korean Restaurant, located next to the Hilton for dinner.

The food was excellent, and the restaurant , seemingly quite new, became very busy but service was very good. The decor is hard to explain, but incorporates a bit of Darwin character with a Croc hanging from the roof 

We lingered around over a bottle of wine, as the music on the video monitors was very much our era, and I suspect a bit of karaoke might emerge as the night goes on.

With very full stomachs, we waddled back to our room and were in bed by 9pm, catching up on some much needed sleep.