glover

Still finalizing our 2 month itinerary for NZ and Australia. Now that we removed Kaikoura from our NZ Half, we have 3 days open to use in Australia. We are considering adding one of these locations:
Daintree, Blue Mountains, or Adelaide.

Question at the moment as we review pros and cons of each: The Daintree/cape tribulation area is large. We have spent lots of time in rainforest in South and Central America and Asia as independent travelers enjoying wildlife, esp birds, but plant life as well.

What would be posters' advice about which area to base and concentrate on in that area? There appears to be a lot of confusion out there about the various areas, for example what actually constitutes "the oldest rainforest in the world".

crellston

Hi Glover,
I haven't been to Adelaide but have visited Daintree/Cape Tribulation and the Blue Mountains. We rented a car to drive up the former. I don't recall seeing too many animals but the plant life was pretty impressive ( many familiar wild specimens of common house plants ) although not as dense or as imposing as in SA or Malaysia and Indonesia. I always thought that the title of oldest rainforest had been awarded to Tasman Negara?

We visited the Blue Mountains on a family trip in 2015, renting a house and driving out and taking day hikes from there. Really enjoyed it. Plenty of bird life but it was the scenery which really impressed.

I don't know if it fits in with your plans but Kakadu and Katherine might be worth a look. Some photos on our old blog from 2008 @ https://accidentalnomads.com

FromDC

We really enjoyed Daintree because we got to go the Great Barrier Reef without crowds AND we saw cassowaries strutting around. The scenery is really beautiful, we've been to the Danum Valley, but it had a very different feel. We had 5 nights in the area, 3 in Daintree and 2 in the Tablelands.

Diamantina

I'm a little confused. You wrote, "We are considering adding one of these locations: Daintree, Blue Mountains, or Adelaide." Do you mean adding three days for Daintree/Cape Tribulation in addition to the 4 days for Cairns as previously posted on your itinerary? You already planned on 2 days for Adelaide, so would you add three more days to see Adelaide and the surrounding wine areas (for a total of 5 days in Adelaide), in addition to the 2 nights on Kangaroo Island? 3 days for Blue Mountains in addition to 5 nights in Sydney? Is this correct?

This is the itinerary you posted before:
"Australia (based on South Island alternative)
4/4 – Cairns (4)
4/8 – Ayers Rock (3)
4/11 – Adelaide (2)
4/13 – Kangaroo Island (2)
4/15 – Melbourne (3)
4/18 – Hobart/Tasmania (5)
4/23 – Sydney (5)
4/28 – Home"

Without knowing what you'll be doing with your four days in Cairns, I'd say add 3 days to Daintree/Cape Tribulation to enjoy the diversity of the fauna and flora of the tropical wet Queensland rainforest.

Do you plan to visit Kuranda and the Atherton Tablelands? See:
http://www.athertontablelands.com.au...ding-wildlife/

When my husband and I visited Tropical North Queensland, we spent three nights at a lodge in Cape Tribulation, surrounded by rainforest sounds, sights and scents. We used one of our days there to visit Mossman Gorge in the southern part of Daintree. For us, it wasn't enough time for this region. We'd hoped to revisit the region last year, but didn't. We also spent two or three nights in Cairns, and two nights/three days on a boat on the GBR.

According to an article in The Australian, the Daintree rainforest is 180 million years old and covers 1200 sqkm between Mossman Gorge and the Bloomfield River. The article goes on to say that it's Australia's largest continuous rainforest area.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life...fe16d8a344e2a3

Part of the Daintree rainforest in protected by the Daintree National Park, of which there are two sections: Mossman Gorge and Cape Tribulation.
See:
https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/daintree/
Map showing the localities:
https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/da...cality-map.pdf

This is a link to a map of IBAs (important bird areas) in Australia (then click on drop down link for Queensland):
http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/...areas/iba-maps

Malaysia's Taman Negara is the world's oldest deciduous rainforest, according to Wikipedia (no source referenced). it's believed to be more than 130 million years old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Negara

Both rainforests date back to the Mesozoic Era!

You also wrote in your previous post, "We're two retired active well traveled couples - interests: culture, nature, food, wine, birds. . . . . " Has anything changed since then? Will it still be the four of you? As I recall, the other couple were not as interested in birding.

If the other couple is more interested in wine tasting than exploring the fauna and flora of the rainforest, you might add one of your three days to Adelaide, as there are so many excellent wine regions here. See:
https://www.winesociety.com.au/wine-...ian-regions-sa