New Zealand and Australia in 2 months

My Uluru travekmates connected via Facebook group started from Sydney on 3/31 late morning, picked me up at Canberra around 3 pm, then we did some grocery shopping in downtown Canberra for our 9-day Australian outback trip to the red rock center. The Mazda CX-7 4-wheel drive fits three people comfortably, and they are experienced free-campers in Australia. We stayed in 2 free camp ground so far, had free showers in a small town center. The most useful mobile app is CamperMate.  During the first 2 days over 1000 Kim's drive, we saw many wild kangaroos which are to be avoided on the roads after dark, one koala on a tree, and a dozen of emus in the field next to the highway.  Most of the Northern Territory is the Australian 'Outback', so we plan fuel stops and always carry extra fuel and water as on some highways fuel and towns can be up to 800km apart. We prepared fruit but we're forced to have a fruit buffet before entering the Northern Territory due to fruit quarantine,

I woke up to get ready for hiking up to the Mount Ainsile (843m) to enjoy the views of Canberra and checking out the Australian War Memorial which has many interactive exhibits, features portraits that are video as well as paintings, and I took a free tour but I do d not have time for every evening ceremony at dusk. I also had fun at the discovery zone.

Day 2 in Canberra: The streets were pretty empty on Easter Friday, supermarkets were closed; but fortunately most museums in Canberra were open. I walked across the city via Australian National University to reach the Australian National Botanic Gardens by 9:30 am when the air was cooler, and hiked up the black mountain (812 meters) to check out the Telstra Tower. I then rushed down to the gardens for one hour guided walk to get good ideas on different plants in different regions of Australia, including the red rock desert in Uluru where I will have a 10-day tour with three other people since 3/31. It was quite amazing how they mimic the weather of other regions inside the gardens to keep the plants alive. I went back to the hostel for a lunch break because I was very hot as tired for the morning 10 km walk.  It was a pity that the Royal Australian Mint was close today, but I walked 45 minutes to see the new and old Parliament houses which were full of interesting collections and exhib

Canberra is the capital of Australia, with many  national monuments, museums and galleries built around a large artificial lake, that reminds me of Washington DC.  We only had time to visit the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery (spotted Capitan Cook's portrait), and the National Museum.   The National Museum’s architecture provides an extraordinary place to explore the rich and diverse stories of Australia and its people. I tried the Museum’s interactive k adventure game played in teams of 4, designed for a time-travelling robot and entered a Time Pod blasting to a selected  location in Australia’s past. Canberra is a great place to enjoy the outdoors, with cycling trails, gardens, parks, bushwalking and nature reserves.

Our second stop between Melbourne and Canberra is CROAJINGALONG Gipsy Point which is surrounded by the enormous Croajingalong National Park stretching for more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) along the coast. UNESCO has declared the park a World Biosphere Reserve because of the natural diversity.  We hiked up to the top of Genoa Peak hair an overlook platform that is hard to get on/off due to the rocks and an amazing amount of unknown Yellowjacketslie bugs that do not bite as well as fantastic views. On the way out we saw a giant lizard walking right on the road.  One spooky holiday park was deep in the woods from the coast and got us close a colony of kangaroos.  The coastline is quite spectacular from an lookout at the town Edon where we had a lunch break.

My travel mate picked me up from the hostel, and then we stopped by a supermarket for camping food, then 3-HR drive from Melbourne to the Wilsons Promontory National Park which is the southernmost point of mainland Australia and it has huge granite mountains, forest, beaches, rocky outcrops, a lot of wild animals. We saw a lot of wild kangaroos, wombats, and colorful birds. We walked in the beaches and bays, and took two hikes to overlooks of beaches and islands. All national parks in Australia are free admission, and low camping fees. This park even has a 5-star shower facility better than most hostels I stayed.