hurrygirl

We are from Canada and going to Australia for 6 weeks Sept/Oct. and then 4 weeks New Zealand( mostly South Island)
So far we are flying to Sydney- 2 days there, then flying to Hamilton Islamd and chartering a crewed sailboat in Whitsundy's for 4 nights. Then fly to Cairns to see admin tree and snorkel in Port Douglas for 5 days. Then fly to Uluru -2 nights there, 1 night Kings Canyon , 1 night Alice Springs.
Now we are trying to decide whether to go to Perth/ Margaret River or to go to Tasmania as we have 4 days extra before going to Brisbane, Gold Coast , Noosa, Harvey Bay , Fraser Island , Byron Bay , fly to Melbourne to drive the great ocean road for 4 days , Adeleide 2 nights, Kangaroo island 1 night , Tunanda 1 night . Fly to Syney . 2 days to see more Syney and Blue Mountains before flying to Aukland.
We are very active 59 year olds. Love the outdoors. Not big on cities but love quaint and unusual experiences. Love to drink wine along the way but not a huge focus.
Can anyone recommend whether we might enjoy Perth/ Margaret River area more or Tasmania?

Thanks for your help. We hadi Needed to go to and Bungle Bungkes but it is getting too late , hot and wet for that area we have discovered.

marg

My choice would be WA as September/October is prime wildflower time there and their wildflowers are unbelievable, plus the weather should be better than Tasmania at that time of year.
It sounds as though you will fly from Alice Springs to Perth, so you could pick up a hire car at the airport and head off from there. If you can, also visit Kings Park in Perth - usually a great display of wildflowers there.
Have a great trip - sounds as though you will be on the go a lot but why not.

michelhuebeli

My choice would be Tasmania. Not only because it's such a long haul across the continent, with so little time. But also for this reason: We've just been to Margaret River and it is pretty but very gentrified, downright glitzy in parts, catering to the affluent Merc and BMW crowd.

We did a big swing down to Albany and Denmark and up and around, Manjimup, Nannup, stayed a week near Mandurah - liked the area in bits and parts (great forests! Kari Kari trees you can climb!), but overall we didn't think it compared with the rugged beauty of Tasmania.

If you fly to Hobart, visit Port Arthur for sure, you won't soon forget it! And drive around Queenstown and Rosebery to Cradle Mountain - that mountain drive is spectacular. If you have the time, go down to Strahan by the super-rugged coast, your camera will like it!

You can fly out of Launceston to save on backtracking.

But Melbourne is just across the pond - flying all the way back up to Queensland and back down to do the Great Ocean Road seems a bit wasteful. Can you re-align your schedule, geographically?

Ozian

Your itinerary has a lot of back-tracking over long distances. I would either skip south-east Queensland or do it before heading to Central Australia. My personal preference would be to visit both WA and Tassie ahead of this area.

If you already have bookings and only have that 4 day gap you will spend a lot of time travelling. I would prefer WA for the wildflowers at that time of year as Marg suggested. Tasmania would not be a direct flight from Alice Springs and the scenery is more akin to New Zealand.

The simpler alternative is to stay a day or 2 longer in the Red centre and visit the MacDonnell Ranges before heading back east.

hurrygirl

Thank you all so much for your detailed suggestions. We really appreciate it. We are planning the Gold Coast at that time because otherwise the probability of stingers apparently increases later. We also don't want to get too hot there either.
Our plans were arranged around availability sailing and also lodging in Uluru.
Your feedback is invaluable.

Melnq8

<<catering to the affluent Merc and BMW crowd>>

Evidently we visited a different part of Margaret River!

I love both WA and TAS, but in September I have to give the nod to WA because of the wildflowers. Having said that, four days isn't near enough for either, and it hard to justify that long flight to WA for so few days.

WA has so much to offer other than Margaret River...Denmark, Pemberton...the entire SW. But, you need time to see it.

michelhuebeli

"WA has so much to offer other than Margaret River...Denmark, Pemberton...the entire SW. But, you need time to see it."
How true! Just north of Perth (well, "just" in terms of Aussie distances...) is a nowhere-else-in-the-world (AFAIK) scenario - the Pinnacles.
Drive up (about 3 hours), stay the night in Cervantes or Jurien Bay, and get up long before sunrise. Drive to the Pinnacles and wander around while the sun comes up. Unbelievable!
Later in the day they are still spectacular, but the bright light washes out all the nuances that you get in the early morning light. Google them and - maybe - you'll get a picture good enough to show what it is really like.

eliztravels2

I too am surprised to learn of “gentrified” Margaret River. Must have missed it in my 9 trips there! I suppose one could get that impression if they only visited the large vineyards with their upscale dining. But really, you are more likely to see beat up utes than BMWs.

Perhaps not relevant to the OP, but worth mentioning whenever questions of WA. vs. other OZ locations come up: Perth is closer to Hong Kong than Sydney and other cities in eastern Australia, so if you go that route (on Cathay Pacific) you can shave a few hours off your journey. The shortest time we can make the trip from Toronto is 25 hours, vs. 32 or more flying into Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne and then across to Perth. Cathay usually does not charge for the first stopover so you can spend a night or two in HKG to breakup the trip if you like.

Melnq8

Just an FYI that the Pinnacles are also spectacular at dusk - do take care though as the 'roos are very thick between Cervantes and Nambung Nat'l Park - they're quite active at dawn and dusk.

If you go at dusk, just be aware the Discovery Center at Nambung Nat'l Park closes at 4:30 pm, so leave some time for that.

hurrygirl

Thank you all. We actually have 6 days with two considered travel days. I realize it is not much time but would like a taste of either area. Not sure if we should hold off on WA and add that on a trip to SE Asia later.
Love wildflowers and they must be incredible to have so many comments on them for this time of year. Hard to decide when we are unsure if we will make it back to Australia.

annhig

We flew from London rather than Canada but I would definitely recommend a stop-over to beak up the journey, especially on the way back! we were wiped out for about a week by the Sydney-HK-LHR flight we did with just 3 hours in HK, whereas we had no problems on the way out when we had 3 night stop-over in HK.

It sounds as if Sept/Oct is a special time to visit WA; I hadn't thought of that myself so it's good to know for our next visit to Oz.

Melnq8

Some links on WA's wildflowers:

We never did see entire fields of them like in the photos here, but it was a special time of year for sure:

http://www.westernaustralia.com/us/T...ldflowers.aspx

http://www.australiasgoldenoutback.c...dflower_trails

annhig

Mel - I have always wanted to go to SA in the spring to see their wild flowers, but never thought of WA as an alternative.

annhig

meant to say - the pics in that link are spectacular.

Melnq8

annhig -

The wildflowers in SA are pretty wonderful too, but WA is known for them - "there are more than 12,000 species of wildflowers in WA, making it the world’s largest collection".

annhig

it's going to the top of my list, Mel.