4 Stray Katz: 'Dwayne' has his night in Darwin.

We certainly timed it right to be in Darwin for Territory Day, a public holiday to celebrate NT becoming self governing (in 1978). It is also the only day in Australia that anyone over the age of 18 can legally buy as many fireworks as they can afford then let them off wherever they want between 6 and 11pm. It was an experience I will never forget, for the fun and the incredible fireworks and for the 'no rules' attitude that prevailed (so different for us from the southern states).
The following quote in the NT News on Territory Day from the director of Dominator Fireworks sums up Territorians on this day; "catering for the Territory is catering for 'Dwayne'. 'Dwayne is the dad who wants to have a bit of fun.....'Dwayne' wants noise and height - he'll probably down seven cans before he lights them (the fireworks) and there are always plenty of 'Dwaynes' out in full force on Territory Day". Well this was correct. 'Dwaynes' were everywhere and they had obviously spent a lot on fireworks. Fireworks went off constantly from just before 6pm and did not taper off until the early hours of the morning, with some still going off on Saturday morning. Both Daniel and I commented that we felt like we were in a war zone (this was at about midnight when we had been woken many time by fireworks blasting into the sky close by).
Prior to our sleepless night we'd had a fantastic evening at the free Territory Day event at Mindil Beach. It began with a walk up and down the market trying to decide what food to buy, followed by dinner from the food stalls of our choice then down to the beach to watch the sunset. After sunset Kasey Chambers played a great set followed by Cat Empire who rocked the crowd. After the concert the reported 16,000 people who had descended on Mindil Beach were treated to an awesome fireworks display. Emilia loved it even though she was busting for the toilet (we refused to take her and miss the fireworks when we had just asked 10min prior to them starting) and Jackson was enthralled. The both crashed afterwards and were nearly sleep walking by the time we got them back to the car! We saw many more fireworks on the drive home but also loads of spotfires due to errant fireworks. It was a wonderful night and the newspaper on Sunday reported that only a few 'Dwaynes' ended up in hospital with 'serious finger injuries and minor burns'. NT Fire had 230 calls for spotfires, bin fires and a couple of shed fires but apparently this is a great result!

The rest of our time in Darwin was spent:

- Enjoying the resort style pool, splash park and jumping pillow at the caravan park.

- wandering through the city centre, listening to buskers and buying souvenirs.

- cooling off at the new waterfront. The kids made some friends and spent an enjoyable few hours building sandcastles and swimming with their new mates.

- visiting Mindil Markets again on Sunday, enjoying more great food and a lovely sunset. The kids also enjoyed a performance by the 'drumming monkeys' kids entertainers and they danced and sang while we relaxed. We let the kids buy a souvenir of their choice each. Jackson decided on a bird caller which he broke 10 mins into our journey home causing lots of tears. Clearly not designed for 3 year old boys. I think we will be looking for a new souvenir in Kakadu.

Darwin is a really nice city and we have enjoyed our time here, everyone is so laid back and the climate is lovely. A nice place to spend the last weekend of our trip. Off to Kakadu now for 5 days in the bush before hightailing it home.

Enjoying a sugar-laden treat before the Territory Day festivities.

Down on Mindil beach with the thousands of others with the sun setting over the water

I think I was possibly the only adult with a tattoo on!

Just a few other enjoying the view too!

Enjoying the music (before she was so tired she had to lay on the rug).

Jackson really got into the music and both Daniel and I took him up the front to see Cat Empire up close (he had his glow wrist band waving like a real raver).