Need some itinerary help!!
 

I will be coming to Austrlia with my wife in June of next year and have 8 days seven nights. I would like to spend five nights in Sydney, but don't know how many days I should actually stay in the city of Sydney versus the surrounding areas. I was thinking of four nights in Sydney (W hotel) and one in the Blue Mountains. Does anyone have any suggestions??

Also, I have the last 2 nights and 3 days to go wherever in Australia or NZ I would like as I am using airline miles to fly. this leaves me with a lot of options. Where should I use these days? I was thinking either Brisbane, Auckland, Tasmania, or Lord Howe Island. Are there better places to spend the days? I understand the distance may be great to some of these places, but a couple of hours in the air is something I due a couple of times a week and I'm used to it.

Flying someplace else would be nice until you realize that in Australia you don't normally have planes flying every day or every hour to a destination.

I'd check the airline flight schedule for the carrier you're using your miles with - United on ANZ or American on Qantas - for the other destinations in conjunction with your travel dates. Check prices - it might not be worth giving up additional miles.

I believe the easiest would be Melbourne. It's a completely different city than SYD and in someways less touristy.

But check those schedules before you do anything. Eight days really isn't enough time for anything more than a "taste of OZ". Lots of luck!

If you have miles that are usable on Qantas - OneWorld, rather than Star Alliance, you might have a look at the Qantas website - www.qantas.com.au - for timetables to somewhere like Cairns or Uluru. Flights using points are a bit hard to come by here - and don't even think about it in high season. There has been considerable controversy about the number of points seats available. You will need to be flexible

After trying Qantas for some New Zealand trips, unsuccessfully, I was amazed to be offered a choice of flights on the day I wanted to go, between London and Zurich on British Airways.

I would be flying on Qantas and already have my first leg of the ticket taken care of as I have booked a year in advance. I will book the second leg the same way, as soon as the schedules come out, so I should not have took much of a problem.

W/o using additional miles, I am able to go to Auckland, Brisbane, Christchurch, Melbourne, and Wellington. Which one is of the most value for 3d/2night?? Is there more to do in Melbourne than Auckland??

If you have a few extra days I would go to Ayres Rock (Uluru). June in Sydney and Melbourne is starting to get cool and Ayres Rock should be quite pleasant and it would also get you out of the city and into the outback. We spent a weekend there a couple of years ago and 2 full days is more than enough time to see the area. If you can manage a couple of extra days you could also go to Alice Springs which is about a 30 minute flight from Ayres Rock.