Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - 3 days off - Auckland or Drive MEL-SYD

The last piece of my *A circle pacific work trip later in June has me finishing up in Melbourne Wednesday evening. Have to be back in the States Sunday evening, so booked SYD-LAX Sunday and left the interim period open.

Adding on more air legs would have pushed me over the higher mileage limit, so those 3 days travel are on my dime and all airlines, etc are an option.

I've spent some time in both SYD and MEL, would like to see somewhere new, interior Australia flights to the north (e.g. Cairns, Darwin, etc) are pricing high. So - I've narrowed to a couple options. Would appreciate any thoughts (or completely different ideas!). My tendencies run both to exploring new cities and seeing the off-the-beaten path wild places, so it's all game.

1: Fly MEL-AKL thursday morning, returning Saturday evening. $300-ish, and with ~2 days, wouldn't have any time to see anything but Auckland proper (which I'd love to see). Have never been to NZ. Hell - have never been anywhere in Oceania save SYD and MEL (2 of my favorite cities in the world).

2: Rent a car in MEL Thursday and drive the long way round to SYD, stop a few places along the way.

I'm nearly @ a coin flip @ this point.

Kiwis will have better answers but I think having two days and a hire car, you could see a lot of NZ's north Island. Drive up to the Bay of Islands, overnight at Russell and then ferry back across the bay and drive on to Rotorua, then back to AKL.

It's a fair drive but you have time. You will soon discover there is only one straight road in the country and after that's it's all fun.

Don't forget to visit the 'dairy' along the way. :p

Have you considered driving the Great Ocean road and returning ADL-SYD? You may be able to hit up Kangaroo Island as well. NZ is a fine option too, I don't know much about the drive MEL-SYD.

I'd put a vote in for tasmania. Catch the ferry across, hire a car and spend a couple of days on a quick driving tour of tasmania then fly up to sydney and home

Kiwis will have better answers but I think having two days and a hire car, you could see a lot of NZ's north Island...

It's a fair drive but you have time. You will soon discover there is only one straight road in the country and after that's it's all fun.

Don't forget to visit the 'dairy' along the way. :p

Didn't think of that - My colleague is an Aucklander ('exiled' in SIN, currently). I've run this by him, also. With direct flights on EK(?!) both ways, it is a full 2 days and ~$550AUD for flight and car.

The 'dairy' quote has me intrigued...


Have you considered driving the Great Ocean road and returning ADL-SYD? You may be able to hit up Kangaroo Island as well.

The Great Ocean Road was the first thought that popped into my head. But doing a (long) loop back to either MEL or SYD seemed counterproductive. Flights on QF from ADL are cheap. This may have jumped to the lead.

I'd put a vote in for tasmania. Catch the ferry across, hire a car and spend a couple of days on a quick driving tour of tasmania then fly up to sydney and home

Also one of the places I thought of. Issue is most of the flights back seem to connect in MEL and timing is generally not very good.

Great suggestions, all. THank you!

The direct drive MEL-SYD is mostly not worth doing. Pretty boring road and not much of interest unless you like rural. There is a reason that MEL-SYD is busier than any city pair air route in the US (more pax than NY, BOS, WAS, LAX, SFO, etc). Depends on the weather, but I think driving to ADL is the best option esp. as the airfare is so low now for ADL-SYD. AKL is just a big city, not so different from MEL just cheaper and less nice.

I mentioned you should ask the kiwis because it may be a miserable couple of days if you're driving on winding roads in zero visibility while it's bucketing down.

Of course, the Bay of Islands is home to the Kiwi and is a beautiful place to be on the water if it's a nice day. If you can see both the Bay of Islands and then Rotorua I salute you. There are plenty of thread on NZ's north island here.

However if you could get to NZ, why not just go straight to the south island? Maybe avoid ZQN because of the ski crowd, but fly into CHC and get the TranzAlpine train across the country (http://www.kirratours.co.nz/productdetail.asp?tour=christchurch+train&grunt=s200r573) as a day trip. Is looks magnificent!
The Tranz Alpine Christchurch takes you from Christchurch to Greymouth through the Southern Alps. It travels over the broad Caterbury Plains and follows the rugged Waimkariri river valley through a tunnel beneath the mountains between Arthur's Pass and Otira, passing dense beech forests and tranquil lakes. Operates daily.

Day excursion (Christchurch to Greymouth and return) - Departs 8:15am, returns 6:05pm with 1 hr stopover in Greymouth [NZD$187]

You might possibly be able to fly MEL-CHC-AKL (TranzAlpine CHC r/t then overnight in AKL day 1 if you can get a CHC-AKL flight after 7PM) and then drive to Rotorua for day 2, then return AKL-MEL.
You might be pushing it for time or the season might not suit, but ask a Kiwi or their much-promoted www.newzealand.com tourism site.

NZ, aside from being famous for sheep (not Sheep!) and especially lately, the magnificient South Island sights, is also famous for its dairy products.

Our visit was not in winter, so I still recommend the visit to what the locals call the 'dairy', but you might not want to try the main thing being sold... but it's creamy and delicious. :p

---
However if like me you enjoy wine, especially red wine, then consider a couple of days in the winery regions close to Adelaide.

Re. your comfort with seeing a lot in a short time and with unnknown weather: d'ya feel lucky, punk? :p

You might possibly be able to fly MEL-CHC-AKL (TranzAlpine CHC r/t then overnight in AKL day 1 if you can get a CHC-AKL flight after 7PM) and then drive to Rotorua for day 2, then return AKL-MEL.

Risky at the best of times let alone in winter. Trains are not reliable in NZ. In winter there are added issues of snow in Arthurs and Porters Pass slowing transport down (although it does look magnificent). I wouldn't book a flight out of CHC the same evening/night.

You could fly CHC to ROT early on the Saturday, have a few hours in ROT and then drive to AKL. A bit of a rush though.

If it were me I'd fly to AKL only and drive to Taupo on the Thursday. On Friday head to Rotorua (short drive giving plenty of time at both Taupo & Rotorua) and then on Saturday drive back to AKL. Limited weather issues in that itinerary and good (for NZ) roads.

If you are flying to/from NZ on EK in first or business class you could even take advantage of the limo transfers to pick up & drop off rental car in central Auckland where it is cheaper than the airport.

Our visit was not in winter, so I still recommend the visit to what the locals call the 'dairy', but you might not want to try the main thing being sold... but it's creamy and delicious. :p

---
However if like me you enjoy wine, especially red wine, then consider a couple of days in the winery regions close to Adelaide.



Winery potential was the final datapoint.


Trains are not reliable in NZ.



If you are flying to/from NZ on EK in first or business class you could even take advantage of the limo transfers to pick up & drop off rental car in central Auckland where it is cheaper than the airport.
Nope - would be coach (also influenced the decision - if the short trip included a chance to try C on EK's 340 and 380, I would have done that for sure) Spoke to my NZ colleague last night and he echoed the train comments, etc. Going to wait until I can give New Zealand a proper timeline. Fanatical flyfisher that I am, summer and 2 weeks sounds way better than winter and 2 days.

Booked on QF ADL-SYD (for ~$120AUD, to boot) and reserved a car in MEL. Can't wait!

Thanks all for the wealth of info. Tough decision to make, and really wish I had more time and could do all the suggestions. Something to look forward to, I guess.

Still lost on the 'dairy' - kiwi buddy said they're convenience stores?

Glad you found my suggestion helpful. I did a similar trip in 2006 but I took a train MEL-ADL. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't as interesting as the Great Ocean Road trip.

I recommend checking out Cleland Wildlife Park on the way to Adelaide, and definitely see Glenelg. Great little beach area.

I also went down to Cape Jervis and took the ferry to Kanagroo Island, currently my top destination ever, but you might not have time to see it.