Help on Itinerary
 

Hello Everyone ,

Me, my husband along with my 9 year old daughter would like to plan a trip for Australia and New Zealand in March.

We are mainly interested in country side scenic places.(Not crowded cities).Also would like to cover few highlights for kids.

After doing little research I have finalized few places for Aus -
- Sydney - 2 or 3 days (City highlights + Blue Mountain)
- Gold Coast - 3 days (will do 1 theme park + any other scenic places around - Please suggest )
- Cairns - 2 or 3 days (Please suggest which places can be done here.)

Because of Time constraints we are not doing Melbourne .(Though Great Ocean Road seems truly scenic )

We would like to do Christchurch & Queens-town and would like to stick only to south Island.

My queries for NZ are -
- From where we can take a flight to NZ ? which can save our time.
- Can we make any one or two place base in NZ and see the near by areas .
-How many days minimum to cover the highlights). We would like to drive through some scenic roads.(As we skipped great ocean road trip).

Also suggest - March 2nd and 3rd week good for all these above mentioned places or not ?

<<We are mainly interested in country side scenic places.(Not crowded cities).Also would like to cover few highlights for kids.>>

Soooo...why are you visiting so many cities?

Most international flights to NZ arrive in Auckland. From there you can fly to Christchurch, Queenstown and a few other places on the South Island.

It's very difficult to see NZ from a central base, as no one place is truly central. It's best to make a one way drive from say Christchurch to Queentown, or a quasi-loop, ending and departing from say, Christchurch (just an example).

What you do will primarily depend on how much time you have, as distances in NZ are much greater than you might expect.

So, how much time do you have?

Here's how you find out ">From where we can take a flight to NZ ?<"

You google the airport website of the city, in your case Christchurch and Queenstown, and you look at the arrivals.

Where do you want to fly from? Brisbane? Coolangatta (Gold Coast)?Sydney? You'll soon see what's available.

Unless you have more than 3 weeks on the ground, you are better off choosing either Australia or NZ and not try to see both. IMO Sydney deserves at least 4 nights, and if you thinking about daytripping to the Blue Mountains, at least 5 nights. We were just there for 7 nights and could easily do with more. For Cairns / Far North Queensland, I would recommend at least 5 nights so that you see more than just the Barrier Reef; keep in mind that March is still hot and humid up in this part of Australia.

With only 9 days stick with Australia. It's a big place and each of your highlighted spots will involve a day's travel so that uses up 3 and there's 6 left.
The Gold Coast is a great family area but from either airport (Brisbane or Coolangatta)it's still a bit of a trip to the theme parks. You can't fly from Sydney in the morning and hope to be roller coaster riding in the afternoon.
Why not just go to Luna Park in Sydney.
From Sydney and Melbourne you can fly direct to Queenstown.

Thanks you everyone for your reply. First of all I want to clarify - We have less time that 13/14 days in total. So far from my research.

As I have mentioned we want to see some scenic places and want to cover some kids attractions, I am just thinking to skip Gold Coast and trying to figure out if something is there similar in Sydney.From my research I could figure out Gold Coast is mainly for theme parks.Please suggest if any zoo or theme park for kids in sydney ??

Please give your suggestions about Gold Coast .

Another concern for us is to finalize the route. Please help us in that. Please give your suggestions.

Plan A - Sydney -> Gold Coast -> Cairne -> Christchurch(connecting Flight Via Sydney)->Queenstown->Sydney

Skip Goad Coast -
Plan B - Sydney -> Christchurch(connecting Flight Via Sydney)->Queenstown->Sydney

With just two weeks, my recommendation would be to spend one week in Sydney and the other week in Cairns / Far North Queensland. If you want to squeeze in NZ, you could do one week in Sydney and one week in the Queenstown area. And if really want to squeeze in more, you could spend 5 nights in Sydney (minimum if you want to visit the Blue Mountains), 5-6 nights in the Cairns area, and the rest in Gold Coast. As for parks and zoos in and around Sydney, you have Luna Park for amusement rides (keep in mind the park is small, not theme-park size) and Featherdale, Taronga, or Wildlife World for zoos. There is also an aquarium in Sydney worth seeing.