Book review: Given that international railway timetables frequently become a triumph of hope over experience, Gregory Hill’s decision to travel from Wellington, New Zealand, to its exact opposite point on the globe by rail might appear a rash choice for an OE. Not all the 38,000km separating the Windy City from a small Spanish wheatfield near an equally modest Spanish town would – or could – be travelled by rail.
There’s the small question of navigating the Tasman and South China seas, let alone smaller others like the Timor Sea. But once these obstacles were overcome by diverting to air or sea travel, Hill, a former principal horn player for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and his wife and fellow musician, Anne Loeser, could trundle onward towards their ultimate goal along thousands of kilometres of railway tracks in varying degrees of ease, undaunted by international bureaucracy and occasional recalcitrant railway officials. Hill’s dream of an Antipodean rail journey ended successfully 78 days after boarding the Wellington-Auckland train on an autumn day in 2019.
There have been other books about epic railway journeys, notably Paul Theroux (Riding the Iron Rooster, The Old Patagonian Express and The Great Railway Bazaar). While this is not in the same league as the great travel writers, Hill displays an infectious enthusiasm and engaging wide-eyed innocence.
This is no sweaty-socks-and-backpack saga. The hotels en route are mostly comfortable and the food usually good. Especially the food. Hill emerges as a man utterly transfixed by the journey’s culinary possibilities. Every page appears to contain a detailed account of his gastronomic experiences, ranging from pho soup in Ho Chi Minh City to Cantonese dumplings in Hong Kong and braised mushrooms in provincial Russia.
In contrast, his observations on the unfolding cultural mosaic revealed on the journey are a little more prosaic. There are arguably gauche moments (“Muslim Jakarta. The perfect place to be for Easter. Tragically, not a hot cross bun in sight”) and others where he offers underwhelming insights (“Cambodian politics is weird”) or resorts to the tried and true travel-guide approach (“Mongolia has a population of only 2.8 million and nearly half of them live in Ulaanbaatar which also has the distinction of being the coldest capital in the world.”)
Criticisms aside, The Antipodean Express provides an amiable dollop of armchair travel with a genial companion who ends his long expedition with … what else but a refreshing sangria and victory dinner in Salamanca.
The Antipodean Express: A Journey by Train from New Zealand to Spain by Gregory Hill (Exisle, $44.99)
