Australian Vacation Itinerary Recommendations?

[djmcmath]

My wanderlust has reached a peak again. This winter, roughly January/February timeframe, I'm getting on a plane, and I'm flying west. I figure my next assignment will probably be on the east coast again, which means I ought to take advantage of my West-Pac travel opportunities before they get $500 more expensive.

So I've always wanted to go to the place which, in my mind, is vaguely "Australia/New Zealand." Now that I start looking at the thing, and realizing that I only have two weeks to blow, I think I'm going to have to do some optimizing. There's just too much space to cover all of it.

What I'm looking for is the experienced traveller's itinerary -- I'm sure some of you have been to that part of the world, and I know of at least one who lives in NZ. Having been there, what's worth seeing? What's worth doing? What things look great in the travel guide but are boring in person? Given two weeks of aggressive hunting with a 35mm camera, what is a reasonable goal?

Thanks in advance,

Dan

[CamB]

Hmmmm, I reckon you need to give more information about what you like/dislike to do in a foreign country.

If you want cities and urban stuff, then I would go to Sydney and/or Melbourne. I ummm, wouldn't bother with NZ.

If you want outdoors, both countries have serious coastline - NZ apparently has about as much as the whole USA.

Australia has lots of very warm, or very very warm, beaches in summer. NZ is only warm and very warm. NZ's South Island has the southern alps --> the whole south island is spectacular to look at.

Yeah - I guess you need to set out what you want, and what sort of budget (backpackers, bus around, hire car, etc).

(edit) I am trying to be unbiased here - obviously I personally think NZ is awesome and you should come here

[strath44]

hey djmcmath, I'm a Scot but this is currently coming to you from an Internet cafe in Sydney. I graduated in Photography and spent the last 6 months doing travel images here. It is truly amazing. My best advice is to cover the East coast. If you start at Cairns and work down to Melbourne or even just Sydney you will see a very diverse cross- section of the country from the tropical parts in the North to the barron desert inland in the Red Center. The internal flights are very cheap with virgin.com.au . Realistically I don't think you have enough time too see NZ as well unless you just do it on its own. Most flights go into Sydney or Brisbane If you want to see some digital images pm me your email and i'll send you a yahoo slide show that I have been sending back home. The highlights for me have been The Whitsundays south of Townsville, staying on a station (very big cattle farm) and off-roading in the snow-mountains (which are great all year round summer or winter, near Canberra). Post any other qs you have might be able to help!

[djmcmath]

Thanks for the replies!!

My purpose with travel is generally two-fold:
1 - Meet local people. Determine what The Culture is like, learn some local language, drink some local beer. It's kind of a grass-roots sort of a thing. For this purpose, both urban and rural make sense. If I was going to hit one big city, would it be Melbourne or Sydney, or should I try for both? Is Brisbane "worth it?" What smaller places are worthwhile?
2 - Take pictures. Travel photography is about as much fun as you can have without a Porsche. I'll be carrying my 35mm with a range of lenses and a bunch of (probably) Kodachrome.

Budget:
-- do I _need_ to rent a car? Will public transport get me to most of the interesting places, and a car would only be of marginal aid, or will having a rental car set the difference between a pretty good trip and a fantastic one? For reference, when I did Ireland, it was all by train or bus tour, but I sure wished I had a car.
-- I'm basically hostel-backpacking. Stay in hostels, eat at local grocery stores, use mostly cheap transport if possible.

Time: I only have two weeks (plus the weekends on either end), tops. I think that limits me to a relatively small portion of Australia or a bigger chunk of NZ. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Strath -- when you say "very cheap flights" do you mean very cheap like $25 or very cheap like $250? Is there any equivalent of a Euro-pass for rails or flights?

Good start, thanks again, ya'll. Oops, lapsed Southern. (ahem)

Dan

[strath44]

I rented various cars best price was Apollo through a backpackers for $25 a day for a Hyundai Getz (1.2L), biggest was a Ford Falcon (4.0L) which was $80 a day. Budget another $40 a day on fuel and insurance (their driving is not great and well worth the extra ins payment to avoid $2000! excess). Flights; one of my friends flew from Sydney to the Gold Coast (Brisbane) for $40. I flew from Sydney to townsville for $280 return. Just go to the Virgin website and look at the current prices (Virgin Blue is domestic). I went to Perth WA from Canberra $300 return. Loads of backpackers places to stay (its a huge market here): I was paying $120 a week in Townsville for a single room less for dorms, approx $18-35max a night backpackers dorm room. The backpackers are a good way to meet people but maybe less important on a shorter trip. There are some dodgy stories kicking about backpackers accomodation but its the same anywhere in the world. I've hiked a Nikon, a medium format rangefinder and a small sony digi about and as long as you don't tell everyone you meet you've got cameras etc you'll be fine - certain people attract certain attention if you get my jist!

[strath44]

see for good info on backpacking cheap offers etc:
www.thewordaustralia.com.au
www.tntmag.com.au
www.backpackers.com.au
www.ratestogo.com.au
www.webjet.com.au

[Adam]

Dan, lots to see and do here.

Summer is a good time to be visiting, it gets nice and hot (100ºF + ). Drop me a line when you get to Melbourne and I'll round up a few Pelicans and buy you a few beers.

[rcecale]

Dan, you're gonna love Australia!!!

Here's a few shots of some of the places I visted on my several trips down under...(All of these are pics from the www, I took NONE of these)

Litchfield Park/Twin Falls


Kakadu National Park


Katherine Gorge (Rent a canoe/kayak and cruise the Gorge)


Edith Falls


Darwin Beach


MGM Grand, Darwin

[rcecale]

The Adelaide River was really cool too, but I wouldn't recommend spending the night along it's shores....not if you enjoy living, that is...



And watch out for the Jumping Crocs....these guys are nasty but impressive as he!! when you watch them from the safety of the tour boat!


You're really gonna love it there!!!

Randy

Note: While none of these pics are mine, I HAVE been to all these places....was just having too much fun to take any pics!

[CamB]

I'd go further and say if you only had two weeks you could probably only do one of:

- Two australian states (its a BIG country)
- NZ north island
- NZ south island

Buses and trains are useless in NZ. Flights are US$60 or less one way for cheap flights, except to Queenstown which costs more. Once you're here, if you want to get out into the outdoorsy stuff you really need a car, but they are cheap (NZ$30 a day or so for a decent period).

I wrote a big long list of stuff then deleted it. Basically, I reckon you need to figure out some things that look like you would like to do them, then ask if they are all they are cracked up to be.

Hmmm, what is the best holiday you've been on thus far in your life (and why!). Maybe that will help.

[morganb]

If you go to Sydney do the Captain Cook Cruise.
If you like the outback go to Ayres Rock, in the middle, then North through Kakadu National Park to Darwin. I suggest for the outback follow a tour as a break down out there in a remote area could be a problem. For Cairns, Great Barrier Reef, a trip to the tablelands on the train (name I can't remember, might be Kandara). Its quite an old railway line and a steam train.
Theres a few theme parks in Brisbane area, movie world and water world. I come from Melbourne area. A visit to one of the old reconstructred towns is interesting to see old Aust life. Pengiuns at Phillip Island are also good and worth the trip.
Australia is a really big place so don't underestimate the driving time between places.

[djmcmath]

Wow! Thanks for all the replies!

Ok, with that in hand, I'm going to go down to the Friendly Local Book Shop (FLBS?) and get myself a few travel guides. Using these background posts, I'll read up on more specifics, and post again when I'm slightly more educated.

Dan

[strath44]

djm I pm'd you some photos did you get them?

[djmcmath]

Strath, gotcher e-mail, thanks. Haven't reviewed 'em all yet, but from here they look great. Having good full-color pictures of places helps in the decision making process.

BTW, Randy -- you didn't need to note that you didn't take those pictures. They clearly weren't of the quality I'm used to seeing from you. They're small, and kind of mediocre, in comparison to your normal work.

Dan

[Bill Douglas]

Dan, I agree with the above, all of the above. Shoot me a message if you come to Wellington and we'll do a steak and a bottle of pinot noir.

[TerryBPP]

Great Barrier Reef is a must! I snorkeled it twice in 2 weeks. By far the most beautiful thing you will ever see. Be careful though, just about everthing under the water will kill you. I stayed in Cairns for the 2 weeks and I wish I would have stayed in Sydney.