Ayers Rock??
 

In our original itinerary we were planning to go to Ayers Rock for 3 nights and now I am wondering if it's really worth it.

The plan is currently for a 3 week trip
Auckland
Queenstown
Cairns
Ayers Rock
Sydney

Would we better skipping Ayers Rock and doing Melbourne or another NZ place for those 3 days? We are in each location about 3 nights except Sydney which is 5 nights. I'd consider Fiji or Bora Bora or something like that even at the end of Sydney before we flight home.

How much time have you allocated for the Australia portion of your trip? And what time of year are you planning this trip?

Having been to all of these destinations multiple times, I can say that the best time for visiting NZ is not the best time for visiting either Cairns or Uluru (Ayers Rock).

Also, what are your interests? Would you prefer to see the scenic beauty of the Red Center and do some hiking or would you prefer to visit museums in a big city and drink coffee in a cafe?

Are you on a strict budget? Uluru is an expensive place to get to and an expensive place to stay. But for many, it's well worth the money.

Come back with some more info, and I'd be happy to give you my 2-cents worth.

Honestly I am not sure you have time for Uluru or another location with a total of 17 nights, even though I thoroughly enjoyed my 3 nights there. Your 5 nights in Sydney is good, but Cairns and Queenstown for 3 nights each seem too few to me. From Cairns, I assume you are visiting the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest, each of which takes at least a full day, which is already your 3 nights without any down time. And I assume you are interested in visiting Milford or Doubtful Sound from Queenstown, which is also at least a full day.

Have you booked flights? This is a lot of hopping around for just three weeks.

Six nights total in NZ is giving it serious short shrift. You'll be missing a whole lot more than you'll be seeing, especially once you factor in the time needed to get to each respective airport, check in, sit around waiting for your flight, the actual flight, collecting luggage, getting transport to hotels, then back to the airport, etc.

We would be going either in early June or mid-July, just waiting on a few work things to finalize.

This is the original plan:

Day 1 - Travel from Canada
Day 2 - Still Flying
Day 3 - Land in Auckland
Day 4 - Auckland - Skyjump, see the city
Day 5 - Auckland - Day Trip for LOtR and Caves
Day 6 - Fly to Queens town from Auckland
Day 7 - Queenstown - Daytrip Milford Sound
Day 8 - Queenstown - Bungee Jumping
Day 9 - Fly to Cairns from Queenstown
Day 10 - Cairns
Day 11 - Cairns
Day 12 - Cairns
Day 12 - Fly to Ayers Rock from Cairns
Day 13 - Ayers Rock
Day 14 - Ayers Rock
Day 15 - Ayers Rock - Daytrip to Kings Canyon
Day 16 - Fly to Sydney from Ayer Rock
Day 17 - Sydney
Day 18 - Sydney
Day 19 - Sydney - Daytrip to Blue Mountain
Day 20 - Sydney
Day 21 - Sydney
Day 22- Fly Back Home

Oops missed a few questions

1) Haven't booked our flights yet
2) We were planning 4 weeks and then cut Melbourne out of the trip. We do fully intend to visit Australia & New Zealand again when we have kids. We want to do a separate 3 week of just Australia and then just New Zealand later in life. This is my last travel bug ness before we start the next chapter of our lives.
3) The Ayers Rock looks beautiful and I want a beautiful pictures of it as sunset or sunrise but I don't know if that's worth it compared to the other stuff we could do. And it is the mostly expensive part of the trip.

Thanks for providing that proposed itinerary, Qwendy--it helps.

You have 13 full days for the Australian portion of your trip. You are traveling at a good time for visiting both Cairns and Uluru. (It's not great for NZ, but you don't have much planned there anyway.)

With 13 days in Australia, I would allocate your time thusly:

Day 10 Port Douglas (rather than Cairns)
Day 11 PD
Day 12 PD
Day 13 PD
Day 14 PD (with overnight in Cairns for early departure to Uluru)
Day 15 Fly to Uluru (flights arrrive before noon)
Day 16 Uluru/Kata Tjuta
Day 17 Uluru and fly to Sydney (taking afternoon flight)
Day 18 Sydney
Day 19 Sydney
Day 20 Sydney - Day Trip to Blue Mountains
Day 21 Sydney
Day 22 Depart

This itinerary gives you more time in the GBR area, which is very nice in June/July. I suggest staying in Port Douglas rather than Cairns because PD has a beach and Cairns doesn't. Also, PD is a nice, laid-back town.

I have also cut out the long day trip to Kings Canyon. It's a lot of driving (which has to be done during the short amount of daylight due to animals on the road) for a short visit at KC. With two half-days and a full day at Uluru, you can do plenty of sightseeing, hiking, photography, etc.

Yes, Uluru is an expensive place to go and stay, but it's unique. It's not just another Australian city. If you can afford the time and money, you should seriously consider going.

Wherever you decide to go, you should get things booked ASAP. Late June/early July is school holidays for most of the Australian states. Families will be traveling!