Darwin Day 4 - Secret Chinese Grandma Business

Whaddaya know?  Katy loves Chinese Opera!  She keeps asking Poh Poh to put it on for her!  I remember my Poh Poh trying to introduce me to Chinese opera on the radio as a child, but I was not very interested.  It obviously skipped two generations.

Darwin Day 4 - Bishop Eugene Hurley

We had another lovely Mass with Bishop Eugene Hurley at 10.30am at St Mary's Cathedral Star of the Sea.  The last time Katy met Bishop Eugene, she was almost three.  Bishop Eugene is an inspiring speaker and a champion of the rights of indigenous people in the Northern Territory.  We admired his beautiful staff decorated with aboriginal art from various communities in the NT.  Bishop Eugene said Katy's beautiful on the inside and the outside, even though Dada said that it's important to be beautiful on the inside.  The Bishop also gave Katy an extra blessing, possibly because Katy was wriggling and complaining for most of the Mass...He also said he is going to come to Minnesota to visit us, and he gave us a blessing for our move, which we will need!

Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos!

Darwin Day 3 - Casuarina Beach

Uncle Bert told us that their favourite beach when they visited in May was Casuarina, which is where Uncle Bert and Mama grew up, as we lived in Tiwi, the suburb next to it.  Bert and Pinky took Gabriel there every day and he loved it.  So far, it's our favourite beach too.  There's a lot of soft brown sand.

 

And best of all for Katy, there are some great big tidal pools, which make Katy feel very safe while playing in the water!

 We all love investigating the many many hermit crabs and other  sea animals living in the tidal pools.

 

 

This starfish/anemone/??? was particularly fascinating as it elegantly walked its five frilly legs along the bottom of the pool.

 Katy loved making little sand balls. 

 ...a little strange, but she was fiercely protective of her little sand balls.

Darwin Day 3 - Crocosaurus Cove

Since hearing that Gabriel is now obsessed with crocodiles ever since his visit to Darwin in May, Katy has also been quite obsessed with crocodiles.  Her crocodile in Lishui apparently protects her because he has lights in his mouth so he scares the monsters away at night.

However, despite our best assurances, Katy's interest in crocs did not extend to the jumping crocodile cruise.  She's scared the crocodiles will jump into the boat.

So we decided to check out the super touristy Crocosaurus Cove, which is literally located in downtown Darwin.  It turned out to be a superb introduction to crocodiles for kids of Katy's age (and ours!).

Of course, we had to get a picture in front of "Burt", who is a 4.5 metre (15 foot) crocodile.  He's in solitary confinement because he is overly aggressive with the other crocodiles!


 Katy loved watching the curious "teenage" crocodiles, who swim up to you and eye you up and down.

 Then we watched Wendell demonstrate the fearsome strength and agility of crocodiles.

Wendell is also a huge crocodile!

 Then, we got a huge treat.  We had no idea, but we each got a turn feeding the teenage crocodiles.  They can actually jump out of the water.  We have video of this, but not photos.

And then, Katy (and we) were thrilled to find out that we were also going to be holding a baby crocodile.  Baby crocodiles have "needlie sharp teeth" as the guide said, so the one we held had his or her snout tied shut with a rubber band.

 Katy was fascinated, but skittish.

 We all had a turn kissing the crocodile, and goofing around generally...

 ...all so that the official photographer could take some great pictures, for which they charged, fittingly, an arm and a leg!  Katy continued to be fascinated by the baby crocodile while we selected our photos, and she kept stroking her, albeit gingerly.  The baby crocodile felt wonderful.  Her skin was very dry, cool, strong and tough, but her body itself was very soft.  She also would make little mewing sounds like a little kitten, though louder and a bit thumpier.  I kept calling it a "she" although apparently at this age, it is not possible to determine the sex.

But lest we forget how dangerous crocodiles get, here is a reminder of the devastating strength of their jaws.

Almost everything about a crocodile makes them a perfect predator.

But now Katy (and soon Gabriel) has a little furry green crocodile to call her own.  She went to bed clutching the croc last night and has been carting her around all day.  Her name is of course Rosie the Crocodile, just as all of Katy's stuffed animals are called Rosie or some variation thereof, with Candy as the middle name.

Darwin Day 3 - Parap Markets

Darwin has a hippy, dippy counterculture to it, in addition to the Asian flavours, frontier town edge, and small town feel.  The weekend markets are big business and great fun, with a lot of ethnic food on offer, as well as lots of arts and crafts.  Unfortunately, Dada is so over crowds, that he found even this laid back market too crowded.  But Katy loved exploring the stalls with Poh Poh, although Poh Poh also does not have much patience with markets, and tends to do a speed run through to say hi to friends, such as their restaurant tenants, who also run this Cambodian rice cake and pancake stall.

Darwin Day 2 - Dinner Downstairs

It's quite convenient having a restaurant downstairs...saves on cooking and washing up!

Katy is in a sassy, make-up phase!  We had to ask her to tone down her eye shadow when she first appeared.

 It's mud crab season and we're having the yummiest crabs every day!  I preferred the first day, when we just had the crab steamed.

You can take the woman out of the restaurant, but you can't take the restaurant out of the woman...

Mum and Dad were quite concerned that the restaurant staff were not performing as efficiently as they should, leaving customers waiting, so before we even finished dinner, Mum grabbed an order book and jumped in to help in the front of house,

...while Dad helped out behind the bar, with Katy putting in her two cents worth in the process.

Darwin Day 2 - Nightcliff Beach

By the afternoon of Day 2, we felt a little better recovered from our all night journey getting to Darwin, and ready for a swim in the ocean.  Growing up, I thought it was pretty clear that it's dangerous to swim in the ocean in the wet season, because of sea wasps (ie deadly box jellyfish), but it's ok to swim in the dry season, when there are no sea wasps.  I had "do not swim between October to May" ingrained in me, especially since I knew kids at school with terrible scars on their legs from sea wasp stings.  However, with a five year old, we thought we had better play extra safe, so we decided to go to Nightcliff Beach, where we thought we had heard there was a sea wasp net.

Nightcliff is the beach where Mama and Uncle Bert had picnic dinners on the rocks on Sunday nights while watching the sunset.  Katy and Dada enjoyed exploring the rocks together.

Nightcliff did not have very many shells, and the ones it had were very different from the ones at Cullen Bay.

But to Katy's and Dada's delight, Nightcliff did have lots and lots of coral of all shapes and sizes.  Katy started building little homes out of the coral.

Katy was not so keen on swimming that day as Dada and Mama wanted to go out to the deeper water.  I LOVED being back in the ocean again.  Apart from one or two junk trips and trips to South Bay in Hong Kong, we have not been swimming in the ocean since our honeymoon in the Maldives in February 2006!!  And I miss it!  There is something particularly refreshing, invigorating and therapeutic about swimming in the ocean.  The water was a little cool, which is a pleasant change from the warm bathwater that we often get in Asia.  I was a little concerned though why we were the only people swimming apart from one couple who were in the water for about five minutes.  This was compounded by the fact that I could not remember ever swimming in the ocean as a child, even in the dry season.  Was it just that the water was too cold for Territorians?  Was there something I was missing?

As we left the beach, I noticed a sign warning that sea wasps can be found at all times during the year, although most prevalent between October and May.  Eeeeeeeek!  We're to wear protective clothing and carry vinegar in case we need to wash off the stings.  Now, the question is how much of that is a real and present danger and how much is a liability caution.  I'm the first person to shake my head at the tourists who come to Darwin and swim in the waterholes without concern for crocodiles, or who swim during the wet season...but this water is just too tempting to pass up!

Happy Easter Poh Poh!

Every year, Poh Poh buys Katy lots of Easter bunnies and eggs, whether or not Katy is in Darwin for Easter.  If we don't come, then Poh Poh brings a bunny up to Hong Kong for Katy.  This year, we're in Darwin before they come up to Hong Kong, so one of Katy's first (re-)explorations of Kung Kung's and Poh Poh's house, was to inspect her blue and pink chocolate bunnies, and store them for later consumption.  After our walk at Cullen Bay Beach, Katy got to nibble a couple of ears with Poh Poh.

Darwin Day 2 - Cullen Bay Beach

The first thing Katy did when she woke up on our first day in Darwin was to go pick shells with Poh Poh on Cullen Bay Beach, across the road.  On our second morning, Katy took Mama to pick more shells...

Cullen Bay Beach is beautiful, and we usually have the whole beach to ourselves.  We found some beautiful driftwood on the beach this morning.

The water is very clear and clean.

Katy loves collecting shells - it's one of her favourite activities in DB and she has been looking forward to picking shells in Darwin, where Poh Poh has been promising big finds!  Cullen Bay Beach has the most shells of any of the beaches we've visited so far in Darwin.  There are rich veins of shells running the whole length of the beach in parallel. 

The sand is clean and coarse.  The veins of shells and pebbles are really pretty.

Since our last visit, they've built a beautiful grass area on the beach.

On our way home, we spotted the Northern Territory flag.  Katy loves spotting US flags when we are travelling.  The NT flag is ochre to represent the soil, with a Sturt Desert Rose on it.