The Big Day had arrived!!!!!

At last the 1st of July had arrived - the big anticipated event - 'Cracker Night'.
On the 1st July each year Territorians celebrate Territory Day, marking the commencement of Self Government in the Territory on 1st July 1978.   The day is celebrated across the Northern Territory in a number of ways, including the famous Territory Day fireworks (both public and private).
The crackers are only available for sale on the 1st July from 9am until 9pm and they can only be legally lit from 6pm until 11pm on the same day.
So the first order of the day from 'Eagle Park' was to dispatch a car load of buyers (with pockets full of dollars) to hit the Katherine shops at 9am sharp!!!  The rest of us could do our own thing for the rest of the day until we all met again in town for a picnic tea.

 David and I decided to do some exploring around Katherine and headed off to the Cutta Cutta Caves, 25km south of Katherine.   (The name cutta means stars and when the caves were discovered some of the rock formations gave off sparkles like stars because of the mineral deposits in the water that caused the formations and because there were so many sparkles it looked like many many stars - hence the name 'Cutta Cutta'.)

Cutta Cutta Caves - the different colours are caused by different minerals in the water that forms the stalactites  and stalagmites

Entry to the caves

Eventually it was time to meet the rest of the crew for Barra and Chips in town at the Katherine River (it was the best fish I have ever tasted - yummmmm).   Still time then for a small drive around the town to check out some private fireworks then to the Katherine Showgrounds for the  'Territory Day Fireworks'.     WOW!!! what a show it was.  Approx. 15minutes of continuous brilliant bangs and colours bursting in the sky.  We couldn't possibly do it justice with videos but have included one of the smaller ones I took of the finale.

Katherine Showgrounds Fireworks


Then it was back to 'Eagle Park' for our own private fireworks display with Kieran, Anika, Krissy and Pete as the pyro-technicians.  They did a great job of it too and the display was enjoyed by everyone but again the video doesn't really do it justice.

'Eagle Park Fireworks'


It certainly was a fun evening!!!   Thankyou to the Northern Territory.