Day Trip to Canberra

It was the Queen’s Birthday long weekend last weekend and my friends and I decided to take a day road trip down to our Nation’s capital – Canberra, ACT. Our objective in Canberra: to visit The Floriade Festival. Sure, you may think it's only a bunch of flowers but it's truly something else.

As a tribe of 5, we all decided to stay over at our friend's place the night before our trip: to prepare ourselves for the 3 hour drive trip down to Canberra. This meant an early night to ensure we made the most of the day. But in all reality, it was a pajama slumber party, staying up late, gorging on snacks and playing several board games.

Before we left to say goodbye to home, sweet home, my photographer friend took this beautiful shot; to remind us how early we had to rise from our slumber...

Photo credit: Carina Ku

Like a scene straight out of the TV series Survivor, we voted upon our designated driver and started cruising our way down the highway to Canberra. Suddenly, the discussion of ‘what else are we doing in Canberra?’ was brought up. Clearly, we did not plan this out at all.

We had 2.5 hours and 4 toilet breaks to think it through. 20 minutes prior to arriving in Canberra, we finally plotted out our day and where to go.

First stop, Pâtissez – famously known for their coronary decadent ‘freakshow’ milkshakes – owned by previous My Kitchen Rules Canberra contestants, Gina and Anna Petridis. Being a long weekend (well, a weekend in general), we anticipated to wait for a table (a good hour and a half to be precise). Seeing as we didn't have breakfast yet - nor did we plan where to go for breakfast, we didn’t mind the wait and put our name down.

10 minutes of roaming around the block, and we already felt like we’ve seen all of what Canberra had to offer. There were places we passed that were closed or uninviting. Clearly irritated due to starvation, we settled on a humble café around the corner - Urban Pantry. Was it clean? - check. Looked unassuming? - check. Was it open? - check. Because of our tribe of five, we had to use the long communal table outside.

Urban Pantry, Manuka

As we didn’t know what to try or expect, we decided to try different things on the menu. You can read more about my food post on Urban Pantry here. But this photo says it all.

So friends, that’s my breakfast. What are you guys gonna have?

Taking well over an hour to eat our way through, taking photos (read: selfies) and being merry, we decided to head back over to Pâtissez for dessert after our hearty breakfast. We felt that dessert was truly deserved having walked a long and grueling 30 metres away from Urban Pantry to Pâtissez.

We arrived with great timing as the Pâtissez staff were clearing our table when we arrived. During breakfast, we discussed that we should only share 1 milkshake. As we looked at the menu, we decided to try 3. You can read more about my food post on Pâtissez here.

We’d like to order 3 heart attacks that go straight to the thighs, please!

It. Was. Amazeballs! As we had a lactose intolerant in our group, we decided to make one with soy milk instead of full cream milk. Surprisingly, it tasted much fuller in body. And even more surprisingly, none of them seemed so rich despite how they looked. But I could be wrong – maybe my tastebuds have conditioned itself to have a tolerance to sugar. Overall, we enjoyed it and I personally think it’s worth going again.

As we left, the crowds got bigger, and overheard the staff tell a customer that the wait was now 2.5 hours. This was at around 12 pm. At this point, we decided to move on to our next destination – Questacon.

Oh Questacon, brings back such memories. The last time I was here was back during my high school ski trip - which we voted for a quick detour to Questacon. Surprisingly, not a lot has changed. Sadly, did not take many photos as we were having too much fun being big kids. But one thing's for sure - no matter how old you are, you always learn something new there.

After all our fun and games at Questacon, we proceeded to head over to our final destination: The Floriade Festival. The first time I went to Floriade was when I was probably about 2 years old and I haven't been back since. As a child, all I remember it to be was that it was just a bunch of flowers. Though the only memory I have of the Floriade is a photo of me in front of a garden of tulips that my mother took when we went.

As my friends and I got to the Floriade, it were in awe - it was a sea of colour as far as the eye could see.

I don't remember how long we were there for, but it seemed like hours walking around the grounds and just seeing the myriad of fauna that we knew was months in the making. But it's not just the flowers on display, it was also a source of major inspiration for those looking to get their green thumb on, to design or landscape their garden.

Alas, the clock striked 4 pm and it was time for us to head back home. As we shared our thoughts on our amazing road trip in Canberra I was staring out the window, I spontaneously yelled out to our desginated driver mate to stop the car immediately for one last photo of the meadows. It was a perfect shot to end our perfect day.