Planning trip to Oz arriving Dec06 - but which way round is best? Initial Plan: self-drive Cairns-Brisbane (20days) and 10 days Melbourne-Adelaide to include GOR + Kangaroo Is - Any suggestions most welcome!

Weather-wise I would suggest you do Cairns-Brisbane first (the humidity will only get worse up there as summer progresses) and for the southern states you will want to be there once the temperature warms up more, so later in the trip is better.

Doing it this way will mean that you are doing the southern part of the trip in peak holiday season so you will need to factor that in as well. You will certainly need to pre-book your accommodation.

hi
we had been to australia in aug mid two years back. we did the gold coast first. stayed a couple of days. the surf is amazxing and night life is exciting. then went on to cairns and i suggest you drive right up to cape tribulation - the daintree forests. the drive is most awesome, where the rain forests meets the great barrier reef. do snorkelling/scuba divin at cape trib instead of cairns. that is a must do. after this part of the holiday i suggest you keep melborne for the last. do the victoria alps from there - we did mt. baw baw. sking, skating etc
australia you can never get enough of! enjoy
vineetha

if you look under my name, there's a response to a post for someone doing adelaide to melbourne in 10 days, covering KI and GOR, might be worth looking at. if you have 10 days, you might also like to think about a detour through the Grampians NP.

Thanks guys for the valuable inputwhich has helped us draft up an itin now for the Melbourne-Adelaide stretch...
Days1+2 Carless in Melbourne - maybe do a city tour or check out Healesville Sanctuary - as not sure if having a car in a city centre is wise?
Day 3 - Pick up hire car and set off to Philip Island
Day 4 Ferry across to Mornington Peninsula to start GOR
Days 5+6 GOR
Day 7+8 Kangaroo Island
Day 9 Head up to Adelaide for a 'pie floater'?!*!
Have we allowed ourself enough time? Also, are there any 'MUST SEEs' detours en route?

Good day MellyMel:

My wife and I travelled to Australia in 2000. Since we came from north America in mid January, our winter and their summer, we started in Melbourne and went north from there.

We found the temperatures very warm with high humidity. From Melbourne we went to Sydney, then to Brisbane and finally to Cairns. Going north, we were getting closer to the equater so we were passing into warmer zones as we went.

For some reason, even though Cairns was our most northerly stop, it was not hot in fact it was very comfortable.

Because Australia is so vast, we flew from city to city getting special deals before entering the country.

We had a very good time. Lots to see and do.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Woodie