With the recent completion of the new St Kilda Pier and with free public transport travel on Christmas Day, we thought it would be a no brainer to go see the penguins as they return from a day’s hunting at twilight. Problem was, so did a thousand other people.
Our grossly incorrect planning assumptions:
a) The Melbourne CBD will be a ghost town
b) There will be few people taking public transport
c) Few will be interested to visit the new pier at night on a public holiday
The journey started well enough when we hopped on the tram. It was quite empty but as it got closer to the city, more and more people piled on. It did not help that the tram arrival frequency was every 30 minutes, instead of the usual 10 mins or less on a normal weekday.
As the sardine can on wheels began to fill up, we were relieved to see mass exodus of travellers at the Southern Cross tram stop as well as the one at the Crown Casino. Presumably, many have gone to see the Christmas lights along the Yarra River.
We got off at The Esplanade tram stop at St Kilda and simply followed the throngs of people heading to the pier. There was a strong land breeze and that helped to cool temperatures as we dodged people walking, cycling and on mobility scooters.
So where were the fairy penguins? Unfortunately, hundreds of people were already positioned at the best spot (right at the very end of the pier) when we arrived. All we saw were the backs of humans in a mad scramble to take videos of the flightless birds.
After sitting on one of the many benches available, we headed back to the tram stop and horrors of horrors, it was packed with people heading home. The first tram to the city came and went without us having a glimmer of hope of getting on. It was that crowded.
Then a brainwave struck. We decided to take the tram that was heading away from the city instead. It was almost empty and it reached its end of line in just two stops before reversing and making its way back. Feeling very smug, we secured good seats this way and watched the tram fill up with people fighting to get on as it chugged slowly back towards the city. The noise inside the tram was overwhelming as people talked at the top of their voices. We never understood why travellers like to talk (and about mundane topics, mind you) when inside trams and trains. People here should learn from the Japanese where silence, when on public transport, is a form of good manners.
It was quite an experience and would we take up free travel on public holidays again anytime soon?
Not likely. We value our sanity.
😊
