So we finally arrived in Melbourne! Talk about a huge city. We got there in the evening of the 28th, and saw a bit that night. We walked around to find some food, but couldn’t really appreciate the size of the city since it was dark. Our hostel was really nice though. Melbourne Central YHA was really new, and was much like an apartment building. The rooms were small, and everything just felt new. Talk about a treat. But it couldn’t last forever. The next morning in fact, we headed over to Melbourne Metro, just outside the core. This place was cheaper, but still pretty good. Well, after checking in, we decided to really see the city this time. We walked down to the shopping centre (Melbourne Central) and looked around for a bit. Great place, ... read more

Our second day of the tour started early to take advantage of the cool weather. We hiked up the Wonderland Range taking in the scenery of rocky slopes and running streams. Once at the top we could now see down into the valley where we had just stayed the night before. The view was amazing, and we could see for miles around. We got back to the carpark (what parking lots seem to be called in Australia) and went back down to the valley to check out the cultural center. There was plenty of history about the native aboriginals in this area, and descriptions of what happened to the population here in Victoria. The majority were unfortunately killed or moved when settlers arrived, extinguishing much of the culture that used to dominate this part of the ... read more

Our last day on Kangaroo Island was going to be a remarkable one. Because we got to see the Remarkable Rocks! Haha We started by going on the Snake Lagoon Hike. This little trek took us through what seemed to be some not-so-recently burned bush. Australia has a lot of this, and you can distinguish it by the vegetation. The taller trees may be scarred and leaf less, but closer to the ground the shrubbery will most likely have already re-grown and be looking healthy. Through this, we eventually came to a river and followed it to the Southern Ocean. There was a cool cave we climbed through, and even got a little down and dirty with climbing through one of the tight spaces. The walk then took us back to the start of the hike ... read more

Friday we started our 3-day tour of Kangaroo Island. It’s a small island off the mainland in South Australia. We drove a couple of hours from Adelaide to the ferry, which is the only way to get to the island. Supposedly it’s one of the most expensive ferries in the world (in terms of fares), especially for vehicular transport (which keeps the island fairly free of too many tourists and development). After a short ride, we arrived on land! One of our first places to check out was Prospect Hill. It was a bit of a climb to the top, but we got some great views all around. You could even clearly see the narrowest part of the island, where the ocean would almost rejoin with itself. We had lunch at a eucalyptus farm, where they ... read more

Sunday was a big day for us, the beginning of our train trip from Perth to Adelaide! We took the Indian Pacific, a rather iconic Australian railway (similar to the Ghan, which goes up the centre of Australia to Darwin). Our seats were daynighter seats, in the Red class. We had heard unfavourable things about taking the train, but much to our surprise, it was quite comfortable. There was more room than the Greyhound bus (which we had done several 24 hour trips before) and you could freely walk around the car. As an added bonus, there were plenty of free seats, so Hillary and I got to sit across from each other and spread out over two seats! That night we stopped in Kalgoorie for a couple of hours. Not much to do at midnight, ... read more