Cold in Canberra!

It's a long weekend for the Queen's birthday, so we decided to have a weekend away, and combine it with a Rebels away game. This time in Canberra.

When we were dropped off at our hotel, we thought that we were in a business park on the outskirts, but were pleasantly surprised when we walked into the hotel reception and saw a few of the Rebels players milling around! It wasn't planned, but again we were staying in the same hotel as the players!

We checked in and then thought that we'd try and find somewhere to have some lunch. Turns out we werent in a business park, we were actually in the city centre! Canberra is the Capital city of Australia, but it couldn't seem less like it! There's a nice big shopping centre, and a bit that reminded us of Gloucester, but other than that there is nothing - it seems like a really weird small town.

After lunch we went back to the hotel and had a drink in reception. The COO of the Rebels arrived at the hotel after lunching with the team sponsors, and recognized us and came over for a chat which was nice. A little later his wife came to say hello, and even Rod Macqueen acknowledged us when he came for a coffee!

Everyone warned us to rug up when going to Canberra stadium - and they were right to! It was absolutely freezing! For the second half we left our seats and stood up instead so that we could keep moving! It took a while after the game to feel our toes again! And with the score 32-17 to the Brumbies, we didn't even have a win to warm us!

Fan parachuting into the stadium!

But, as with Auckland, it was after the game that the fun began! We went for a drink, and were there to see the Rebels return to the hotel. It was so nice that some of the players remembered us, and came and spoke to us rather than us feeling like we're them! I was chuffed to bits when Gareth Delve called me by name, and later started following me on Twitter! We had pictures taken with some of them, and they thanked us for coming to see them! They really are such lovely lads!

Me and Stirling Mortlock (Captain)

Me, Cooper Vuna and Darren

Darren, me and Mark Gerrard

Me, Laurie Weeks and Darren

Me, Julian Huxley, Nic Henderson and Darren

Saturday we decided to see the sights of Canberra - first stop the Australian War Memorial, which is Australia's national memorial to the members of all its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in the wars of the Commonwealth of Australia. We walked up ANZAC Parade which is lined with sculptures in memory of the people who died in the various wars, to the memorial itself. Visiting the shrine with the Hall of Memory and the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier was a very humbling experience.

We were also lucky enough to see the parade for the Queen's birthday.

Next we visited Parliament House on Capital Hill, with it's 81 metre flagpole with the Australian flag.

The Senate

The House of Representatives

And on down to Old Parliament House

The National Library of Australia

And Captain Cook's Memorial Water Jet

After a cultural day, we went to the North Quarter for the best curry that we've had since we came to Australia!

Sunday morning we went for breakfast and mooched around the city (didn't take long!), and then back to the hotel to check out. We left for the airport a bit earlier than we needed to, and that turned out to be a clever move! Our flight, and all flights after it were cancelled due to a volcanic ash cloud from Chile. Luckily, the flight before ours had been delayed - just long enough for us to get the last two seats on it! We managed to get home before they closed Melbourne airport - otherwise we would have been in Canberra for a lot longer than we'd planned!