ACT
TODDLER TIME IN CANBERRA ANGELA SAURINE finds there are plenty of fun activities for little kids in the nation’s capital A dark storm cloud looms above the windscreen as we edge closer to the nation’s capital. I am determined to get there before it rains. Our trip had already been delayed by a day thanks to an annoying but necessary COVID-19 test (negative, obvs) that had seen us forced to self-isolate until we got the results – one of the realities of the new era of travel. We’d been due to arrive that morning, when the forecast was for blue skies and sunshine. I want my son Oliver to get at least a few minutes in at the POD Playground at the National Arboretum Canberra that I’d heard so much about. After the long drive he is happy to be unleashed. He makes a beeline for the tallest ladder and slowly, but with as much determination as his mum, begins to make his way to the top. “How old is he?” a dad behind me asks, obviously surprised by his tiny stature. “Two,” I reply. “He’s doing well,” he says, and my heart swells with pride. I climb up behind him and we enter the heart of the giant acorn and
the dark tunnel before us. With Oliver sitting between my legs we whizz down the slide, and emerge laughing into the daylight. I try to steer him in the direction of the toddler area, but it takes a while to get there as he stops en route to explore the pods, and tap on musical instruments he sees older kids playing. When we finally get to the sandpit he sits and takes off his shoes before running into another pod, pouring sand from one side, climbing the ropes, and sliding up and down the far more suitable slide, countless times. After he has had his fix, we head inside and grab a hot chocolate from the amazing architecturally-designed building and peruse the gift shop, which is filled with fun, educational toys and quality products such as science kits. The National Arboretum was established following the devastating bushfires of 2003 which burnt a significant area of the ACT, including pine plantations. As well as honouring Walter Burley Griffin’s original plan for Canberra, which included an arboretum located on the west side of the lake, it symbolises the community’s process of healing and recovery from the upheaval and grief of the catastrophic fires. More than 44,000 rare and endangered trees have since been planted across a 250ha site, which was also used for concerts and other events in pre-COVID times. We head
WITH OLIVER SITTING BETWEEN MY LEGS WE WHIZZ DOWN THE SLIDE, AND EMERGE LAUGHING INTO THE DAYLIGHT
Oliver was fascinated by the frogs at Canberra Reptile Zoo
74
outside to check out the large grass amphitheatre, where kids are rolling down the hill and families are flying kites in the distance. Oliver begins to run down the hill gleefully, and I follow close behind, dreading the trek back up. Naturally, that’s the moment the heavens decide to open. Screams and laughter can be heard all around us as children and their parents scurry back up the slope to cover, Oliver and I included. It’s not often that I run alongside him, and his giggle is infectious. We weren’t meant to be here. Our big holiday this year was supposed to be a South Pacific cruise, where I imagined making sandcastles on white sand beaches, swimming in calm turquoise bays and being greeted by cultural performances at the islands we visited. But like all of us, I’d been forced to look closer to home