Starting a new thread following my October post -- I learned a lot from everyone's comments and suggestions! many thanks.

Situation: DH and I will celebrate retiring next year by heading to Australia and New Zealand for the first time. We're Brit expats, living in the US for many years now. We've set aside some funds for the trip (!!) and are not too time limited because no more work schedule (yay!)

We cleared the first hurdle when I got 2 biz-class seats on Qantas from LA to Sydney using our hoarded BA miles. Since then, I've been reading many guide books and forums to make myself more informed about our options. My head is spinning, so need some perspective from the forum.

Here's our tentative plan so far:
- Arrive SYD October 20, stay 4 nights to see the sights and adjust to time zone.
- Fly to Cairns to visit FNQ and the GBR. We're leaning towards staying in Port Douglas, definitely will snorkel the reef. Maybe overnight on a reef trip? Also want to visit the Daintree and Cape Trib. Stay 8-9 nights, not sure where yet.
- We debated seeing Uluru, decided we did want to do that -- so fly from CNS to AYQ and stay 2 nights.
- Fly to Melbourne, allow 6 nights for the city (4) and GOR (2).
- Fly to Tasmania: there we'd like to see Hobart, Port Arthur, Freycinet, and Launceston. Not sure how long to stay there -- maybe 6 nights?
- Fly Tasmania to Auckland via Melbourne (?) Rent a car and spend a week each on North and South Island.

I hadn't appreciated that NZ seasons skew later than Australia, so spring weather happens later. By the time we get to NI with this plan, it would be mid-November, and hopefully real spring!

In NZ, we'd like to learn more about Maori culture, see wineries, eat well, see fabulous scenery. Not into extreme sports! Is it possible to stay on a farm/sheep station? In NI, I'd like to get to Cape Reinga -- I'm fascinated by the "ends" of places. Sounds as if we can take a tour to get there, not self-drive. We're open to other suggestions.

In South Island, we definitely want to see the fjords and Milford Sound -- probably a boat trip? And also take in that awesome scenery.

All in all, we're allowing about 6 weeks for the trip, haven't made return reservation yet. Return to US will probable be at the end of November -- we can be a bit flexible as long as the budget will stretch! At one point, because DH is a big train fan, we thought about taking the Indian-Pacific trip from Sydney to Perth, but think we'd need to add a week for that to make it worthwhile. What do you think? It's really not likely that we will get to repeat a trip like this, so want to see it ALL this time. (If only that was possible!) ;-) it's a challenge to be realistic, so we're working on that. I know Fodorites well enough to know you will let me know if we're way off with any of these ideas.

Good thing is that at this point, it's all just possibilities -- nothing set in stone except our flight to SYD. Okay, fire away! I'm looking forward to your recommendations/critiques.

We did a 6 week trip to NZ and Australia Jan 9 to Feb 24 this year. That included a trip on both the Indian Pacific and the Ghan. My husband is a train fan also and we both loved the Indian Pacific - Sydney to Perth. I highly recommend this trip! The one on the Ghan wasn't as much fun/ not really worth the cost. There were a number of Australians on the train to Perth and it was great to visit with them.

I know you will enjoy your time in Sydney, Queensland, Uluru and Tasmania. But you really need to see some of Western and South Australia if you think this may be your only chance at Australia. It is so wounderful and different from the east coast area.

Maybe you could fly from the Uluru area to Perth and then take the Indian Pacific to Adelaide (the best part of the trip) and then drive or fly to Melbourne. You could have a nice visit to Perth/Fremantle (3 days) and the train ride (2 days). If you reslly can't see adding five days more days to the trip, you could shave a day or three form some of the other longer stays and get the chance to taste all of the places that make Australia such a neat place to visit.

I think I gave you the link to our travel blog for Australia and NZ, but there seemed to be a problem with the link at times....anyway here it is again, you can read the detail on the train ride and the Perth area Jan 22 on, also what we did in the Wellington area and the South Island of NZ starting with Jan 12.

www.aroundtheworldin132days.blogspot.com/

Sounds like you are going to have a grand experience!

For Australia, I'd think about the balance between cities and visiting the countryside. I love cities, but most Australian cities are not hugely interesting in the global scheme of things, whereas the natural environment, and the animals in it, are spectacular.

For example, in Tasmania you are visiting Hobart, Freycinet which is very beautiful, but then Launceston which from my memory doesn't have a lot to offer tourists. I'd shift some of your time to exploring the west coast which is a World Heritage Wilderness area: consider Strahan, Lake St Clair, Cradle Mountain.

<Is it possible to stay on a farm/sheep station?>

Yes. Check these out:

http://www.truenz.co.nz/farmstays/

http://www.ruralholidays.co.nz/

http://www.nzfarmstays.com/

If you click my screen name, you can read my trip report on our 10 days on the North Island in April 2004.

Lee Ann

Great comments to get me started, thanks!

Susan7, hadn't considered the city/country balance, good point. Also about Launceston -- I did get an impression that might be the case. We'll check out exploring more in the west of Tas. We'll be renting a car while we're there, so should have plenty of options for getting around.

Thanks also for the farmstay links, MeInq -- some very interesting options there. I may be deluding myself, but what I would love to do is find a sheep station in that great sweeping landscape, and see for myself how the sheep are moved across those hills by the dogs. I must have seen it in a Nature special, I guess!

We went to New Zealand and Australia in October and early November of this year. It was the perfect time for us, not too not too hot in Australia and lovely in New Zealand. We only had 3 weeks but loved it. We started in New Zealand because it is the shorter flight and I thought 12 1/2 hours was long enough (we started in FL and so had a long flight to LAX), our return flight was 14 1/2 from Melbourne. I was surprised at how warn it was on the North Island, the trees had all of their leaves and Spring was almost past. We hit the perfect Spring on the South Island. Queenstown was beautiful with snow covered mountains and flowering trees. We learned that it rains a lot and there is often snow in the mountains at that time of the year,but that the rain is not limited to Spring. We enjoyed all of our trip but found the South Island of New Zealand the most special part. It looks like you have a great trip planned but I noticed you did not include Alice Springs and we enjoyed our visit there very much. Enjoy you planning, it is such a great part of making the trip just what you want.

Thanks for your reply, stpetereb. Sounds as if you had a great trip! Are you going to post a trip report? (Hint, hint!!)

When in the Cairns area, I suggest you look at the options of visiting the hinterland. This is where one can see the wildlife and some beautiful scenery. October is a good time of year to be in that part of the world.

I wish you a great time enjoying the beginning of your retirement.

You may consider taking time off Melbourne and adding it to Tasmania which needs much more time than you have got. Launceston is not a particularly interesting city (town in your eyes) but Hobart is. There are so many lovely areas in Tasmania that you will be hard put to get them in. Personally I would add more time to the GBR and see the outback and the Atherton Tablelands, take the Savanna land train, see the Undara lave tubes, visit an aboriginal village in North Queensland or perhaps go to Cooktown, skip Uluru, take out a bit of time in Melboure and add that to Tasmania. Then you would have a perfect balance in my opinion. Make sure you have time to spend a night or two in Cradle Mountain in Tasmania and interact with the animals there and nature in its pristine form. If you can take a flight from Hobart to Bathurst Harbour for the day which lands on the beach there which is quartz and spent some time in the Wilderness of Tassie - its a fantastic day trip and flies over and around some really wonderful scenery.

just a small detail, there are now no liveaboards out of Port Douglas, although plenty of day trips to reef. In this area the liveaboards leave from Cairns, about an hour's drive from PD.

Thanks Pat - we're planning to rent a car while we're in PD (assuming that's where we end up staying), so I don't think being an hour away would be prohibitive -- or would it?

In the articles I've read, so many different reef trip vendors are mentioned that it's just confusing. Any recommendations, either for day snorkel trips, or liveaboards? We don't relish the idea of snorkeling with 400 other folks -- what options for smaller groups? Do they go to different parts of the reef (there's plenty of room, after all!) Are there any trips that combine sailing and snorkeling, or is that a bad idea?

There are a number which you can find with a little use of a search engine but Falla Cruises sail an old pearling lugger but I have not been out with them. www.fallacruises.com.au/

Congratulations on your retirement plans. We did the same thing when we retired, a trip of a lifetime. One suggestion that I have is to stay at Villa Marine in Yorkey's Knob near Cairns. We were there for 10 days and loved the beautiful rainforest setting, only a few blocks from the ocean. The motel unit is modest, with a kitchen and a lovely verandah. The pool has a BBQ for preparing meals.

The best part of the stay was the friendly and helpful manager, Peter. He was full of tour suggestions and welcomed us with fresh mangoes and Daintree tea. We were able to use the laundry facilities and store our luggage when we took a 6 day trip to the Whitsundays.

We didn't rent a car but took the local bus into Cairns for the day. Peter gave us great advice about the tours to the reef, Daintree, Kuranda and Barron Falls. Coming home to the pool in such a beautiful setting was the best part of the day. You can walk or take the shuttle to the Yorkey's Knob Boat club for delicious seafood at a reasonable price.

We paid $99.00/night www.villamarine.com.au