jersey1977

After some research and reading I am thinking this to be the initial itinerary for our trip 21 night trip in December 2008/January 2009.

OZ - 11 nights
Sydney 2 nights
- Just the 1 day for a city tour; such is life...
Cairns Area - 5 nights w/ car rental
- 1 day Daintree Lizard Island Tour
- 1 day Raintree Rainforest Tour w/ Pete Baxendell
- 1 day Tablelands Tour w/ Alan Gillanders
Tasmania - 4 nights w/ car rental
- 2 nights Cradle Mountain
- 1 night Freycinet
- 1 night Hobart

New Zealand - 10 nights, SI only with car rental
Christchurch - 2 nights
Fox/Franz Joseph Glacier area - 2 nights
Queenstown - 2 nights
Te Anau - 1 night
Doubtful Sound Overnight Cruise - 1 night
Mount Cook area - 1 night
Christchurch - 1 night

Again, this is pretty darn rough at the moment, but looking for any suggestions for improvement. I was loathe to give up the NI but perhaps that will be another trip in the future.

Finally, any suggestions on the best order for the trip? Should it go Sydney-Cairns-Tas-NZ or is there a more logical order I am missing?

Thanks in advance!

jersey1977

For clarity, note the 2 corrects to the above itinerary...

- 1 day Daintree Air Lizard Island Tour
- 1 day Daintree Rainforest Tour w/ Pete Baxendell

Thanks!

kimbobb

So far, NZ part looks fine. We'll see what happens once you start planning each day out!

Enjoy the logistics - it's much more fun when you have a great forum to work with.

Melnq8

Hi jersey -

Glad to see you decided on only one island of NZ this go round. As I'm sure you discovered, it's difficult enough figuring out how to spread out 10 nights on one island, let alone two.

Your NZ itinerary looks good to me. Your longest drive days will be from the glaciers to Queenstown (get an early start - lots of photo ops and short hikes along the way) and from Te Anau/Manapouri to Mt Cook.

For TAS, did you decide to fly into Launceston and fly out of Hobart? If so, I think your itinerary there looks possible, but you'll have very little time to see the areas you're planning to visit. Keep in mind travel distances too -

http://www.rentforless.com.au/distances.htm

jersey1977

Melnq8,

Yes, we will fly into Launceston and fly out of Hobart. I know its going to be a stretch time-wise but I dont have any more days to give to the area as we only have 21 nights overall and we really want to see TAS on this trip.

If you have any suggestions on how to lessen the time-crunch, please advise.

Thanks,
Michael