Hello everyone,
My husband and I are planning a trip to Sydney and NZ in January of next year to celebrate our 40th. Our actual anniversary is on Jan 26th so we want to be in Sydney on that day. Right now, we are planning about 5 days in Sydney and 5 days or so in NZ - perhaps Auckland. I am building in time for flying (from SFO) and getting over jet lag too. My main questions are about NZ - is Auckland a great place to go? Recommendations on what to see/do? Is 5 days too much? We do like cities, walking, eating, seeing the sights. I would love to see some of NZ's famed scenery as well.

Recommendations are most appreciated. We are looking to book this by the end of August.

Many thanks,
Deb

<is Auckland a great place to go?>

Well, it's nice enough for a city, but it certainly wouldn't be my choice if going to NZ.

For me, NZ is all about the outdoors...the natural splendor the mountains, rainforest, beaches and coast.

January 26 is Australia Day ! Yay, a national public holiday. For you, that means a long weekend where lots of Aussies will be out and about, it's also about the end of summer school holidays.

There should be council run free events, maybe with things like sheep shearing and BBQs. I'd google "Australia Day Sydney" closer to the time to see what's on.

Book your accomodation for this weekend early.

I've spent a few days in Auckland. With more time there are day trips to places like Waihekie Island. There's a revolving restaurant atop a Skytower in Auckland which had great food and provided wonderful views at lunch. Check current reviews, we were there a few years ago.
Ferry to Devenport was fun, it's a cute place to walk around.
I'll let others chime in with more NZ suggestions.

I'm wondering if you mightn't have a better time sticking to Australia for this trip. Although the flight between Sydney and Auckland isn't that long -3 hours or so - there is the time needed for international check-in, the performance that you have to go through in NZ customs which takes ages. When you factor in the time difference [+3 hours] and transferring into Auckland, you lose a day more or less.

and then the same thing coming back into OZ - such a waste of the relatively little time you have.

How about a trip to Tasmania? - lovely in January i should think and cooler than much of the rest of Australia, or Melbourne for a change of scene? or the GOR?

i would leave NZ til you have time to explore it more thoroughly.

Thank you sartoric and annhig! Yes, when we got married 40 years ago, we had no idea it was Australia Day .

Annhig, we were thinking about flying SFO->Sydney->Auckland->SFO but I do remember the ridiculous hassle I had last year when going SYD->Auckland->SFO in customs. It was crazy! So you bring up a good point. I will research Tasmania. When first thinking about this trip we were thinking about doing Sydney and Melbourne instead of NZ.

Question - we are not wild about driving the left side. Is there train transport between Sydney and Melbourne? Would give us a nice chance to see more scenery and we love trains. We did this years ago with Montreal and Quebec City, taking the train back and forth and it was wonderful.

Thank you for your continued input!

Just did some quick research on travel between Melbourne and Sydney so now have the info on the train service (about 11 hours). Should have done my research before I asked!

Hi there,

IMO Auckland is like a mini sydney (4 mill v 1 mill), they are both beautiful cities and have excellent walking / food opportunities around the harbours.

Auckland anniversary day is also 26th jan so also a public holiday as is 6th February (waitangi day).

Re customs, I'm not sure what passport you will be flying on but I have absolutely no issue getting through either sydney or Auckland airport and do the trip on a semi frequent basis. In saying that, I have a NZ e passport and fly air NZ so it's all electronic. If you have an Aussie e passport it should also be straight forward but if you are flying on a US passport then it could take a lot longer especially if you stop to purchase duty free or come in after other flights.

If you do decide to head to Auckland stay somewhere near the viaduct harbour / downtown. You can take a short ferry trip to devonport / walk to north head, ferry to waiheke Island for the day, ferry to rangitoto Island for the day, walk / bus to mission bay / st heliers (13km of beautiful waterfront walk), take a day trip to piha / Karekare beach on the west coast (1hr from Auckland CBD/ black sand beaches), go shopping in ponsonby, Parnell, new market...quaint shopping districts, go to the Auckland war memorial museum.

Re train to Melbourne. I may be speaking a bit prematurely but I believe most people chose to fly to Melbourne rather than train. I've lived just south of sydney on the South coast for two years now and I'm always asking the locals about places to visit / trips to do (they've made some great recommendations) but no one has ever suggested catching the train from sydney to Melbourne. I have had the train from sydney to Perth recommended (I believe it goes via Adelaide) and the train journey from sydney to Wollongong (coast) has some amazing scenery but it terminates in kiama / bomaderry and doesn't continue South.

There is lots to see and whatever you chose you won't go wrong. I do however agree that nz's best attributes is it's scenery outside of the cities, especially down South.

With so few days available for this trip, I would not choose to take the train between Sydney and Melbourne. We did it route by car once when we lived in Australia and it was OK because we could stop along the way to see things that interested us like the "Dog on the Tuckerbox" in Gundagai, the submarine in the park in Holbrook, and the Kelly Gang sites in Glenrowan. But you won't have those options on the train. Also, the trains on this route often used to be delayed due to problems with the track, so you might want to see if this is still the case.

For some more info on the train between Sydney and Melbourne, you might want to read this page from Trip Advisor:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g2...Melbourne.html

Osteo, I like your description of Auckland as a mini Sydney, both beautiful harbour cites. I reckon it would start some interesting discussions with our kiwi friends !

I agree with not taking the train to Melbourne, most people would fly.

Deb, you could get your train fix with a couple of scenic day trips from Sydney, say Blue Mountains and the South Coast.

Sartoric, I like that idea! Between the ferries in Sydney and the trains for a day trip we will be in heaven! Auckland sounds so lovely too - I wish we could do it all. Sigh.

One other question - which carrier for Premium Economy is recommended - Air NZ or Virgin Australia? Last year I flew PE on Air NZ from Auckland to SFO and it was pure heaven. But I want to make an informed decision. The long flight will not be easy on my hubby (getting drugs to help with this) so I want to to try to pick the most comfortable seat out there.

debtogo -

We recently had the pleasure of flying PE on Air NZ from LAX-AKL and on to Perth. We upgraded to Business on the return using the One Up program - you might consider this option if it's in the budget.

As of last year when I was comparing flights from AKL to the US - Air NZ was using their old PE product on the flights to/from SFO (737). My understanding based on a recent booking with them for my brother from LAX-AKL is that they're now using 777's, on both the SFO-AKL and LAX-AKL flights so they should all have Spaceseats.

I've just taken my first flight on Virgin Australia - it was economy and domestic, so won't help you, but I was pleasantly surprised and will consider them for an international trip at some point. I have a friend here in Australia who flies VA in PE to the US on a regular basis - she loves them, but I have no idea how they compare to Air NZ's PE product.

You can make an on-paper comparison here:

http://www.seatguru.com/charts/premium_economy.php

Re customs, I'm not sure what passport you will be flying on but I have absolutely no issue getting through either sydney or Auckland airport and do the trip on a semi frequent basis. In saying that, I have a NZ e passport and fly air NZ so it's all electronic. >>

IMO aussie and NZ passport holders get preferential treatment at passport and customs in both countries, while the rest of us are consigned to long lines and many questions about where we have been, whether we have been on a farm/walking/had contact with water [loved that one] etc. etc. Whilst i understand the particular sensitivities of the New Zealanders in particular to safeguard their country's ecology, given the 70 million possums, and countless ferrets, stoats and weasels which have already left their mark, there is an element of shutting the stable door about it. And I'm not sure I'd want to bother with it for the sake of a 5 day stay.

BTW I agree with melnq8 about VA - they were very good and the aircraft very comfortable.

Virgin Australia and airnz codeshare trans tasman so they are often one and the same - I usually look at both and book the cheaper. I do however like air NZ check in facilities as it's all automated and quick...I don't often encounter planes with space seats on the transtasman legs, maybe once or twice.

Thank you everyone - this information really helps!