The Sights of Darwin

Downtown Darwin City, along Knuckey Street, that is where I stayed at the Mantra Pandanas Hotel. Beautiful view of Frances Bay and the city.

About 2 blocks away is Smith Street, which is like the centre of town, where the Smith Street Mall is located. During the V8 Supercars Race weekend, there was a hive of activities there. It is also the area where you can get free Wifi, so you get alot of students and people who come by at night with their laptops to work on the benches there.

The racing circuit in Hidden Valley where the 2012 SkyCity Triple Crown V8 SuperCars Championships were held. It was an interesting weekend, and also got a chance to check out the merchandise stalls and the concert stage.

Shopping in Darwin City around the Smith Street area is not only limited to Coles Supermarket or Wool Worths Stores. You must not miss Pure Indulgence, a specialty chocolate shop hidden within the Smith Street Mall. The chocolates there are heavenly, especially the marshmallow ones. Simply irresistable! There is also the Damadi Skincare shop which makes their own eucalyptus and lemongrass soaps. Very refreshing indeed.

And at the Mitchell Centre, there is this ice creamery called Cold Rock. It has a cool selection of ice creams and you can mix your ice cream with fruits such as mango cheeks, strawberry, raspberry, and also with jelly beans or orea cookies and even chocolate brownie. I had the Australian Vanilla ice cream mixed with chocolate brownie of course. An excellent combination it turned out to be.

  

Along Litchfield Street, just next to Tim's Surf 'N' Turf, is the Chinese Temple, the only one in Darwin. It is a small temple and quite traditional. The caretaker was a kind gentleman who spent time telling us the history of the place.

A short walk down Hughes Avenue and we arrived at the Darwin Waterfront, where you can take a glass elevator down to the man-made lagoon, the wave pool and the Darwin Convention Centre.

Wallking back through the Civic Square, you will encounter the Christ Church Cathedral, the Supreme Court and the Parliament House.

We then took a bus to the Casuarina Shopping Center. It was a long ride, about an hour, but you get to drive by some of the industrial and residential areas not often visited by tourists.

The shopping center, the largest in Darwin, is just next to the bus terminus. It really is huge, with at least 4 supermarket/department stores as anchors and hundreds of other stores, from boutiques to shoe stores, from book shops to toys, watches to home furnishings, almost everything you need can be found.

Returning from Casuarina, our bus took us past Nightcliff, Fannie Bay and the University of NT. We dropped off along Mitchell Street and made our way to Doctor's Gully and Aquascene to feed the fishes during high tide. Unfortunately, we were slightly late and it was closed already. Still we had a good time exploring the area.

We then proceeded to walk up the hill up to the Esplanade where we had a beautiful view of the sunset. Walking along the Esplanade, through the Bicentennial Park, we arrived back at Knuckey Street.

Taking a bus from the terminal at Harry Chan Avenue will bring you directly to the Sky City Casino and also the Mindil Beach market, which is open only on Thursdays and Sundays from 5pm till around 10pm.