Whoever thought of the title “Floriade” for the Canberra flower show certainly fired up my enthusiasm as the rather exotic sounding and, ahem, flowery title never fails to excite my interest and desire to travel to Canberra for the annual occasion. It was perhaps this sense of anticipation that encouraged Christine and I to make haste to the University of NSW in order to catch the staff social club’s departure for the nation’s capital at 6.45 a.m. sharp on a glorious Saturday morning.
Naturally all good meals begin with an entrée and our first day was consumed by travel and visits to other well known Canberra attractions. Old Parliament House was still looking in fine fettle, gleaming white in the sunshine and shortly awaiting the emergence of many rosebuds on the surrounding rose bushes. A short tour of the Portrait Gallery was rewarded with sightings of a recent portrait of Princess Mary of Denmark and a marvelously original and brilliant portrait of actress Deborah Mailman.
A most satisfying lunch at Gold Creek Country Club was followed by a visit to the famous miniature model village at Cockington Green Gardens. This was just the thing to make an extra tall person look like Gulliver in Lilliput. The village is kept in an exemplary fashion with no detail overlooked. Much of the display exhibits English scenes but there is an interesting International section which captures some of the famous icons from around the world. With some discreet photography you should be able to fool your friends with pictures of a fictitious overseas trip – just like in the Hollywood movies which often in the past used models to provide faux locations.
There was a general feeling of contentment with our overnight accommodation at the Sundown Motel in Narrabundah. After partaking of the well stocked breakfast and seeing the giant tourist balloons gently traversing the clear blue sky hopes were high that a brilliant day awaited. Seeing the packed car parks close to Floriade made us happy to be driven to the entrance without any parking worries. The sight of crowds of people trailing to the location alerted us to the imminent arrival of what I hoped would be the “main event”. The brilliant displays of colour amongst the flowers turned the Floriade Park into an artist’s palette. It was uplifting to see the crowds enjoying something so natural (and free!) and away from the troubles and commercialism of the world that besieges us in, let’s say, “The Built Environment”.
Well done Canberra.
After Floriade, we managed somehow to fit in a visit to the CSIRO Discovery Centre, a visit and guided tour at The National Gallery, lunch at the Belconnen Soccer Club and an afternoon cruise on Lake Burley Griffin. Oh, and I must not forget Telford’s Coach Captain Glen’s willingness to take his charges to Mount Ainslie Lookout for a final wave goodbye to conclude a very happy weekend.
Well done Nadia.
Kevin McBrearty