Adelaide

The Overlander, Tuesday 24 March

On the train on the way to Adelaide. Miles and miles of very flat, very brown Aussie scenery rolling by (I'd say rushing, but it'd be wrong as this train doesn't rush, it rolls). There's still a good couple of hours left in the journey and then I somehow have to find tonight's motel ....

Melbourne was fun, good to see friends and relax a bit. Yesterday I spent the morning wandering around the shops with Bea (on holiday from the UK). Nice to see proper shops, it's one thing Wellington doesn't have in abundance. Bought a new wide-angle lens as mine has died; it will probably be fixable but I'm not staying anywhere long enough to get it fixed and I found a decent deal on a Sigma 10-20mm digital lens. Bea and I met up with Helen for a yum cha lunch, which was highly enjoyable. I like being a lady what lunches. :) After that we split up as Bea had already been to the city museum and I wanted to go. I got to play with the new lens outside and inside the museum, which is beautiful from an architectural point of view and interesting from a cultural point of view. I didn't bother with the generic science/natural history galleries because you do get those everywhere and went straight to the Melbourne gallery, telling the city's story. I followed that with the Te Pasifika gallery (small, with a variety of canoes and other Pasifika artefacts including a kiwi-feather cloak from NZ) and the Aborigine gallery. That raised the question of whether it's right for museums in other countries to hold indigenous artefacts in their collections. The Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders don't think it is – I'm of two minds. Human remains should, I reckon, remain in their home countries. Bits of rock and objects given by indigenous peoples to explorers and collectors is a slightly different matter; I understand the point of view that those things belong to the tangata whenua (to use the Maori term for people of the land) but if every nation on earth took that view we'd be a very closeted species, unaware and unappreciative of the greater world on our doorstep. Especially because relatively speaking not that many people get a chance to travel outside their borders.

Finished the museum with the forest gallery, which was a rather good sort of giant aviary full of trees and tree ferns and other plants, waterways, birds and some animals and so on. I managed to arrive just when the alpine copperhead snake was being fed its weekly dead mouse – a very scrawny little white creature – so I watched for a while. Still don't like snakes. I preferred the pretty little birds twittering about among the trees.

Next stop, just before it closed, was Cook's Cottage. Some time ago some Melburnians decided to buy the old stone cottage once lived in by Captain Cook's parents, dismantle it, and ship it from Great Ayton in Yorkshire all the way to Oz. As you do. It now stands incongruously amid the palm trees in a Melbourne park, complete with an English-style cottage garden and very non-English birds flitting about. In the interests of being a complete Cook geek I had to go inside for a quick look.

The sun was beginning to set, turning the churches and modern architecture a lovely golden, and I sat in Federation Square for a while people-watching and waiting for friends. Helen took us rowing that evening, a short outing in a coxed four on the Yarra which was fun. Always good to get out in a boat.

Up early this morning to catch the train, and I've generally relaxed all day. Comfortable seats, alternating between reading, scenery watching, snoozing and eating. Could be worse ...

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Adelaide, Wednesday 25 March

Back from a day exploring Adelaide; my feet hurt!

Caught a taxi to my hotel from the train station last night – it was raining and I really had no idea where I was! Only the taxi driver appeared to have no idea either and had to consult a map before putting the hotel address into his GPS thing. Sometimes I miss London cabbies.

I'm staying in North Adelaide, which is a nice neighbourhood with lots of really pretty Victorian houses and a main street with plenty of restaurants and so on. However it's also within walking distance of the city proper, and that's where I headed this morning. Booked a wine tour in the McLaren Vale for Friday before hitting the Central Market, a large covered market with lots of fruit, veg, meat, cheese and bakery stalls. I didn't need to buy anything but had a lovely wander around (and a really good coffee).

Then I went to a contemporary arts gallery called the JamFactory – they have a glass studio attached – some lovely pieces of glassware, jewellery and a great exhibition of quirky creatures made out of glass. I carried on being cultural at the South Australian Museum, mainly for the Aboriginal cultural gallery; lots of art and other objects from across Australia. The art gallery next door was good too, though had a baffling range of art from across the world. I actually liked the contemporary Aborigine art best. So I went on to the national Aboriginal cultural centre, Tandanya, where they were changing exhibits so there wasn't much to see. Aboriginal art is awfully expensive.

Finished the day with a wander through the Botanic Gardens, especially the rose garden. I do love roses and they had lots of different ones, including some test roses. A funny little bloke driving round on a quad bike told me I ought to be taking pictures of the test flowers because they might get chucked out if they're not successful. He was actually the third random old Aussie bloke who's struck up a conversation with me in the past few days. In Melbourne on Monday after I'd said bye to Bea one old guy told me we looked very relaxed and was I on holiday; and then earlier today outside the state library another man suggested that I go round the back to look at the old police buildings (I did, it was a good suggestion).

I'm planning to catch the train tomorrow morning to Port Adelaide and go to the maritime museum, and then if I'm back in town early I might check out the aquatic centre and have a swim.