It didn't begin well. Two days before departure we received a text message from NSW Trainlink indicating that our first train was undergoing maintenance and would be replaced by bus service to Sydney.
That sounded like pure hell and was not at all what we signed up for. So I called and changed to a later train that day. The original plan would give us a 4-hour connection in Sydney with time for dinner there; now we have only 30 minutes to connect with no guarantee, but the agent said that the train seldom runs late enough to miss it.
Our wonderful neighbour Susan gave us a ride to the Sawtell train station (actually an unstaffed platform), and my feeling of smugness about my scheduling decision darkened a bit on seeing that the train was running 15 minutes late. And became darker still when we finally boarded with it 45 minutes late. But the nice lady at the other end of the platform's speakerphone assured us that the train would make up time en route, and our connection would not leave without us.
Leaving Sawtell with reading material!
Continued....