Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Ayer's Rock to Alice Springs

I'm looking for suggestions for an itinerary.... I think that we will be flying into Ayer's Rock & flying out of Alice Springs, we are planning to drive between the two... Is there anything that is a do not miss between the two local's or anything at Alice that we should not miss?

TIA!

A few ideas:

We did a beautiful outback balloon ride (sunrise)
We used an outfit in Alice Springs Frontier Camel Farm and rode camels on the dry riverbed (Todd River) that cuts through town. Fun.
We loved our hike of King’s Canyon in Watarrka National Park http://www.voyages.com.au/destinations/kingscanyon/ or http://www.australianexplorer.com/kings_canyon.htm

About 50 miles west of Alice Springs is Simpson’s Gap National Park, Standley Chasm and Glen Helen Gorge, but we did not get a chance to experience these.

Enjoy!

Kings Canyon is nice. It is a canyon with an oasis at the bottom in the middle of the desert.

But will need a 4wd to see it (and experienced in driving in soft sand). There are operators who do this route. Takes longer than the main road.

Otherwise the main road is fairly boring. Try not to drive at night - it can be hard to see the kangaroos and other wildlife lying on the road or bouncing suddenly in front of you.

Kings Canyon is nice. It is a canyon with an oasis at the bottom in the middle of the desert.

But will need a 4wd to see it (and experienced in driving in soft sand). There are operators who do this route.

We had a 4WD and I don't remember needing it to hike it as we did. We did use the 4WD for some dirt roading, sometimes for a prolonged period of time which Judi was not happy with but I was having a blast. :D

Its been a few years since we did this, but if wanting to go through from Alice Springs via Kings Canyon to Ayers Rock, there were some rough patches with drifting sand (between Alice and Kings). Road may have improved since then.

I believe you can get to Kings from the highway to Ayers Rock (the east-west road forget the name) without 4WD but would involve a considerable backtrack.

The main thing is regardless of the state of road it is fairly remote countryside (going this back way) so need to be well prepared for any eventuality.

OTOH the main highway (not going via Kings Canyon) is a very good road with moderate amount of traffic.