Australia New Zealand trip

[Rob]

I haven’t come across a thread with travel tips for Australia and New Zealand. We will be visiting my cousin in Sydney probably in September 2025. She’s got the Sydney/Blue Mountains/Central Coast area covered, but then we will venture out and about. Are there any must-sees, particular tours, great hotels/apartments, or don’t bothers from your experiences? We will likely stay 3-4 weeks. Thank you in advance!

 

[fan]

remember that australia is BIG. Don't bite off more than you can chew. When I first moved to Sydney, I thought that I could drive to Melbourne and back in a weekend. Nope! 3-4 weeks is definitely good for Sydney/Blue Mountains/Central coast, and a trip to Melbourne/Great Ocean road. But to add NZ is too much.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I did two, ~two-week trips in the early 00’s and loved every minute of each. For the first, I flew into Sydney, and the next day, took the train across Australia to Perth for four days. I flew into Melbourne for a ballet performance and wandered for a couple of days, before taking an overnight train to Adelaide, where I stayed for a week to attend the Adelaide Festival and Fringe Festival, then returning to Sydney for a few days before flying home.

For the second trip, I flew to Sydney and left the next night on the overnight ferry to Tasmania — alas, no longer running — for a three -day beach hike and eco-lodge stay along the Bay of Fires, flew to Adelaide for eight days of opera, cricket, and tours to each of the three wine regions outside Adelaide, and then flew to Sydney for a couple of days before flying home.

I could have done either of those trips with one of the two trips I took to NZ in the late ‘90’s, but I would have used commercial transportation, not biking again. I did the north island trip the first time,and the South Island trip the second time.

It depends on how much you want to be in cars to go outside cities and on your own, ie, not part of organized groups or on planes or long train rides, and, depending on how crowded the areas you want to go to, without a rigid itinerary. I planned my trips around fixed events and plane and train tickets, and I don’t travel without advanced hotel reservations, but that’s not other people’s idea of travel.

 

[Angelskates]

I did two, ~two-week trips in the early 00’s and loved every minute of each. For the first, I flew into Sydney, and the next day, took the train across Australia to Perth for four days. I flew into Melbourne for a ballet performance and wandered for a couple of days, before taking an overnight train to Adelaide, where I stayed for a week to attend the Adelaide Festival and Fringe Festival, then returning to Sydney for a few days before flying home.

For the second trip, I flew to Sydney and left the next night on the overnight ferry to Tasmania — alas, no longer running — for a three -day beach hike and eco-lodge stay along the Bay of Fires, flew to Adelaide for eight days of opera, cricket, and tours to each of the three wine regions outside Adelaide, and then flew to Sydney for a couple of days before flying home.

I could have done either of those trips with one of the two trips I took to NZ in the late ‘90’s, but I would have used commercial transportation, not biking again. I did the north island trip the first time,and the South Island trip the second time.

It depends on how much you want to be in cars to go outside cities and on your own, ie, not part of organized groups or on planes or long train rides, and, depending on how crowded the areas you want to go to, without a rigid itinerary. I planned my trips around fixed events and plane and train tickets, and I don’t travel without advanced hotel reservations, but that’s not other people’s idea of travel.

Adelaide and the regions so often get forgotten!

 

[kwanfan1818]

My favorite wines ever .

 

[Spikefan]

We are just now on day 14 of New Zealand. Both countries have a ton to see, so I would only do both if I’d been to one before or I had a month.

I’ve never been to Australia so no advice there.

If you really wanted to do both I would limit where you go in Australia and then just head to Fiordland in New Zealand. It was the most unique area to us although we enjoyed everything. I think there are direct flights from Australia to Queenstown. Fly in, get rental and head to Te Anau. Don’t spend time in Queenstown. In Te Anau we stayed at https://teanaufarmstay.co.nz/ in the chalet. It was only 10 minutes to town and had everything we could need. We spent 3 nights. Day one was arrival and explore the tiny town/relax on farm. Day two was a trip to Milford Sound with Trips and Tramps. On the way there we stopped for photo ops, then two hour boat cruise in a smaller boat so we got further out into Tasman Sea and went close to a waterfall where people could get wet. They also could get close to where a Fiordland crested penguin was moving towards the water. The bigger boats could not. We then did some short easy rainforest hikes on the way back. The road to Milford is stressful so we were glad to have an experienced guide. Day 3 was a morning hike on the Kepler Track and then afternoon to the Glow Worm cave, very unique thing to see.

We then did an overnight on Doubtful Sound on the Navigator. We just drove there, did the 1 night and then drove to Queenstown the next day. You could then stay in Queenstown and fly out day 6. Or skip Doubtful Sound and fly out day 5.

Do not trust Google map drive times. They have slides (slips is what they call them) that shut down roads (we drove 30 minutes to find out one just happened and had to backtrack). There are bridges in major areas that are one way only. Farm/tour traffic. If it says 2 hours, add one more. It is a lovely place but if you are limited on time that is my recommendation.

Of course if you want more city/museum/fine dining the above does not apply.

Edit: I just now caught September, which is still winter in NZ so you might want to skip. They had a quick snow shower a week before we arrived to Milford (late November-spring).