We will be heading to NZ for 5 days/4 nights and Sydney for 7 days/7 nights in late August on a Qantas award ticket. Before anyone asks, I know the trip time is limited, but we can't leave our 2 year old at home with grandma any longer than that.
I need some advice from FT's experienced travellers on how we can maximize our limited time.
New Zealand: We are flying into Auckland on a Monday and then flying on to SYD from Auckland on the following Friday. Should we just see the Auckland area and Waikomo/Rotorua or is there time to see some of the other North Island areas? We will be renting a car. Any hotel recommendations would be greatly appreciated as well.
Australia: We are flying into SYD on a Friday evening. I have booked a 5 night award at the Sydney Renaissance and left the last 2 nights open for a side trip (maybe the Blue Mountains?) What other can't miss sights are there around and in Sydney (besides the obvious well-known ones)?

Thanks in advance for your help and I'll be sure to post a detailed trip report when we get back.

National Park south of Auckland is pretty fab. You can get there by car and train without spending too much time. The Blue Mountains are also wonderful - Katoomba is a good base, about one and a half hours drive from Sydney. Also, if you're a wine lover, the Hunter Valley is amazing -- others will have their own favourites, but Casuarina offered the best food, service and wine list I've seen outside top European restaurants. I stayed in a serviced apartment in Auckland, which worked fine. I'm off to Sydney next week -- have a great trip!

[This message has been edited by COMPTON SID (edited 02-13-2001).]

The Blue Mountains make a good day trip for a limited amount of time type of itinerary. Lots of coach tours available. Absolutely the Hunter Valley overnight is great. Rent a car, drive up early and stay at a B&B. Get a local tour operator to drive you to a few wineries in their vehicle and then return to the B&B for a lovely meal and good niight's rst. Back to Sydney in the AM with a full day available to you upon return. While in Sydeny stop in for a meal at CBD. A smallish restaurant upstairs and a real treat.

It all depends what you like to do and at what pace you want to travel. I lived in NZ for 4 years. Renting a car in NZ is highly recommended. I usually tell people to get a car and a good guidebook and just make it up as they go along. NZ is compact enough that you can do that. There are B&Bs everywhere so finding a pleasant place to stay is seldom a problem. The roads are gernerally great, and if you aren't already, it doesn't take long to get used to driving on the British side of the road. Just practice the mantra "keep left". Be careful not to try and do too much. There's an infinite array of tempting activities and you can get into mischief if try to do too much and rush around in the car. Get lots of advice from friendly locals. Stay away from the logging trucks and be very very careful if you try to pass.

Let us know what type of activities interest and perhaps we can point you in the right direction.

There's a ton of things to do around Auckland - I lived there for 25+ years.. are you interested in water? - beaches, sailing, swimming? hiking?

Rotorua is traditional tourist stop - geysers, hotpools and lakes.

Also can depend upon the weather - very temperate climate as Auckland is surrounded by the sea on all sides.

Re: accom. in Akld, Quay West is the best serviced apartments - high-rise close to the waterfront action downtown. Else the Metropolis is slightly newer high-rise - also some good low-rises near the waterfront 'Viaduct Basin' - Siebel Suites I think...

give me some feedback on these thoughts and I'll give a more detailed response...

enjoy!

Thanks for the responses. Here is a little more info:
Given that it is the winter, we assumed that it would be too cold for most water activities in NZ. Also, we wanted to see as much as possible in a limited time. I like to see historical sites and natural wonders. My wife likes looking at antiques, crafts, etc. We both have short attention spans and like to keep moving pretty quickly from place to place. My original plan was to drive down to Wellington and depart from there, but the rules for our award tickets required us to return to Auckland. Given the short length of our stay, I would like to have reservations at hotels/motels along the way to save time. Does anyone have any more recommendations? (3 or 4 star category)
As for OZ, I think I would like to spend our last couple of nights outside of Sydney in a more relaxing place, probably in the Blue Mountains (as we live in Florida and don't get to see this type of terrain very much ). Does anyone have any good recommendations for places to stay? (B&B type places)
Thanks again.

In Sydney:

Sailor's Thai: easy to find, yet fantastic Thai food located in The Rocks.

The Balkan Grill or The Balkan Seafood: Both located on Oxford Street, easy to find, very casual, bring your own wine or lager from the bottle shop next door. Lots of regulars. Try the Baramundi at the Balkan Seafood... you'll not regret it.

[This message has been edited by geo1004 (edited 02-14-2001).]

On the New Zealand side of things, there are a couple of things that I would suggest for a trip of that duration. From Auckland, you could go north to the Bay of Islands. It is a lovely area (very scenic), you can do boat trips there, see the dolphins etc (Not sure about that time of year though). It's also the site of the first capital, and where the main European settlements started - there are plenty of historical sites, both Maori and European (Although bear in mind that New Zealand is a pretty young country).

The area around Rotorua and Taupo (middle of the North island) is also lovely, with many lakes and rivers, and Rotorua has many 'tourist' attractions - the geothermal areas are great, but some of the attractions are very much geared to the coachloads of tourists - (Maori shows, sheep shearing demonstrations and so on). You've also mentioned Waitomo, which has glowworm caves.

Being the middle of winter shouldn't be too much of a problem, although it can get quite cold inland, and on occasions State Highway 1 (the main road linking Auckland and Wellington) can be closed for several hours becuase of snow and/or ice. (Normally the desert road area around Waiouru, south of Taupo). There are ski areas in the middle of the North Island.

Auckland to Wellington is an 8 hour drive keeping at the speed limit - so it's not normally too far getting around the North Island.

If you're interested in wine, there are plenty of wineries that can be visited near Auckland, in Northland (Bay of Islands), Tauranga, Gisborne, and especially Hawkes Bay (Napier (Destroyed by an earthquake in 1942 and rebuilt in an art deco style - plenty of antiques there)).

I honestly wouldn't bother booking accomodation in advance for the driving portion of your trip - even in the summer holidays early this year when I was there, there was no problem finding accomodation on the road - I generally stayed at motels, normally very very good quality at around the NZ$90 (US$40) mark for a 4 star property. The AA do a series of free guidebooks listing locations of accomodation. If you really want to book in advance, try www.jasons.co.nz for motels.

You could also consider flying within NZ if you did want to get around - The South Island is the one with the absolutely stunning scenery, and you could possibly fly down to Queenstown. Try looking at www.airnz.co.nz - if you pretend you're a New Zealand customer, you may find prices are a little better. Unfortunately you can't stay over a Saturday night, so that makes things a bit pricier. Qantas New Zealand also fly domestically.

Even doing a one-way flight from Wellington to Auckland could be an option, and do a one-way hire from Auckland down. (Although everyone does it that way, if you did the reverse it could be cheaper - I remember the papers in NZ offering WLG - AKL one-way car hires for NZ$20 per day (Less than US$10), just to keep moving their cars back north.

Sorry if I've been rambling

Conrad

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I am probably going to book a B&B in Devonport for the first couple of nights in NZ to see Auckland and the surrounding area and then drive down to Rotorua and stay in a B&B there for the other 2 nights. If anyone has any good B&B recommendations in the NZ$100-175 price range, please let me know.

Thanks.

The Blue Mountains is really a day trip from sydney.A couple of years ago I stayed at the Jenolan Caves up there in the old government guesthouse .The accom was ok and the caves are great- tours of each- about 9 to choose from and the roads are very picturesque getting there.
Ozflier

pjs
Try www.purenz.com.nz links you through to all manner of accomodation in both islands.

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JBC
If it is to be, it is up to me