On October 31st, 2026, Ron and I will travel with our friends Lisa and Chris, from Mississauga, to these three countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. We will be away until December 11th, so 41 days in total. We have been planning since January of this year meeting on zoom chats for many Sunday evenings, planning every detail: where to stay, how many days, what to visit, etc.
October 31st. Happy Halloween! All packed and ready to hit the road, the airport. Our flight leaves at 1:15 with Porter airlines to Vancouver, then an overnight flight to Nadi, Fiji, and finally arriving in Sydney around noon hour on November 2nd. I understand that we will be tired with the long flights and the time change but hoping to sleep on the plane, at least for a few hours. Here we go. Uber coming in 15 minutes.
November 2nd. Well, we lost November 1st. We had a 7 hour layover in Vancouver and 3.5 hours in Fiji. We landed in Sydney before 1 pm. We picked up our car rental and headed towards our airbnb stopping to buy groceries and alcohol.
Tuesday, November 3rd. We had a full day in Sydney. We decided to take the train instead of driving as it was much easier. Train ride was just over 1 hour. Payment is so easy. You just tap and go.
We decided to go directly to Bondi beach first. So after getting off the train in Bondi Junction we walked 20 minutes to our destination.
Lots of people walking, running, sun bathing, and surfing. We decided to walk the coastal route for a few kms. They had an art exhibition along the rocks. It was cool.
After our walk, we decided to go put our toes in the water. Ron and I were posing for Chris to take the picture just as a rogue wave caught us off guard. It was a good laugh. We then walked the beach from end to end. It's really not that long. People were swimming in what we considered quite cool water.
We continued our walk along the beach and decided to get a cold drink. You definitely pay for the view here $16 a beer. Ouch!
We then hopped on the 333 bus to downtown where we got off at Hyde Park. At one end sits the St Mary's Cathedral. A massive, beautiful. Church. Free entrance as well.
We continue on to The Botanical Gardens. Wow! The trees are incredible. There are different kinds of Palm trees, Banyan trees, some Pines, etc.
At the end of the Gardens, you arrive at the Opera House. We walked up the steps to get a closer look but we didn't have a booked tour to go inside. Took pictures of the Harbour Bridge which is right by the Opera House.
We walked in the Rocks section of downtown. This is the old Sydney. There were people all dressed up and partying everywhere. Women wore hats and dresses, men wore suits. We found out that this happens every Tuesday for the Melbourne Cup, a horse race.
We had supper at a Thai place. It had good reviews but we thought that it was just ok.
We then decided to head back as the time change was catching up to us. It was a little shorter return. We were all in bed between 9:15-10:00.
Wednesday, November 4. We are heading to downtown Sydney on the 8:00 train as we have a morning walking tour for 2.5 hours.
Our guide, Lily, met us in Hyde park at the Archibald fountain. We had booked the "Sydney historical walking tour including the Rocks". Lily was very knowledgeable and fun. We walked to many historical sites and monuments and she would describe everything. We were encouraged to ask as many questions as we wanted. She explained that most of the museum, art galleries, etc are free and she told us which ones we should not miss.
After the tour we sat by the water and at our home made sandwiches. Chris wasn't feeling well so he headed back to the train station to go home and the e of us headed to the bridge to walk across. We did not walk up the bridge as it did appeal to us in two ways, the fear of heights and the cost, $300+.
We then took Lily's suggestions to visit a few museums. The first stop was the Rocks museum. It showed how that area of town grew and what happened to the Aboriginal people's. (Same fate as the First Nations in Canada)
The second visit was at the Barracks museum. This is where a lot of the prisoners from the UK were originally sent when arriving in Australia. It was really well done.
Then the three of us walked around the harvour area looking for a place to eat before our Sunnset tour. We ate facing the harbour, so we could see the Opera House and the Bridge. Food was not great but good viewing.
The Sunset tour was for one hour and just what it described. We had great views of the sun going down by the harbour. The tour included snacks and non alcoholic drinks. You could pay for beers, etc. You could also bring your own bottle of wine at no charge.
It was 8pm when the tour finished so we headed for the train station. Because of the late hour the trains in our area were limited. We needed to switch twice before waiting 40 minutes for our train. Got home around 10:45 pm. A long, very enjoyable day.
Thursday, November 5th- Discovering the Jervis Bay area. We decided to drive along the coast as we could stop whenever we saw beautiful scenery or a quaint town.
Our first stop was not too far away, to view the Sea Cliff Bridge. Wow! What a marvelous idea to build the bridge/road away from the cliffs.
We continued our drive through the Illawarra region through many towns. We stopped in Woolongong to see the marina area, the lighthouse and beach. They were all beautiful. We continued onward to a town called Kiama where there was a famous blowhole. That was cool to see. We also found a quaint little restaurant called The Hungry Monkey. We all ate very well. They were well known for their cinnamon rolls so of course we had to buy some. The were so yummy! The vig difference with these was their name. Here they are called "cinnamon scrolls". South of Kiama there was a beach called 7 mile beach so of course we had to drive up to the viewing spot. Unfortunately the trees were overgrown so it was hard to get a good view. Thankfully Ron was able to reach up higher to get a decent picture. We arrived in Jervis Bay early afternoon and spent some time walking on the Hyams beach. It's claim to fame is that it is the whitest sand in the world. Not sure about that but it is the kind of sand that squeaks when you rub your feet on it. It was time to head back so we took the straighter route which was mostly highway driving. The roads are very good in general. Some secondary roads are narrower and they have signs to look out for koalas and kangaroos. We never saw any!! Dinner was just leftovers as we were not very hungry. Another fairly early night. We are still waking up between 5:30 and 6:30 every morning.
Friday, November 6th. We spent the day in the Blue Mountains. This place is very popular with the locals and tourists. There are tons of trails and beautiful viewing platforms. Again, there is no entry fee nor parking fees. This is so great.
Our first trail was about 3.5 km, so it would take approximately 1.5 hours. It was called the Undercliff and the Overcliff trail. The undercliff part was so cool. The walking was goid but you had to look down a lot to make sure not to get tripped up. This trail was not very busy so nice to do. We then wanted to find a tour with waterfalls. Three of us chose to walk to Echo Point where you see the iconic Three Sisters mountains. Our driver drove there to see the views and pick us up at the end. This trail got busier and busier as we approached the viewing area. There were lots of tour buses at the Three Sisters. We were glad that we saw this site but happy to leave as well. Two of us, the ladies, still wanted to walk some more so off we went to hike a trail claiming to have 4 waterfalls. Well, guess there hasn't been much rain lately as the falls were barely visible. Ah well, got another hour hike in. Also, for most of the trails there are washroom facilities and some have a café, etc.
On our return drive we stopped in Heathcote, 20 minutes from home to grab a bite. We stopped at a Thai restaurant and had a great meal. Home again by 7:00 or so. I took another walk down to the beach where fishermen were still there hoping to catch the big one. The waves were quite large still. This beach must always have big surf.
Saturday, November 7th. Our last day in this area. We were all up by 6:00am. Lisa and I decided to walk the beach after breakfast. We were not disappointed. It was already warming up nicely. Today will be our hottest day yet going up to high 20's. Unfortunately we will be getting rain this afternoon. The surfers were out in full force. I counted 15 of them at one point. I got a few videos of them catching a few waves. We also noticed a guy maning a drone. He looks out for killer whites on weekends to ensure the safety of the surfers. The surfers take over one side of the beach and the other has the fishermen.
We got back to the house and got ready to go to the Symbio Wildlife Park, a 15 minute drive from our airbnb. We paid our seniors fee of $42 and entered the refuge. There are lots of animals to see and interact with. I generally do not go to zoos as I feel badly for the animals in captivity. Anyway, it was actually very good as we got to see the wonderful koalas, the kangaroos, the wallabies, the emus, a wombat, a variety of birds, etc. We were there for almost 3 hours. We then headed south to discover a few coastal towns like Thirroul and Bulli. We ended up having lunch at a micro brewery in Bulli. It was very popular as they served drinks and food, so we had some beers and lunch. We then drove back to our place and pretty much stayed put as a storm was brewing (thunder, winds, and rain) We also just wanted to rest a bit, pack up, clean up in order to be ready to leave by 6:30 tomorrow morning. Our flight is at 10, but we have about one and a half hours to get to the airport.
