Another Australia Thread!

Smurf71

Hi all,

Myself and my wife are visting Oz and Nz for just over 6 weeks at the end of the year (21st Nov-5th Jan) for our belated honeymoon.

We've booked the flights in such a way that we'll be able to spend 8 days around Brisbane and the Gold Coast, before we fly out for a 2 week holiday in New Zealand. We then fly from ChristChurch into Melbourne for 8 days in which we plan to do some of the Great Ocean Road,as well as drive from Melbourne into Sydney for Christmas and New Years. We then fly home on the 3rd Jan.

Just wondering if people could help me with some specific questions:

1. For touring about in the Gold Coast area, would Surfers Paradise be a good base to do the day trips and touring from? Or should we just hop into the car and explore the various towns and beaches i.e. Byron Bay?

2. How long would it take you to drive from Melbourne to Sydney, taking it a leisurely pace along the coast (3, 4 or 5 days?)

3. Can the Ocean Road trip be done in 2 days i.e Melbourne to Port Fairy for the night and back again? Or should we look to extend it.

4. Are we better booking the accomodation now? We've been advised that its a particular busy time of the year then and we should pre-book as much as possible regarding accom. Have already secured accomodation in Sydney for Xmas and New Year.

I've searched the forum and have seen all the previous tips and must sees that people have suggested-this has been brilliant for research! If anybody else has any advice to offer, please feel free to do so. All advice is greatly appreciated!

Cheers!:T

RedCanadaHat

1. Gold coast sucks (in my opinion) Go to the Sunshine Coast. much quieter and more beautiful. you'll be going around Schoolies Week which is the Aussie version of 'Spring Break' and the goldcoast will be PACKED with underage drunk kids. Best bet would be to stay either south of the GC (like coolangatta) and take a day trip there. There is not much at the GC cept for the beach and tourist shopping.

2. Melb to Syd would take you about 10 hours I expect. you can do it nicely in around 3 days.

3. I don't know the answer to that! I'm a Queenslander!

4. Book accomodation through Aussie Flight Centre if you can (yes they do accomodation as well as flights) I got a sweet deal with them - 2 weeks in Palm Cove for the price of 1.

hope this helps out a little. sorry for poor grammar/no capitals...i'm just about to head out.

Smurf71

RedCanadaHat wrote: »

hope this helps out a little. sorry for poor grammar/no capitals...i'm just about to head out.

Not at all-many thanks for this!!:T

Incapuppy

I have no advice - I just wanted to say lucky you!!!! I hope you have a fantastic time :j

mrposhman

You may be better to book a tour along the Great Ocean Road. Its a fantastic drive and you will lose out on some of this through driving.

Not only that, on the one we went on, we went along the Great Ocean Road for a day (didn't go all the way to Port Fairy) but followed past the 12 apostles, London Bridge etc before moving inland. We stayed in the Grampians for a night and were taken out at ablout 10.30pm by our guide to see kangaroos in the wild as they come down from the mountains at night for a feed (and a bit of a boxing match :D ). We were even treated to our guide chasing after the daddy kangaroo to try and get him to cover over to us so that we could see the big ones up close.

On the second day, we made our way back towards Melbourne, stopping off at Bests winery where we had a full tour of the winery and could then go on and taste the wines before we decided to buy some.

It was a truly memorable trip with the option of going up in a helicopter over the 12 apostles which was awesome.

We went with Wildlife Tours (I think thats what they were called) and had Bill as our tour guide who was awesome and even looked like Paul Hogan so had our very own Crocodile Dundee.

You can obviously drive yourself if you wish but you may miss out on some parts of the trip.

Not sure about the others as I haven't done the rest.

mrposhman

Oh and if you are going to Melbourne, check out whether its the right time of year to see the penguins at Phillip Island (I'm not sure if this is an all year thing) as that was interesting watching them come home at dusk. You can visit animal sanctuaries along the way where you can feed kangaroos, wallabies and see dingos, emus, koalas, etc

richardw

Don't forget Hanging Rock near Melbourne. Mirandaaah!

http://www.find-dvd.co.uk/dvd/Picnic-At-Hanging-Rock/1082595.htm

ceejayblue

We have relatives in Brisbane and its a great place, take a trip up the river on a Sea Cat, Byron Bay is great, Surfers Paradise is OK, take a trip to Double Island Point - 15km stretch of beach used as a road! Fantastic.

We also went to Australia Zoo, and Sea World, good fun and lots to see. There are lots of other places along the coast, Noosa, Maloolaba (Sp?). Don't forget to go to the beach in the city at Brisbane its great.

You'll have a fantastic time.

Horace

See if you can take a trip from Melbourne to Ballarat - this is inland a bit and has an old town called Sovereign Hill where you can pan for gold. I stayed in the Melbourne Travelodge and it was comfortable and clean (with cooking facilities in the room) - breakfast was on a honesty box basis.

Melbourne to Sydney can be done in around 10 hours. Melbourne has some nice sites and if you can, make a trip to the city gaol where Ned Kelly was held.

One place to visit if you can (you can stay for a few nights) is near Canberra called Avalanche. Its a ranch which is just fab and the hosts Frank & Faye Biddle are just fantastic. http://www.avalanchehomestead.com.au/homestead.html

(Canberra is on the way to Sydney).

Bob_the_Saver

One tip, Car/camper hire in Oz seems to run by the day or part thereof. 10am monday to 9am next monday always seems to be 8 days.

duncans_mum

Stay for two nights en route from Mel to Adelaide, definately go to Warnambool, we stayed at Beechwood luxury apatrments, if theres just the two of you, they lock the bedrooms off and charge you less about 140 dollars for the night but it has everything and is near to both the town and the fantastic beach.
Do book as soon as possible, its rare that they reduce prices as things do get booked up quick.
also try
www.standbyrelocations.com
you book your veh (usually campers) and they charge a dollar to five a day and reimburse your petrol (they just want to get vehicles back to major cities)