Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Driving from Brisbane to Cairns and back.

A friend and I would like to do some award travel to Australia in November using UA miles. Since UA and their partners don't fly to Cairns it seems that Brisbane is the closest that we can get without purchasing another ticket. Does anyone know how long the drive would take, and what the roads are like? Any ideas or tips on what to see and do along the way? Is there anything that we should see or do in Brisbane? Any advise or information would be greatly appreciated.
Dan

The distance between Brisbane and Cairns is about 1700 kms. Stopping along the way it would take a couple of days of driving to do it. It's a nice drive if you have the time with some great places to spend time along the way but I wouldn't suggest doing it if you are coming over for anything less than a few weeks.

Virgin Blue fly from Brisbane to Cairns and do codeshares with United, but you can't get Mileage Plus miles with them. Check out their website at www.virginblue.com.au (http://www.virginblue.com.au)

you do not want to drive from BNE-CNS. It's is a long drive, i've done it about 6 times.

It takes you 3 1/2 hours drive from Cairns to Townsville, then at least 7 hours from Townsville to Rockhampton and then 7 hours from Rockhampton to Brisbane. All up count on about 17 - 18 hours of non-stop driving. The distance is 1700 kms.

If you do want to save a bit of money you may save a bit, but it will cost you in accomodation, fuel and car rental.

The drive is very boring, except perhaps around cardwell, in between townsville and cairns / hinchinbrook island, and going past some cane farms north of ingham.

The road is 2 lane only, one going one way, the other the other, the bruce highway is dangerous with plenty of big trucks going up and down. the road is pretty trechorous in parts, especially just out of townsville and outskirt of mackay.

i would suggest if you are planning to stay, rockhampton is a good half way point but a boring place to stop. You will find a good rate on lastminute.com.au for last minute hotel accomodation in the hotels under $100 for the Mercure Inn Rockhampton at A$45 a night (US$25/night) (you should also be able to earn QFF points for the stay i believe).

You will be able to go pretty much around 60 MPH on many stretchs, if not slowed down by trucks and slow moving cars. Police aren't very common, but they usually come towards you with a speed camera mounted on their car and you will get booked.

The drive between mackay to rockhampton is just desselete army training land with one town in between - marlbrough, which is a turn off in fact. They do have a test speed limit there of 120 KPH.

The road goes into double lane (4 lanes) just out of brisbane from the sunshine coast (about 100km/ out of brisbane). You should also be wary of driving at dusk/ early morning as there are plenty of kangaroos on the bruce highway and your chances are high of hitting one during these times. And kangaroos are VERY stupid. I had one jump into my Left passenger door once whilst driving.

It is worth a slight diversion to the whitsundays (6 hours south of cairns on your 18 hour journey) to visit some of the islands, even make a break of it. Cannonvale/Airlie Beach/Shute Harbour. There are some very good last minute rates if you rock up to any travel agent in airline beach, youll pick up a good buy there for one of the resort islands, even hamilton island probably the most lavish there.

On the way, down to Brisbane or up to Cairns you will go past mackay the sugar capital of australia and rockhampton, the beef capital of australia.

Another tip - fuel (gas), make sure you fuel up before you leave mackay heading south to rockhampton or out of rockhampton to mackay, otherwise you could find yourself stuck in the middle of nowhere.

There are overtake lanes which come up every 10 km's or so to let you pass slow moving traffic, but be reminded the overtaking length is short and it's stupid but slow moving cars will speed up leading into these - crazy.

bugs - there are plenty of them and especially the further north you go. Be prepared to wipe down your windscreen at least twice with kazillions of bugs! (esp at night, not much u can do).

police typically hang out on the outskirts of most towns and book your for speeding. Be careful of staying slow coming into or out of towns, stick to the speed limits, often they can be deceiving, going from 100 kp/h right down to 60 kp/h suddenly.

some memorable things to do if driving from BNE-CNS

* take a stop or drive through the sunshine coast on the way up, and visit Steve Erwin's Crocodile Farm (highly rated!)

* have a beef steak at the hogs breath cafe in the beef capital of australia, rockhampton (great steaks there)

* visit the whitsundays take a few nights there and enjoy the islands and whitehaven beach.

* stopover in townsville and visit the great barrier reef wonderland, magnetic island by ferry, up and down the strand, castle hill.

* visit the tallest freefall waterfalls in australia - wallaman falls (90 min drive off track from ingham - maybe not worth it)

* definitey worth a go - drive up to crystal creek (just north of townsville) go for a dip in the beautiful water (no crocs that high) and bring some sausages and steaks and have a lunch at the top in the town of crystal creek, they have free BBQ's there, bring a wick and a few matches.

UA do have codeshare with virgin blue and you will earn UA miles on your flight. You can book some reasonably ok fares on virginblue.com.au and a qantas red e deal from BNE-CNS.

hope this helps.


[This message has been edited by kawoh (edited 01-13-2003).]

Stop.

Have a cold beer. Go to the web and look up Qantas (http://www.qantas.com.au) or Virgin Blue (http://www.virginblue.com.au).

Check fares.

Have another cold beer.

Feeling good? Excellent - book flights - do not drive to Cairns. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by da1dan:
Since UA and their partners don't fly to Cairns it seems that Brisbane is the closest that we can get without purchasing another ticket</font>

After all kawoh's detailed advice about the drive, I almost feel like a party-pooper for saying this, but - NZ fly AKL-CNS, though I think only once per week.

Thank you kawoh for all of the insights and information. I wasn't looking forward to such a long drive, but I was prepared to do it. Fortunately mad_atta is correct, Air NZ has two flights per week to Cairns. Tuesdays and Fridays. The UA reservations people who I talked to didn't know. When I called and asked them to check all days of the week they found the flights. I was able to change our travel dates and we can get to/from Cairns with good connection times. Thank you mad_atta. The last time we were in Cairns was mid Feb. to early March, the wet time of year as we found out. Also there were jelly fish in the water that time of year. What is the weather like in Nov.? Will there be jelly fish in the water that time of year?
Dan

The Box Jellyfish (http://www.cairnsholiday.com.au/GreatBarrierReef/box_jellyfish.htm) link might be of assistance to you. Basically the wet season, from October to April.

The beaches around Cairns aren't that exciting - Palm Cove is quite nice, with some great restaurants and cafes. Most of the swimming beaches have enclosures, or you can buy some really sexy Stinger Suits (http://www.sunprotectionclothes.com/stinger.htm), which have a good dual purpose of sun protection!