Travel Advice for Australia and New Zealand?

Hoping for some Aussies or Kiwis on this site.
Well, just trying to finalize some plans for my grad trip to Australia and New Zealand. June 17 - July 24 (in know..winter)
We're planning to hit Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, and the north island of New Zealand.

What are the must sees? What I have so far:
Melbourne (Lots of family here, so I've been a few time): Great Ocean Road, Hanging Rock, Philip Island
Sydney: Opera House/Circular Quay area, darling harbour, featherdale zoo, bondi and manly, olympic sites
Brisbane: Gold Coast (must rent a car?), Fraser Island, surfing?
Cairns: Going scuba (5 day learn to dive course), but 2 free days available
NZ: not much planned yet, sky dive at Taupo, sledging?

I'm having a hard time finding a good place to stay in Sydney.
When I went 2 years we stayed at the Glenmore Hotel/Pub in the Rocks. EXCELLENT location, good price, and a good place to stay, but they're closed this time for renovations. They recommended the Australian Hotel down the street or maybe the Russell. What do you guys think? 3 guys on a pretty cheap budget.

I have found the Lonely Planet guides very helpfull for planning a vacation, they list all kinds of places to stay and things to do.

Just be careful you don't use a guide book written by people that haven't even been to the country they're writing about!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/lon...er-fraud-claims/2008/04/15/1208025139796.html

http://blogs.smh.com.au/travel/archives/2008/04/why_guidebooks_have_to_lie.html

-YC

Well, so far it seems Oz and Kiwiland are ok, and even then, the input from readers is most important for the sections that really matter. :thinking:

So far their guides never disappointed me in finding a good place to stay.

Waitomo Caves

Rangitoto Island

Connected To:

Motutapu

Take flashlights (Caves, WW2 Tunnel systems, Lava Tubes)

North Head Reserve

Stony Batter Historic Reserve, Waiheke Island

Again Flashlights

Tourism Sites

Tourism NZ

Jason's Guide - NZ made guide

Reply here if you want some maps to the sites on north head, Rangitoto & Motutapu

For NZ, Taupo is a favorite,Wellington is beautiful. Make sure you also go to the South island. Stop at Queenstown and go to Te Anu. You'll want to go back again.

Australia, go up to the Gold Coast.

Dan,

Hope you have a great time. I would suggest you add Taronga Zoo to your Sydney sightseeing instead of Featherdale if you are staying at the Rocks (where those hotels are located) Featherdale is about an hour through suburbs in a car, Taronga is about 20 minutes on a ferry over Sydney Harbour past the Opera House and when you get there you can take photos with the city, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House in the background from many spots in the Zoo. I would also suggest climbing the southeastern pylon of the Bridge, about 10 minutes stroll from the hotels and costs $5 instead of the $130 - $260 tourists are charged to climb on the bridge. You can also take your own cameras to the top of the pylon, you cant take cameras on Bridgeclimb (but they will sell you a photo :naughty: ).

I am not sure if they are still running but there used to be Tankstream tours by the Waterboard, the tankstream was the original creek used as a watersupply for Sydney, it is now more like an underground sandstone channel but interesting spot for a flashaholic.

In terms of accommodation the area you are looking is handy, I would suggest wotif.com.au to look for hotels, feel free to PM or post here for opinions on any hotel.

I would consider driving between Sydney and Brisbane, it is only about a 1,000 km and if you go the inland road you will see a little of the real Australia. Whilst you can drive it easily in 12 hours, I would stay somewhere like Coonabarabran, which is close to the Warrumbungles (a hilly park) and has a large telescope. As you can imagine by the fact there is a telescope, very little ambient light, so an AA mag will seem like a barnburner there.

Good luck and feel free to post any questions.

Cheers

Glen