This is the Australia portion of my New Zealand and Australia trip reports. The New Zealand report can be found here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/new-zealand-trip-report
Day 1
Our flight from Auckland to Sydney was relatively short—about 3 /12 hours. It would have been a smooth trip if Sydney airport wasn’t such a disaster. Multiple large flights land all at once (I’ve read this is SOP), and everyone is crowded into the border control area with little direction as to how to navigate it, other than one employee angrily screaming at the line of people about the epassport lanes. It wasn’t clear to us, or to most others it seemed, if the epassport lanes were for anyone or just for Australian nationals. The employee did not seem approachable, so, when we got the opportunity, DH left the line to ask someone and it turned out that, yes, we could use the much shorter epassport lineup.
We took the train to Sydney harbour and walked uphill to our hotel, Rendezvous Hotel in “The Rocks” neighbourhood. I had booked a one-bedroom suite with a view, and it did not disappoint! The apartment was old and rather shabby, but it was spacious, and it had a stunning view of Sydney Harbour, the Opera House, and even, if we stood on the balcony, the Harbour Bridge.
We headed back down the hill to find lunch, and, as the weather was pleasant, chose to sit outdoors at Le Foote, a French restaurant on George Street. We were hungry, so I had steak frites and DH had duck. Everything was delicious.
We walked around a bit and looked at the Sunday market that was happening in the neighbourhood. We were fascinated with the large white ibises we saw, and we were soon to find that they were everywhere in Sydney, like pigeons or magpies in other places, but much larger.
We picked up a few groceries at the corner store, admiring all the different flavours of chocolate bars, crisps, and jerky on offer. We were tired from our travels by then, so we had a light bite for supper in our suite and relaxed until bedtime. Just before bed, I was going to step out onto the balcony to have another look at the view, but something the size of a large mouse, but with more legs, moved right where I was about to step. I quickly closed the door. In the dark, I hadn’t seen exactly what it was, but my theory is that it was a cockamouse (the part cockroach, part mouse, made famous on the tv show, “How I Met Your Mother.”)
Day 2
We decided to visit the Blue Mountains the next day, since the weather was so fine (not a given in a New South Wales winter.) Being near the harbour, we had easy access to the train, although we did need to make a transfer, which wasn’t difficult.
A horde of people got off the train with us in Katoomba. However, I had done my research, knew we needed to go into the booking office to buy passes for the Explorer Bus and Scenic World, and I happened to spot it immediately to the right as we exited the station. We ended up being first in what turned out to be a long lineup for the booking office.
Passes in hand, we headed up the street to the nearest bus stop. We were heading for the Three Sisters lookout, and we decided to get off the bus one stop early for what was supposed to be a scenic walk. While there were a couple of spots with decent views, I think we would have had to follow a narrow path farther down the mountainside for better views. We did spot a hapless Buzz Lightyear lying in the dirt, though. It was a real buzzkill.
When we reached the scenic lookout, it was busy. In fact, everything in Australia was far busier than New Zealand had been, even though it was winter. But we enjoyed the spectacular views of the Three Sisters and the surrounding mountains.
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