Great barier reef (Places/Island/Activities) to do
 

Me and my husband are planning to go to Australia for about 3 days. First we are planning to go NZ, travel there for about 9 days and then go to australia for Great Barier Reef. We are mainly intrested in that. I have few questions regarding that
1)Any suggestions on how many days to spend to see GBR. we were planning to to spend 3 days. Is it good enough.
2)Also which part is more worthwile seeing. North /south?
3)Any recommended places/resort to stay
4) what are the activities suggested
5)Which is the nearest airport. We were planning to fly from ChristChurch - Townsville and any suggestions regarding which airlines to take or which are the cheaper one?

Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks,

www.webjet.com.au is a site you can use to scan what flights are available.

I am not aware of international flights going into Townsville, but from Christchurch, Queensland options would certainly be Gold Coast or Brisbane in the south and Cairns for the north.

http://www.queenslandislands.com/ gives a list of various islands with accommodation, some being on the reef, and others closer to the mainland and from where the reef can usually be accessed.

http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au...tions/islands/ for more info and in number the greatest colection of islands lies in the Whitsundays - http://www.whitsundaytourism.com/ where there are more activities available such as sea kayaking, sailing boat hires, camping on islands etc.
http://images.google.com.au/images?h...4&ct=title for interest.

As to where you go, north or south ought to be considered in regard to likely weather for the time of year your trip is.
There are domestic airports at all major regions that you can make a connection to.

We are doing the same trip almost! We are staying at the Silky Oaks Lodge in the Daintree RainForest.
I hear its nice. I also hear Shangri-la in Cairns is really nice as well. I was told the GBR island hotels are beautiful but hard to get to and limited in activities. For instance we are going to a wildlife park where you get to hold a koala. Holding koalas have been banned in all other parts except the Queensland state territory.

"Holding koalas have been banned in all other parts except the Queensland state territory."!!!

What the ?

This is not true (and if it is, it's a law that gets broken every day).

Where else is it occurring Chooka and we'll get the Koala Kops keystoning or rocking along.

According to Taronga Park Zoo, it is banned in NSW. Koala Foundation in Brisbane said legislation is pending to ban koala holding by public in Qld, but its been "pending" for a long time now.

I think there's a nationwide black market in koala cuddling. Rampaging gangs of tourists are gleefully being piddled on all across the wide brown land.