Canberra Australia City Tour | VLOG 289

Welcome back everyone and thanks for joining us for another week of Katie Met Chris. This week we are exploring Australia's beautiful capital, but first... I'd like to teach Americans how to do an Australian accent. G'day mate. Come on, you've got it. G'day mate. Where do we go from, where do we go from here? Welcome to Canberra, the capital city of Australia. Canberra's history dates back to the indigenous people who lived in this area for thousands of years. The city was named after the word Canberra, which means meeting place in the language of the local Ngorongoro, probably said that really wrong, apologies to the native aboriginal tribe from this area. Canberra is a completely planned city designed by the American architect Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahoney Griffin. Marion Mahoney Griffin drew 16 renderings. They won an international design competition in the early 1900s, a vital part of the couple's winning entry in the competition for the design of the new capital. They got to design the city. Today, Canberra is a thriving city with a population of 400,000 people. It's renowned for its rich history, stunning architecture, and beautiful national parks. Test, test, test. But enough with the introductions. Let's get on with the tour. Welcome to the Royal Australian Mint, where Australia's currency comes to life. This fascinating mint offers visitors a behind the scenes look on how coins are made with a range of interactive exhibits and displays showcasing the history of Australian coins. Visitors can even mint their own coins as a unique souvenir to take home. It's got the queen on one side. The other side, it's got the seascape. But is there a place to get a great cup of coffee? Of course there is. It's Australia. Admission is free, but you still have to book online. The highlight of any visit here is to see the robots. They are so cool. And they don't just make coins. This is also where Australia's Olympic medals are forged. This is really cool. These were Spanish coins. They needed more coins. They kept the center out and then printed over the top. And there's only about 300 that they said were left over. And one of them they found as a washer on a tractor. It ended up being $90,000 worth of a washer on a tractor here in Australia. I thought that was pretty cool. Not usually much of a museum guy, but this tour was absolutely fascinating. And I think it was about 30 minutes long. Definitely recommend it. Next stop is the Parliament House. The political heart of the nation. Opened in 1988, the breathtaking architecture and towering flagpole are impossible to miss. Good thing because we were heading the opposite direction until we saw the flagpole and went, wait a second, I think we're supposed to go this way. And it's just as beautiful on the inside. There's marble staircases and columns. There are all sorts of displays and artwork depicting Australia's political history. We were even able to just walk right into the council chambers, which was pretty cool. Also pretty sure we wouldn't be able to do that when Parliament's in session. It also offers stunning views of the city. Plus it's surrounded by gardens and parks. If you do come up here, there's even a park on the top. Make sure you take the lift all the way to the top. And speaking of parks, the Botanic Gardens are a perfect place to spend an afternoon hiking and checking out the critters. I thought he was fake, but he's real. Lizard. This is an Australian water dragon, one of the many protected native species here in Australia. This is a perfect day for me. There's miles of trails out here and tons of animals to see. Beautiful little birds everywhere out there. The Red Centre Garden was probably one of our favourite areas. It's uniquely Australian and absolutely fascinating. I'm taking home. Early the next morning. We just happened to come across the oldest rocks in Australia. We weren't looking for the oldest rocks in Australia, we were trying to walk to Costco. We're not sure if that's going to be successful, but hey, bonus. Welcome to Costco. I love you. We did make it to Costco, but do not recommend the trip as there was a lot of bushwhacking involved. There are so many really wonderful things to do in Canberra. And we did a lot more of them. Unfortunately, somebody lost about half of our video footage. So, sorry Canberra, this is all you got from us. Thanks again for spending your time watching our videos. Please, if you haven't done so, make sure to like and subscribe. It really helps our channel out. And we will see you next week. Keep drinking this coffee. Click the thumbs up and subscribe. No, that was good. That was good.