glazfolk

+1 The all day excursion to Cape Tribulation (and back!) via the Daintree is truly memorable. Take a bus tour with a smallish group rather than hiring car. The queue for cars for the ferry across the Daintree river can be horrendous, buses get priority lane.

On edit: Caveat ... on reading your other posts it seems you'll be in NQ in January ... this is their wet season, and in the tropics wet means wet ... more than 15" rain in January alone is normal. You'll also be right in the middle of the cyclone season.

I'd advise you to research this pretty thoroughly then decide whether you want to go to North Qld at that time of year. I wouldn't. July or Aug is best. See this:

http://www.downundr.com/queensland/when-to-come

secondsoprano

Must visit. It's one of the best zoos in the world. It's also the answer to your second question.

Buy a zoo-ferry combo ticket from the wharf at Circular Quay, and you get a trip across the harbour, a ride in the cable car, and a day at the zoo all included.

BadgerBoi

to expand on your comment, there is an enclosure you can enter with some kangaroos and wallabies, you're right there with them unseparated by a fence. It's close to the koala enclosure, again you can enter and get up close - no touching (they are wild animals, no matter how cute they look), have your photo taken.

It's a great zoo, the giraffes have one of the best views in the world. Last time I was there we had lunch at the restaurant, lots of exotic birds fly right up to you to inspect your meal.

troyhouse

Thanks for the great feedback on the zoo, and also suggestion to zoo-ferry combo ticket.

Regular admission price for zoo is 46$, zoo-ferry combo ticket is 55$, and get the benefit of visiting 10 other destinations, and also enjoy the ferry ride.

Additionally groupon.com.au has deal on zoo tickets for 46$ but get 10$ groupon credit. I was planning to do this, but still the combo ticket is more beneficial. Thanks again.

kcupp95

As someone who actually lives in FNQ - I wouldn't worry.

The wet season and cyclone season has been fairly pathetic and quite late the last few years.

It will be humid and hot, but should still be fine.

troyhouse

One more question about Sydney Bridgeclimb - What do you guys think of this, must to do, or can skip it? Considering I am going to be there during NYE, the prices for bridge climb is high and have not seen any discounts or offers on it?

I was also exploring doing the night climb for 7-8pm slot, and considering the sunset times, it wouldn't be too bad. any experiences on this would be really helpful.

Or just do a pylon lookout and get the similar bridge climb experience?

troyhouse

thanks for the great tips in various threads. i have changed my Queenstown plan to include LOTR tour on Christmas Day. This was very difficult to get the booking done for the tour/safari and required 10-15 calls from US, but feel it would be a great thing to do. 3 1/2 packed days in Queenstown.

Thanks again.

troyhouse

one more question, anyone have experience with iventure card. I am exploring option of purchasing for Melbourne Day Tours Combo which includes Great Ocean Day Tour + Phillip Island Tour + 1 attraction (such as Eureka Skydeck or MCG, others).

Day tours are operated by AATKings, which is considered one of the biggest tour operator and have great reviews on Tripadvisor.

troyhouse

thinking of doing helicopter tour instead of LOTR tour? What do you guys think??

bensyd

The Pylon lookout is not worth the time, imo. You may as well just walk across the bridge. The climb is well worth it though. If you can get a sunset time then even better. If the cost is too much though then just walk across the bridge to Milson's Point get some fish and chips and sit in the park under the bridge.

worldiswide

Phillip Island is a must and good to do on a tour. I'm not sure I'd like great ocean ro a d on a bus especially for a day. You won't see a lot

troyhouse

I would really like to thank everyone for providing valuable suggestions and advice. Had a great awesome time in Australia, NewZealand and cannot thank this forum enough.

Highlights of the trip:
- Helicopter ride in NZ
- Queenstown and NZ in general, Milford Sound, very scenic
- Skydiving
- Penguin Parade
- Sydney NYE Fireworks up close from Royal Botanic Gardens
- Great Barrier Reef

Thank you again. !!

Mwenenzi

Thanks for posting back after the trip. ^
A lot of people do not do that

After all the changes, where did you go in your 15 days?
15 days is not a lot in this part of the world.

gooselee

+1 on the thanks for returning! Would also love to hear what your final itin ended up being, as well.

To hopefully continue in the spirit of this thread, Mrs. Lee and I are just beginning to plan our own trip to NZ/AU as well, for August. I need to sit down and re-read this and a couple other thread more thoroughly, but the FT website is being uncooperative with Chrome at the moment.

I'll start with this - we are first trying to figure out how just what cities to go to and how long to allot for each, particularly for NZ. In the beginnings of our research, we keep coming across all kinds of things to do, and we know we will certainly not have enough time for them all!

Places that have interested us so far in NZ - we know we won't be able to get to all of them:
- Visiting Hobbiton is a must
- Rotorua
- Wellington (and taking the ferry from there)
- Christchurch - Mrs. Lee's input. I haven't looked into what's there yet
- Dunedin - something about penguins. Again, Mrs. Lee's input
- Queenstown
- Milford Sound - possibly taking a cruise of the sound

And of course the vital details:
- We will have basically 13.5 days on the ground. Arriving to AKL on a Saturday afternoon, and leaving two Saturdays later in the late night (10pm), from MEL.
- We of course need to end up in MEL. We do want to make time for SYD in between, and the tentative plan is to fly from somewhere in NZ to SYD, do our thing there, then possibly take an overnight train SYD>MEL. Unless we should stop somewhere in between?
- From what we can tell, it seems that we'll want to spend the NZ side of the trip enjoying more outdoor/nature-based activities on NZ, but go into more of a city-exploring mode after getting to Australia.

No hotels or transit booked yet aside from our TPAC flights. Our first step was to identify where to go, and for how many days each, then we'd figure out how to get from one place to the next.

I know ultimately it's on us to identify which activities/sights are the ones we want to focus on, but I figured a good first start might be polling my FT friends for how long we ought to plan for each stop.

I almost wonder if it's easier to think through how long we might need/want in SYD/MEL, and then think about what we can feasibly still have time to do in NZ?

Apologies for the stream of consciousness. We're excited for the trip but having trouble just figuring out where to start! And sadly, we could not find a way to extend the trip length beyond what it already is.

worldiswide

As can't be said enough on these types of threads you don't have a lot of time especially if you want to do syd mel and NZ in 2 weeks.. and yes figuring how much time you want in syd mel hold be first.,then you will see how little time you have

Travel between the two countries will eat up portions of at least two days, it's a 2 hour time difference so you do gain going from NZ to syd.

The distances in NZ are greater than you think and the true joy is seeing and doing the scenery, either hiking and other outdoor activities or at least driving ad be able to stop at small towns or signs for a waterfall or beach or lake. You can fly between some destinations but then you really miss what nz has to offer

You are also planning a winter trip and southern south island can have road closures, ice, etc..need to figure that into planning are you comfortable driving on the other side of the road

You mention 3 places on nOrth island and four on south island..rotorua is a day trip from akl..or can be.


While the ferry from wellington is nice, ..and we are taking it neXT month as part of our 9th or 10th try to nz, I wouldn't recommend for a first time.

There will probably be more flights from akl to syd so you might fly from akl to South island and work your way back north ..from Queenstown where you could do Milford.

I love dunne din, the Otago peninsula is fabulous, but again takes time to get to from anywhere, and again what are you looking for and to do?

So ask away .. there is way more to do than you will have time for. .do less and enjoy a few things

This time we are arriving in christchurch, driving to nelson, doing abel tasman, the ferry to wellington, and a few days there. We've been to all the places you mention save for hobbiton
and loved them all.. and returned and returned

You will love NZ