Diamantina, you were so helpful when we had to re-route our itinerary at the last minute in New Zealand. Because we weren't planning on driving over Arthur's Pass, I hadn't done any research on that route so I had no idea where a nice town would be to spend the night. Without your advice, I would have spent a lot of time reading my guidebook and doing an internet search. Spending the night in Methven was an excellent suggestion. We enjoyed our stay there especially spending 2 hours in the hot pools!

OCTOBER 25: FROM MELBOURNE TO KATOOMBA

We had a 10AM flight on Quantas Airlines from Melbourne to Sydney. Our hotel ordered a cab for us to bring us to the airport. They told us the rate is typically between 40 to 60 AUD. However, the taxi driver charged us 90 AUD. Maybe we should have disputed the price with him but we like to avoid unpleasantness when we are traveling. But after this experience we decided to use Uber for the remainder of our trip, and that worked out much better. We are typically not Uber users but I think I am sold on Uber now. Their rates are lower, and they always picked us up within minutes.

I had rented our car for our trip to the Blue Mountains with Europcar (through Kemwel/AutoEurope). I’ve been using Kemwel/AutoEurope for several decades now, and I’ve never had any problems with them. When we arrived at the Europcar rental desk, it was not manned. There were instructions to go outside and look for the bus that will bring us to the car rental office, about a 20-minute ride, I think. We picked up our car, and then we were off. To a very slow start! Ugh! We had set our GPS to “no toll” roads which was a stupid thing to do. The route we took was awful. Lots of traffic congestion, very slow moving, and nothing pretty or interesting to look at. The drive took us 2 hours or more. Should have been no more than 1.5 hours.

We finally made it to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains where we were staying for 2 nights at the Kurrara Historic Guest House. Kurrara was built in 1901 by Dr. Hall, who built it initially as a health retreat for his patients and for others who wanted to escape “the noxious odors, smoke and grime of industrialized Sydney”. The current owners, Ian and Evelyn, are very nice and very helpful hosts. Our rate included a simple continental breakfast of primarily cold items, such as cheese, cold cuts, pastries, cereals, and yogurt. Breakfast is in the small dining room or out on the enclosed porch.

As soon as we checked in, we decided to walk around downtown Katoomba and look for a place to eat. We hadn’t had lunch, so we were starving and had an early dinner at Station Bar. We ordered a very fresh and very large salad, which we shared. And then we shared a large pizza. There are so many unique pizza choices – such as crocodile, kangaroo, pumpkin, salmon. Everything was delicious! This seems like a popular restaurant with the locals – many diners seemed to be groups of friends.

After dinner, we walked around Katoomba a bit and my husband commented that the buildings look old, like they haven’t been renovated or updated in a long time. The restaurants look a little bit retro. When we returned to our room later that evening, I looked up Katoomba in my Lonely Planet guidebook, which describes Katoomba as “There’s something a little Twin Peaks about this town”. I’ve never seen Twin Peaks so I can’t say for sure but Katoomba, to us, has a very different vibe than Leura, for example. I got the impression from my research that Leura is a more popular town to stay in but we really enjoyed our stay in Katoomba.

And, of course, Katoomba has the Three Sisters!!! After our stroll around Katoomba, it was still light out, so we drove over to the Three Sisters! This is another iconic sight that we were not disappointed in. They are stunning! It was early evening, so there weren’t any crowds here. No tour buses! A perfect time of day, and time of year, to visit. Legend has it that the “three sisters were turned to stone by a sorcerer to protect them from the unwanted advances of three young men, but the sorcerer died before he could turn them back into humans.” The only thing I regret is that we didn’t take the trail from the main Echo Point lookout to the bridge across to the first Sister.

The exterior of the Kurrara Historic Guest House - we really enjoyed our stay here. Highly recommend.

Foyer of the Kurrara Historic Guest House

Living room

Another sitting room

Interior of the Station Bar

Station Bar/Restaurant

Our very delicious and very large salad!

Our delicious pizza - pumpkin and lamb, I think

Downtown Katoomba

Katoomba

Stores and restaurants

Katoomba Main Street

Katoomba has quite a few restaurants and cafes

The stunning Three Sisters!!

The Blue Mountains

View from one of the Echo Point platforms

Another view of the beautiful Three Sisters

Ah, the Blue Mountains. A favorite hiking spot of ours.

tripplanner001, unfortunately, we didn't do any hiking in the Blue Mountains, although that was on our itinerary. Instead, the next day we decided to visit some beautiful and whimsical botanical gardens.

What town do you usually stay in when visiting the Blue Mountains?

Those ‘spiky things’ at the Queen Vic market are sea urchin. Some consider them a delicacy, they have the texture of custard and the flavour of ozone. I wish they were more popular as they are destroyers of coral reefs.

I’m so enjoying your report.

We've only visited as day trips from Sydney. We've done several of the trains out of Katoomba, Leura, and Wentworth Falls. I'm considering Blackheath when we go in January.

Those orange plants kniphofia as Diamittina said are usually called red hot pokers.
Im now going to try the Old Beijing restaurant.

I love the name Red Hot Pokers!
I hope you enjoy the Old Beijing Restaurant as much as we did! Every dish was delicious!

Karen I forgot to say that taxis are required by law to turn on the meter. But I agree its difficult to make a fuss

OCTOBER 26: GORGEOUS GARDENS AND BEAUTIFUL BLUE MOUNTAINS

Our initial plan for today was to take some easy hikes and find some waterfalls. However, when we browsed through the Free Official Visitor Guide that was in our room, we changed our minds and decided to visit a few botanical gardens.

First, we visited Wildwood Gardens in Bilpin. Wildwood is privately owned by Wayne and Sue Tapping. They are an older couple, very lovely, and interesting to talk to. They told us they close during the summer months and that is when they do all the pruning by themselves! We couldn’t believe it. They have so much energy. Their grandson was working for them the day we visited. This is a mom and pop operation, and not overly commercialized. I wouldn’t call the gardens stunning, but they are so pleasant and peaceful with a shady forest walk, whimsical creatures, such as dragons and fairies, a lake and a waterfall.

There is also a cute gift shop and a caf� where we had lunch. Wayne is the chef! The caf� was lively with lots of local visitors.

After lunch, we drove to the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden in Mount Tomah, a much larger and more commercialized operation. These gardens are stunning with wonderful views of the Blue Mountains. There are exotic plants that I have never seen before, such as the blue puya plants. There is a pond, a waterfall, walkways, and a restaurant.

What I like about these two gardens is that they are very different from each other. You get two different experiences.

We had dinner tonight in Leura at the Leura Thai House. The food is delicious! A great choice. Leura looks like a very pleasant town to stay in with a leafy main street called the Leura Mall, and some nice shops and restaurants.

After dinner we decided to drive to Cahill Lookout for some more spectacular views, especially as the sun was setting! I want to thank Yestravel for writing about Cahill Lookout in her trip report; otherwise, we might not have gone here. Some people went all out for the sunset, bringing wine, crackers and cheese! Wish we had thought of that!

Wildwood Gardens

Wildwood Gardens in Bilpin

Beautiful Calla Lillies

Peaceful pond

The Violinist

Peaceful Wildwood Gardens

Whimsical dragon

And another dragon!

The lawn heading down to the lake

There are lots of statues scattered around the gardens. Gives the gardens a fairytale ambience!

Shady woodland path

Love the gnomes!

Colorful rhododendron!

and a fairy!

I love their gift shop! If we had the room in our suitcases, I would have purchased the cars and trucks for my grandsons . . .

and the fairies for my granddaughters!

Blue Mountain Botanic Gardens

Blue Mountains Botanic Garden in Mount Tompah

Restaurant at the Blue Mountains Botanic Gardens

Colorful flower display

These are beautiful and stunning gardens

Waterfall

The popular Red Hot Poker flowers

I love these spiky blue Puya plants! So unusual!

Notice all the bees? They love this plant!

These gardens are built on a hillside.

I love this flower! But I don't know what it is.

A few more photos

Downtown Leura

View from Cahill Lookout in the evening

A different view from Cahill Lookout

Sunset at Cahill Lookout

Sartoric, The flavor of ozone doesn�t sound appealing at all!
Do the sea urchins injure the coral with their sharp spikes?

The flower at the Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens is the protea. We were first introduced to it in South Africa. Isn�t it beautiful?

It was meant to sound appealing ! The flavour is very sea breeze, does that sound better ? He he.
The damage is caused by overpopulation of the sea urchins who eat the sea grass which provides habitat for fish and other species, eventually leading to underwater deforestation. All a result of warming ocean waters.

Yes, sea breeze sounds more appealing!

Happy you had such a wonderful time in Australia. It was fun to read about places we went to and learn about all the new places to me you all went.
Interesting re Chinese influence. I do t recall that at all but we primarily visited different areas than you.
look forward to your NZ TR and photos. Absolutely loved NZ.

Karen the plants you called are red hot pokers are in fact banksias -an native Australian plant.
The Botanic gardens look wonderful .
I went to a wedding in the Blue Mountains one year -it was a lovely week.