I've been through the desert with a horse... I mean a train!

From Melbourne I departed for Adelaide, where I spent a couple of days researching the best way to get to Perth. No backpackers seemed to be arranging rideshares so I had to turn to public transportation, which did not exactly present a wide variety of options. The only chances to cross the desert proved to be by train and by plane, both costing around $200AU. Because I by far prefer overland travel over flying, I booked a trip on the Indian-Pacific railway, taking about 40 hours and costing $219AU.  This was the cheapest fare available and secured me a rather comfortable day-nighter seat in the Red (third) Class. The train departed from Adelaide after dark, and arrived two days later in the morning to Perth. 

As the 700-meter, 25-car long train slowly chugged across the vast emptiness of the Nullarbor plains, a thousand-kilometer slab of limestone covered by low scrub lying between Southern and Western Australia, I marveled from the carriage window the monotonous landscape of low-lying bush and sand. It stopped on the way in the deserted railway workers' town of Cook, and in the Australian goldmining capital, Kalgoorlie. During the stop in Kalgoorlie yours truly and some of the other backpackers from the train sought out a local pub and spent the three-hour stop comfortably listening to music from the local country-version of MTV and filling our bellies, as the food on board the train was, as was to be expected, rather dear. 

Sunset from a bus window on the way from Melbourne to Adelaide.

The Indian Pacific refueling at Cook.

A typical view from the train window.

A Cook town signpost. 

Arriving in Australia

From Oamaru I took an Intercity bus over to Christchurch, from where my flight departed for Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It's really hard for me to write me about Melbourne because in the five nights I spent over there I barely scratched the surface of the metropolis. I stayed at Home Backpackers in a fashionable South-Melburnian suburb of St. Kilda. The hostel itself was affordable (I won't say no to dorm beds at $19 a night!) but a bit scruffy so I wouldn't really recommend it if you can afford better.

Melbourne is said to be the cultural capital of Australia and as such it has enough museums, theatres, sport stadiums, parks, cafés, bars and night clubs to surely keep you entertained through your stay. National Gallery of Victoria and Melbourne Museum are just some of the various free attractions around the city (the latter only free to students). Other cool places to check out are the beach in St. Kilda and the Galleon Café on St. Kilda boulevard. Many bars have live music on every night. There's also a cool little rooftop cider bar in the city centre across from Flinders Street station but you'll need some luck to find it.

As a country Australia is currently a lot more expensive than New Zealand (Australian dollar is around 0,80€ while the kiwi dollar rate is somewhere around 0,60€). A dorm bed from a hostel for the same price I paid in New Zealand (12-18€ a night) seems to be really hard to find. On top of this the very cheapest hostels in Australia can be very scruffy so in order to find as high a standard as in New Zealand you will have to pay more. To compensate for the high prices, local wages are a lot higher than in New Zealand but for your average backpacker that is not a big comfort. The good wages are the main reason why Australia is a more popular working holiday destination than New Zealand.

Picnic lunching at one of Melbourne's parks.

Melbourne CBD's skyline. 

Cheeky Rascal Raspberry, a very decent cider!

The Modern Age at one of the local bars.

Sunset at St. Kilda Beach.

Night at St. Kilda. 

Chilling a while at Oamaru

The small Victorian town of Oamaru lies north of Dunedin, on the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. Despite its small size it is a relatively busy tourist destination, being one of the best and most easily accessible places in all of New Zealand to witness the landing of the penguin populations. Oamaru's centre has a small historic precinct with beutiful architechture which also rightfully promotes the town's popularity among travellers.

I spent my Oamaru time in a hostel called Chillawhile, near the northern edge of town. The hostel had a really unique creative arts vibe with art on every single piece of available wall and musical instruments dotting the grand living room. I happened to fall ill with a sinus infection as soon as I arrived in the town so I had to spend a couple of days in bed recovering before I could start working to cover for my accommodation, just as I had done in Invercargill.

The weather in the middle of winter on the South Island can be highly unpredictable, a testament to which during the first couple of days snow kept on falling from a wholly black sky. The locals told me that it was the first time it had snowed in 32 years. During the following couple of days the weather luckily brightened up though and reached highs of 15-16°C at noon.

Within a walking distance from centre of town exist two penguin colonies, one for the blue ”fairy” penguins and another for the more rare yellow-eyed penguin species. For $20 tourists can enter the blue penguin colony around sunset (in late August around 6PM) to watch the penguins make their way back to the colony after a couple of weeks of fishing out at sea. The yellow-eyed penguin colony farther from town center is free of charge.

I had too many good photos in Oamaru but here's a selection of the best ones:

Apparently they don't look left and right!

The town movie theatre.

Bird life is really abundant near the harbour.

This guy kept muttering something about buckets...

A view of the pier.

Whatever you do, don't use a flash if you see a penguin!