Thanks to Countrylink I was given the opportunity last week to take my 2 kids and Mum to Sydney on the train. Countrylink offer all sorts of packages which include the rail journey to and from Sydney, accommodation and tickets to a certain event. In this case we went to Taronga Zoo to see the “Dinosaurs in the Wild” exhibition.

When I was at uni I travelled a lot by XPT, but I have only caught the train once with one of my kids from Coffs to Newcastle. This time I took my 7 year old and 3 year old. It is an 8 hour trip from Coffs to Sydney, which is a little longer than driving. But I looked at it this way: when do you ever get to hang out with your kids for 8 hours without worrying about cooking, cleaning, shopping, computers etc? I got to play Snap over and over with my 3 year old, read lots of books to him, Mason played tic-tac-toe with Mum over and over. We did craft, colouring in, stickers, played travel snakes and ladders. They watched a movie and played a few games on my Ipod but when the batteries ran out we did other things.

The other GOOD thing (for me anyway!) is that there is pretty bad phone/internet reception on the train. You can get reception at stations, but there are hour+ long stretches where there is no reception. And it was GOOD to not have to worry about phone calls for a whole day!

So yes, 8 hours is a long trip but it was great to be able to spend that time with my kids and relax and give them my full attention.

We stayed at the Citigate Sebel Central which is about a 3 minute walk from Central Station, on the edge of Chinatown. EXCELLENT location. And it comes with a really nice buffet breakfast daily. Mason loved it, the only time he gets to have Coco Pops. Lenny loved the selection of fruit.

On Friday we got a train to Circular Quay (a big hit since there are so many tunnels under Town Hall etc and boys LOVE tunnels) then a super-fast Captain Cook Zoo Express over to the Zoo.

Scattered around the Zoo are realistic and in some cases, life size dinosaurs. They look amazing and move slightly as well. Each dinosaur as its own ‘keeper’ who told the boys interesting facts about each dinosaur. I have to say the boys were totally enthralled!

Of course we also saw the other (living) animals at the Zoo. Mason loved the penguins, Lenny loved the lions and I always love the giraffes. Taronga is a beautiful Zoo in an amazing location, a place we will definately be going back to lots and lots in the years to come.

Tomorrow… Part 2 and what else we did in Sydney!