Very preliminary plans for Oz in April
 

We'd like to visit our son's girlfriend in April. She lives in Orange.

I'm thinking two weeks is the minumum for such a long flight.

I'm thinking Sydney 3-4 days, then on to Orange. Luckily, places are pretty inexpensive there. We'll probably stay there a week or so. We can visit the Blue Mountains and some wineries from our home base there, plus there will be family visiting time. Anything we else we should visit as a day trip from Orange?

Where else should we go that is drivable? Is Canberra worth visiting, or should we try for Melbourne? How much time should we spend there?

Thanks in advance

Perhaps you would want to book the flight into Sydney and out of Melbourne? If you go to Melbourne, try to stay at least two days.

That sounds like a good plan. I know distances are much longer than they appear on a map. That's partly why I thought to limit the trip to SE Oz.

Any recommendations on must sees in Melbourne. Also, restaurant recommendations would also be appreciated.

There are some great day trips from Orange--Dubbo(Western Plains Zoo and Dubbo Gaol), Cowra (site of WWII POW camp) and Parkes (home of the Parkes Radio Telescope featured in the movie, "The Dish".)
I can highly recommend visiting Canberra, although this would not be a day trip. It's a lovely small city (as opposed to Melbourne which is a big city) with excellent museums--the Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Museum of Australia, Parliament House (uniquely set into a hill), Old Parliament House, Tidbinbilla Tracking Station, etc. All of these museums are free except for Old Parliament House which charges AUD 2.00. There are also wineries around Canberra, Namadgi National Park for hiking and wildlife, and many fine restaurants.

I was debating between Melbourne and Canberra and decided on Melbourne. I don't like to change hotels too often, I feel it wastes time. That's just my style of travel. I'd rather have three main bases (and probably and overnight near the airport the night before our flight.)

So I've got Sidney and Orange for sure. Which of the other two would you recommend?

Dubbo's a great place to spend a week.
I live in Dubb!

http://dubbo.org

Wayne