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Enjoying nature in the lands Down Under
“What will you do in Canberra? It’s a very quiet city,” a friend of mine asked when she found out that I would travel to the capital of Australia. A museum visit is a must whenever someone is travelling to a city he or she has never been to.
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Australia and New Zealand are known for their beautiful scenery. (CC0/File)
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ingapore Airlines kicked off its Capital Express flight on Sept. 20, which connects the city-state to two Down-Under capitals – Canberra and Wellington. The airline, working together with Visit Canberra and Positively Wellington Tourism, invited a number of journalists to explore the cities. The Jakarta Post’s Primastuti Handayani was one of those invited. Below is her report.
“What will you do in Canberra? It’s a very quiet city,” a friend of mine asked when she found out that I would travel to the capital of Australia.
She had every reason to be worried though, because Indonesians are more familiar with other Australian cities such as Sydney, Melbourne or Perth.
I kept my spirits high as I scrolled down the itinerary and found out that I would go on a hot-air balloon.
But never fight Mother Nature.
The moment we — a group of nine journalists from five Asian countries — touched down in Canberra, we were welcomed with rain. As much as we believe that rain symbolizes prosperity, we could not hide our disappointment when we were informed that the hot-air balloon ride had to be cancelled due to the weather.
Capture the moment: A family of three takes a selfie with wallabies at the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra. (JP/Primastuti Handayani)
Our host from VisitCanberra, Naomi Fallon, greeted us as officials gave flowers to arriving passengers. It was obvious that Canberrians were very enthusiastic to finally have an international flight connecting the capital to the rest of the world. Previously, they had to drive for three hours to Sydney to board international flights.
A museum visit is a must whenever someone is travelling to a city he or she has never been to. Canberra has the National Museum of Australia, which is very interactive and has a section on Indonesian culture; the National Gallery of Australia, which hosts the famous Blue Poles painting by Jackson Pollock and Waterlilies by Claude Monet; and the National Portrait Gallery, to name a few.
While during our stay in Wellington, a visit to the Te Papa museum was a must as it features the “Gallipoli: the Scale of Our War” exhibition. To hold the exhibition, the museum worked together with Weta Workshop, which is famous for making armor and movie props for, among others The Lord of the Rings trilogy. They created giant statues depicting the stories of soldiers, a doctor and a nurse in the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915 to 1916.
Since Australia and New Zealand are known for their beautiful scenery, why not focus on nature itself.
As the weather improved over the next few days, we were able to enjoy the 29th Floriade, an annual event held to welcome spring at the iconic Lake Burley Griffin. Floriade began in 1988 and was initiated by Peter Sutton and Chris De Bruine. The event was first held to celebrate Australia’s bicentenary and Canberra’s 75th anniversary.
Arriving at the Floriade, dubbed as the largest flower show in the Southern Hemisphere, we were welcomed by different colors of tulips.
“There are over 70 kinds of tulips [at the Floriade]. Tulips need cold conditions and one tulip only lasts for 10 days,” said Floriade head gardener Andrew Forster.
Around 450,000 people visited Floriade every year — which this year took place from Sept. 17 to Oct. 16 — and they mostly were tourists from Australia and New Zealand with not many international tourists, Forster added.
Santi, an Indonesian woman whose husband is studying at Canberra’s Australia National University, said she was very impressed with the festival, especially the tulips.
Visiting Australia would not be complete without seeing wallabies in person, even if they live in a sanctuary. The National Zoo and Aquarium — which is 7 kilometers from Parliament House and 8 km from the National Gallery of Australia — offered us a different experience when visiting a zoo especially with the site inspection to Jamala Wildlife Lodge.
Visitors can spend the night at the zoo, surrounded by wild animals. There are different types of rooms: Giraffe treehouses where visitors are able to feed a horse from their balcony; Jungle Bungalow where only a glass wall separates you from a pride of lions, cheetahs, tiger, brown bears or a Malayan sun bear; or try the seven-room uShaka Lodge with different views including the giant aquarium.
This, of course, comes with a price ranging from A$925 (US$704) to A$1325.
During our visit, we had the chance to take selfies with Mishka, a white lioness who knows best how to pose for visitors.
We could also take pictures with the wallabies and they were very friendly and were not hesitant when a family of three took a selfie with them.
While a zoo is managed professionally, the Kahikatea Gardens in Greytown, about one-hour drive from Wellington, is a family property. The garden has been owned by the Montgomerie family for three generations.
We were warmly welcomed by Neil and Greg Montgomerie-Crowe, along with their famous sheep Tongariro, who thinks that he is a dog. Tongariro, named after a volcanic mountain that erupted in 2012, was indeed a funny sight to see.
Strolling the garden after changing into gumboots — as the soil was very wet — we could see the Montgomeries’ collection of trees including the 900-year-old Kahikatea tree as well as walnut, hazel, chestnut and pine nut trees.
Visitors could also feed the sheep, take pictures of alpacas and donkeys and pose with Tongariro.
With a lot of things to do Down Under, I bet my friend would change her mind because Canberra and Wellington have a lot to offer to visitors.
Weta Cave - Contributing to Hollywood blockbusters
Out of the movies: Two giant troll statues welcome visitors to the Weta Workshop on the outskirts of Wellington. The studio has been involved in Hollywood blockbusters, including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.
Following the success of the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, New Zealand has attracted a lot of tourists, especially the series’ fans, who are eager to visit Hobbiton, located in Waikato.
But for the film buffs who can only stay in Wellington and do not have a chance to visit Hobbiton, Weta Cave might answer your curiosity about the Tolkien franchise
Located at the outskirts of New Zealand’s capital and quite close to the airport, three trolls welcome visitors to get a glimpse on Weta’s projects. As a multi-award winning design studio, the team at Weta Workshop has been engaged in projects from the earliest stages of technical analysis and creative design through to manufacture across all departments and final delivery to sets anywhere in the world.
Apart of the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia, Avatar, District 9, The Adventures of Tintin, Elysium and The Hobbit trilogy, Weta Workshop is now involved in other movie projects including The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Godzilla.
Due to property rights from big movie studios, photography was prohibited during our visit.
“We don’t own the rights. We have to respect the big studios who actually own the rights. We produce the props for the movies,” said our guide Reece Dixon, who works for Jack Gohan Design Chainmail Armour and Costume.
Weta also created giant statues for the “Gallipoli: : the Scale of Our War” exhibition at the Te Papa Museum in Wellington where visitors can explore the stories of soldiers, doctors and nurses in the war.
Even if you can’t reach Middle Earth, at least you can take a picture or two with the trolls or Gollum.
