The first bit of advice would be that you should come to Melbourne!

Are you planning on staying in Brisbane? It's a nice enough place, worth a day. Take a ride on the City Cat (ferry), go to South Bank, wander around down town, visit the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

In Noosa, stay somewhere on Hastings Street, maybe the Sheraton or the Sebel or rent an apartment (some of which are beach front). Have lunch at Bistro C, dinner at Lindonis and Sails, amongst other places.

Between Noosa, Airlie Beach and Cairns, you have a fair amount of 'beach' time - not sure why you're doing all three (though nice enough to do)? I wouldn't stay in Cairns - go to Palm Cove or Port Douglas, which appears to be what you're proposing.

[N.B. You appear to have created two identical copies of this thread].

....Sydney to Christchurch, hire a car for 10 days
queens town to Auckland, 4 nights....

So, 10 days to explore the South Island, and then four nights spent in Auckland?

A one way drive from Christchurch to Queentown could go something like this...

Christchurch-Arthur's Pass-Greymouth-side trip to Punakaiki-Hokitika-glaciers-Wanaka-Te Anau/Milford-Queenstown

Or Christchurch-Geraldine-Lake Tekapo-Mt Cook-Wanaka-Te Anau/Milford-Queenstown

The hard bit is deciding which you'd prefer, the West Coast route or the inland route.

How to distribute the time is a whole different matter and will depend on your particular interests, which are???

Suggest that on your way to Cairns you turn inland at Innisfail and drive through the Atherton Tablelands. A night there will not be too much. If heading to Port Douglas or the Daintree then continue north on the inland route and return to Cairns via the coast.

For us to give you advice on accommodation and where to stay it would be best to know a little more of what you want out of your time.

Hi
thanks for replies.
first of all, yes it posted twice, apologies.
we get to brisbane early the day so we were thinking of heading to the theme park, an hours drive for the day and then drive the 2 hours back to noosa. we do not plan to stay in brisbane as we want to do a one day fraser island tour and visit steve irwin zoo so that will take up our days i would think.
we dont have the time for visiting melbourne this time round, we are trying to keep out of the cities.
really staying in airlie to do the sailing to the islands.
do we not have to stay in cairns to do the gbr and daintree? we had thought 3 nights cairns and 2 port douglas but we have no accomodation booked so this can be changed.

our idea is stay 2 nights in the skycity hotel in auckland for 2 nights and 2 nights in rotorua...does this sound like a good plan?

as for the si trip, i like your first idea melnq8, we get to chch about 3pm so would you recommend driving to somewhere that same day or stay overnight in chch? what we were thinking was 2 nights franz glacier, 1 night wanaka, 2 nights te anau and 3 nights queenstown.....we are open to all options and to fill the remaining days.
thank you for all help

"we get to brisbane early the day so we were thinking of heading to the theme park, an hours drive for the day and then drive the 2 hours back to noosa. "

I'm not sure I understand this part. What "theme park" are you referring to? It requires you to "drive the 2 hours back to Noosa" implying you've driven there in the first place?

Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin) is about halfway between Brisbane and Noosa. If you get to Brisbane early in the day, I would do that on your way to Noosa - no point driving to Noosa and then, on another day, have to drive back to Beerwah.

"do we not have to stay in cairns to do the gbr and daintree?" No. Stay in Palm Cove (about 25 minutes north of Cairns) or Port Douglas (an hour north). Wherever you stay will be able to arrange reef trips etc. for you, including pick-up/drop-off at your hotel. Most of the trips depart from Cairns, with some from Port Douglas. If you stay in Port Douglas, do trips from there. If you stay in Palm Cove, do the trips from Cairns (it's no big deal getting there and back). Personally, I think Cairns itself has little to recommend it - we've always stayed in Palm Cove. The video (scroll down) on this site will give you some idea of what it's like.

http://www.palmcoveaustralia.com

Palm Cove is compact enough that wherever you stay, you can walk. Port Douglas is larger and depending on where you stay, may require some transport to get about.

<as for the si trip, i like your first idea melnq8, we get to chch about 3pm so would you recommend driving to somewhere that same day or stay overnight in chch? >

As you'll be coming from Sydney and because the days are so long in February, I'd think you could get a start and head up to Arthurs Pass...perhaps spend a night there to rest up and take a hike or two then continue on the next day. Or, continue on to Greymouth (about 3.5 hours from Christchurch) and overnight there, then head up to Punakaiki the next morning and then on to the glaciers.



what we were thinking was 2 nights franz glacier, 1 night wanaka, 2 nights te anau and 3 nights queenstown.....we are open to all options and to fill the remaining days.
thank you for all help

Oops, forgot to respond to the second part.

I think it's a good plan. Do you have 10 days or 10 nights?

hi
we have 10 nights in the si.its june we are travelling in....
thank you

The weather in June can be cold and quite unpredictable - we were on the SI this past June and got caught up in a freakish snow storm. It pays to be flexible.