Territorians get outdoors for the weekend as parks reopen

THE lifting of restrictions on Territory parks combined with the start of the dry season have seen droves of people enjoying the great outdoors this long weekend.

Etienne Pazo Savage, Juan Pazo Coyola and Melissa Savage at the Charles Darwin National Park. Picture: Che Chorley

THE lifting of restrictions on Territory parks combined with the start of the dry season have seen droves of people enjoying the great outdoors this long weekend.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced on Monday that a number of the Territory’s parks, golf courses and swimming pools would be reopened in time for the long weekend as part of the first stage of a planned rollback of COVID-19 restrictions.

Melissa Savage, Juan Pazo Coyola and their son Etienne Pazo Savage spent their day riding through the Charles Darwin National Park, which was reopened on Friday.

Ms Savage said they were thrilled at being able to get out and about again.

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“It’s (the Charles Darwin National Park) a hidden gem – it’s really lovely,” she said.

“There are a couple of different trails. We’re going to go back tomorrow and try another one.”

The family plan to work their way through all of the bike trails around Darwin throughout the dry season.

“We love to go bike riding but we don’t do enough of it,” Ms Savage said.

“There’s heaps of great trails around Howard Springs too.

“We’re trying to work our way through them.”

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Ms Savage said she felt lucky to be living in the Territory throughout the crisis.

“My husband is Spanish and he’s got a big family there … they’ve been indoors for five or six weeks and not even seeing the sun,” she said.

“We feel very privileged to be living in Darwin.”