The last day - Sydney then home

Had another poor nights sleep last night.  Woke up with the flu, I felt it coming on yesterday afternoon so thought I’d have a red wine to try and kill the bug.  Didn’t work so I had another, then a couple more.  Seems the flu bug thrived on the red and  therefore I was a bit crook this morning.  The red wine must have kicked in finally and I was pretty good by breakfast time, so lucky I took the appropriate action in consuming all that medicine!!

We were up and about by about 6am (5am in Qld so it was still dark!) just before we got in to Bathurst. Got our cup of tea in bed.  Beautiful country, rolling hills, lush grazing and very healthy cattle and sheep in the paddocks.  Got to Katoomba about 9am and it had been raining and there was a thin fog through the gum tree forest which really set the scene after traveling through so much desert country.  Arrived at Sydney Central Station, they had to split the train because it was too long for the platform, we detrained at 11.40, jumped on the airport train, checked in, breezed through security and were sitting down having a coffee at 12.40…very efficient!!

In regards to the trip –

The cruise was great; it was about as long (16 nights) as we’d want.  Very good therapy if you need to distress and wind down.  There is easily enough to do if you need to get more active and we really enjoyed ourselves.  Met a couple of nice people who were at the table next to us at dinner, even though we didn’t see them at all throughout the cruise other than dinner time.  Not sure where everyone goes but we never felt crowded at all and could always find a quiet place for coffee or a wine.  The excursions were mostly pretty good, I’ve described some of our tour guides however they didn’t make the tour that much worse…just more interesting!!!  We’d love to go back to New Zealand again and cover it more thoroughly.

The train trip was not what we expected.  Watching the landscape change as we went from one side of the country to the other was fascinating.  The lack of fresh air wasn’t ideal and the noise and the rocking of the carriages was unbelievable.  The beds were comfortable enough but it was like trying to sleep on a vibrating bed.  It just moved from side to side the whole time, it was exhausting.  It will be good to get back into our own beds tonight.  It was one of those things which is good to do once in your lifetime.  We have seen all the pictures and it always looks so adventurous and glamorous, sipping champagne in the lounge bar, eating 5 star food in the dining car, relaxing in your lounge watching the kangaroos, camels, sheep and cattle quietly grazing in the paddocks as you glide across the country with all your needs fulfilled.  It is a little bit different to that image…although the red wine did assist with taking the rough edge off the less enchanting aspects of the ride.

All in all a successful holiday experience and one I’d recommend to anyone…just go in with eyes open and understand the benefits and disadvantages of this type of holiday combination.