Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Recommendations for flying within OZ?

I'll be flying into Sydney in March and would like to know the best deals for flying within Australia as well as tips. I'll be visiting Australia for 2 weeks and need to know what the best option would be to scuba dive without flying all over Australia. Or do i have to fly from Sydney to Great Barrier reef? If so, what are the flight deals there? Any advice is appreciated.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Flybynite:
I'll be flying into Sydney in March and would like to know the best deals for flying within Australia as well as tips. I'll be visiting Australia for 2 weeks and need to know what the best option would be to scuba dive without flying all over Australia. Or do i have to fly from Sydney to Great Barrier reef? If so, what are the flight deals there? Any advice is appreciated.</font>

Flying within Australia:
Qantas: at the www.qantas.com.au (http://www.qantas.com.au) site, you can price flights on the front page. But remember - the really cheap ones are "use it or lose it". You'll earn miles on AA - maybe others. A current deal Including Cairns (http://qantasusa.com/webDeal.php?ID=10) (for Great Barrier Reef) may be of interest.
Virgin www.virginblue.com.au (http://www.virginblue.com.au) is pretty useful - no frills, no J, no points. $40 ($30 + $10) change fee on "Fair Fares". Some DJ flights have a UA codeshare.
You can also buy reasonably priced, and reasonably flexible, international "add-on" fares. You must do so prior to arriving in Oz, so check with your travel agent or Qantas.

If you're going to Scuba dive, Cairns is a great spot to base yourself. You can also look at Airlie Beach - a bit cheaper, more "backpacker" oriented - but diving the Whitsundays is lovely. To get to Airlie, look at Proserpine (PPP) or Hamilton Island (HTI) as the airports. Virgin flies to Mackay, but that's a land transfer to Airlie Beach.

At this time of year, just about anywhere in Australia is suitable for diving - how about a shark dive in South Australia?

It's also worth looking at a map of Australia - we're approximately the same size as continental USA, which will give you an idea of the distances involved.

And finally - don't forget the sunscreen - I've seen so many tourist lobsters after a day on the reef!

virgin blue are having a sale on in 63 minutes for 3 days, fares from SYD-CNS are A$99 each way.

CNS is a great starting point, if you want to scuba where everyone does it, you can go up there, or if you want to go off the beaten track, i'd suggest some scuba diving further north, beyond cooktown.

Ningaloo reef in north west western australia is also one of the best dive spots in Australia.

[This message has been edited by kawoh (edited 01-16-2003).]