Planning a trip to Australia

[BYTEr]

Hi all,

I'm going on a geography field trip with the uni to New Zealand from 29/03/2015 to 08/04/2015 and me and a friend was thinking of visiting Australia before the field trip.

I was just wondering if you had 7-10 days in Australia what things would you want to get up to and what places would you like to visit? Any tips etc for Australia would also be much appreciated.

 

[ChroniC]

Having been there, and done the usual tourist things. If I knew I had only a week, I wouldn't choose to do as much as I could, it wouldn't be enjoyable with the limited time I had.
I would enjoy exploring Sydney city centre and the beaches around it for a week. There is more than enough to see and do and you won't feel like you've done it all in a few days.

 

[BYTEr]

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately due to the timing and money, I can't see us being there any longer, we did initially think about staying in New Zealand after the fieldtrip, but were there for 10 days already and going to 4 different sites so thought whilst were in that part of the world and already spent hundreds of pounds on plane tickets we'd visit somewhere else.

 

[oulton]

That is a seriously short time, If I were you I would just spend a week in Sydney and the surrounds.

I lived in Australia for a year and pretty much went everywhere apart from Darwin, awesome country and one of the best years of me life

 

[[TW]Fox]

Don't bother, stay in New Zealand. It's just not enough time to see much as the distances between places are huge. By contrast, 7 days field trip plus another 7-10 days exploring is a good amount of time to really enjoy New Zealand properly.

 

[StevieP]

Another vote for Sydney and the surrounding areas - I'd most definitely recommend going to see the Blue Mountains - hands down the best views I've seen in my life!

 

[Tunney]

I agree with Fox. Spend the extra time exploring more of New Zealand rather than tagging on a trip to Australia. There's plenty to see in New Zealand.

 

[cm1179]

screw sydney. you could do the whitsundays and frazer island. whitsundays is a must.

 

[oulton]

screw sydney. you could do the whitsundays and frazer island. whitsundays is a must.

In a week?

Both those trips deserve to be done properly.

 

[cm1179]

you could do both. 3 days and 2 nights on whitsundays, night bus from airlie beach to rainbow beach, hire a group 4x4 and have 2 days and a night on frazer.

go to a travelbugz/peter pan op and they'll be able to advise you on your options.

 

[InvaderGIR]

Go visit the best person on the forum.

 

[Kemik]

Don't bother, stay in New Zealand.

This. You'll lose a day and money flying to Oz that you could use in New Zealand. It is much smaller and there are lots of outdoor adventures to get stuck into for those 7 days.

I'm not saying don't do Australia, I'm saying go back and do Australia properly.

 

[BYTEr]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I thought I might get responses to stay in New Zealand and it was our first train of thought to do just that. I don't think we'd like to just stay in Sydney for a week, and with limited time and money I don't want to waste both travelling the long distances to get anywhere else.

What would people do if they had 7-10 days in New Zealand then ?

Our field trips itinerary includes going to Kinloch, Glenorchy for a few days to study the River Dart & Rees & Lake Wakatipu, Franz Josef to study the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers and then were going to Mt Cook Village to do fieldwork in Hooker and Tasman valleys. This is all on the south island, so perhaps we should spend the week exploring the north island?

Oh, were meeting at Queenstown before going of to Kinloch, Glenorchy and the uni can take us back here, so could do a few days in Queenstown before possibly going off exploring the north island.

 

[div0]

How are you getting to NZ? Do you not fly into Aukland?

If your field trip starts in Queenstown and you're looking to get there a week early, I would highly recommend something like:

Fly into Aukland
Visit some of north island, Taupo, Rotorua or Waitomo (caving, Lost world epic!) all worth a visit
Fly down to Queenstown and have at least 3 days down there
Visit Milford and Doubtful sound

 

[strumpusplunket]

Do you dive? Some wonderful diving in NZ, and well worth travelling around a few sites for a week.

Otherwise... well, it's summer down there so not sure what Queenstown/Wanaka will be like as when I was there it was all about the skiiing/snowboarding.

Also, Milford Sound is one of the most amazing places of natural beauty you could ever see. The two big glaciers on the south island (Fox and Franz Josef) are pretty spectacular.

Or just bum around in Melbourne for a week, drinking, hanging out, seeing cultural stuff, trip to Wilsons Prom, could even pop over to Tassie for a couple of days (Hobart's a quaint little city with a really nice harbour, and there are some stunning national parks on the island), etc. Melbourne's a city with a very cool vibe and much more relaxed and fun than Sydney. Sydney has the harbour and the beaches, but Melbourne is just cooler.

Edit: okay, just seen the dates again. So not summer, but still not ski season.
Also noted you're already going to the glaciers in your second post... I did love NZ, but apart from Auckland and diving I preferred the south island to the north, and you're already seeing a fair bit of that.

So I'd recommend Melbourne - Wilsons Prom - Tassie - Melbourne (I love Melbourne!)
Oh include Phillip Island in a Victoria/Tassie & environs trip too - fairy penguins! (Not so many at that time of year, but you can still see them)
Yeah, definitely plenty to keep you occupied using Melbourne as a base, and some of my favourite bits of Aus are included in that little itinerary.

 

[StevieP]

If it's the North Island then maybe go to Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu?

 

[Tunney]

Also on the South Island: penguins, vineyards.

 

[Megahurtz400]

Places to see in Sydney:

Blacktown
Campbelltown
Penrith
Bankstown

Lawl

 

[Vanilla]

I lived in Sydney for almost two years but you don't have a lot of time.

What fox said, spend 7 days South Island NZ and have a good time.

By all means explore Sydney for a couple of days if you fly via there but otherwise keep it simple.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

This website might be useful to give you some ideas and it's relatively customisable, e.g. length of stay, type of interest, north/south island etc.