Expert: Mick Maurer - 4/7/2008

Question
Hi,
My husband will have some breaks between selling his business and starting a new job.  We live in Boston and are planning to start with a week in Hawaii.  We would then like to spend approximately 3 weeks seeing Australia and New Zealand.  We are avid golfers and would like to play some golf, go to some wineries and do some water activities.  I am overwhelmed at the thought of planning an itinerary.  Our son just spent a semester at the Univ. of Queensland and was sorry he didn't spend more time in New Zealdand.  Thanks so much for your input

Answer
Holly:
As Australia is about the same size as the US and New Zealand the size of Colorado, but narrow and long, most people find the tremendous number of choices of places to visit and very unique things to do overwhelming when trying to decide on a reasonable itinerary.
Three weeks to see both countries is pretty tough to accomplish without just skimming the surface.  You need to remember that every time you move between major cities or areas in Australia, because of the distances, you use up almost a full day of your available time. Add in a day of golf here, an overnight trip to the wine country and a day snorkeling and you can see your time disappears fast.  Both Australia and New Zealand have some wonderful golf opportunities.  I have had several clients visit just to play and they came home raving at how nice the courses were, the costs and how well they were treated. For water activities, you will need to visit Cairns in Northern Australia for the Great Barrier Reef snorkeling or diving or some white water rafting. Sydney and the Brisbane area have very nice beaches and the Great Ocean Road out of Melbourne has some great little surfing towns as well as a golf course where you will find Kangaroos feeding around the greens.
Both Sydney and Melbourne are near some major wine area's, there is even a wine tour to the Yarra Valley that transports you in a vintage 57 Chev convertable.  
Without knowing your budget, major interests and the things you absolutely must see (like Ayers Rock or Tasmania), I would start with a plan for about 9 days in New Zealand, and 4 days each in Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns.  
The best way to really get the most out of your time and money is to enlist the services of a Travel Agent whom is both a Kiwi (New Zealand) and Aussie Specialist and has personally visited both countries numerous times.  I quality, but if you would prefer finding someone on your own, send a followup question and I will get you a resource where you can do that.  Email directly if you would like to see if we can work together.

Mick Maurer
Aussiemick@aol.com