Day 06 was the last day to visit all the remaining beauty-full spots in and around Melbourne. By now, we had surveyed almost every possible tourist attraction inside and situated nearby the city (Wohoo… time to tick mark Melbourne). Plan was to explore the historical Puffing Billy Railway and then head towards Shepparton to visit my sister’s family for a day before leaving towards the next destination of our trip.

We had booked our slot with Puffing Billy in advance for 12:30 pm ( it is about an hour and half drive away east of Melbourne CBD). But this was one of those crappy days when nothing was going right, we were super super late, the check out process also took more time than assumed hence there was no way we could reach the station on time even if we had oversped too. We called Puffing Billy and requested to reschedule the booking to 2:30 pm which was done without any problem, THANK GOD. We took a sigh of relief and slowed down a bit. We had ample amount of time to get there now.

We then decided to go shopping for our jackets as much more colder and rainy weather was anticipated in the next stops of our trip. We proceeded towards Kathmandu (one stop shop for waterproof, windproof and breathable yet packable stuff) and got our jackets at very good bargain (Christmas offer was going on.. yayyy 😀 ). But here we took more time than expected and once again we had to rush. Grabbed filling shawarmas on the way for lunch and at last, advanced our way towards Puffing Billy. On the way we found out that it is situated on Dandenong ranges which we had visited yesterday. Technically, we should have planned both attractions on the same day. But we were driving there again (another unpleasant realization… damn) .

Anyhow, we arrived at the station just about time. The train was departing in 5 mins but we had to walk down the road from parking to station which was about 5 mins walk too. We quickly got off the car but when HI opened the boot to take out E’s stroller, it was nowhere. Another set back of the day (a strong one), we had left it on the road while coming back from the shop in haste (E and I so miss that stroller, she loved it 😦 *poor baby* ). This was proving to be one DISASTROUS day of our trip, one after another depressing events! The next target was to catch the train or else there was no third option available. All 3 of us walked briskly to the station and finally got successful in boarding the train. SUCCESS finally!

Puffing Billy is preserved century-old steam train that continues to run on its original mountain track (that’s quite alot, the tracks are scary sometimes) through temperate rainforest with lush fern gullies brushing past and mountain ash trees towering overhead. Check out the scenic train ride pictures below. The live session I did from the train on Facebook page is also attached.

After losing all that preloved stuff and having not-so-happening time, we drove all the way to Shepparton. Witnessed such lovely landscapes and  breathtaking sunset on the way. Check out for yourself below.

My sister and all there were waiting for us since so long, too bad we arrived late because of all those distressing occurrences. E loved meeting Inaaya (her cousin sister), she is way toooo adorable. We devoured the scrumptious dinner which was made especially for us. Before calling it a day we packed our bags and made everything ready for the flight which we had to catch the next day towards Auckland.

Day 07 went by in travelling completely. From Shepparton to Melbourne airport than from Melbourne to Auckland. Flight got delayed, queue at immigration counter in Auckland was never ending. Also, keep in mind that one has to fill out a similar Incoming Passenger Card I have shared in my first post of the series. You can check it out here. The airport security process is also more or less the same. By the time we came out of airport we were overtired after 14 hrs of travel. Thankfully, we were invited to stay over at HI’s childhood friend, Noman bhai who came to pick us up at 2am too. So, we didn’t have to worry about any hotels in Auckland. *peace of mind kinda feeling*

Before proceeding to start Auckland’s adventures, the next post is going to be a summary post for Melbourne in which i’ll be covering all the necessary details about the city. So watch out for that, it is going to be an informative as well as interesting one.