Heading to the east coast of Oz next year around September(ish) for 3 weeks, would also like to see NZ and maybe a stop-off in Hong Kong. Will probably end up flying about a bit internally as well as got friends on the Gold Coast and want to see the reef, Sydney, and Melbourne.

Is it realistic to try and do NZ and HK as well as all the Oz travel? Or better doing one or the other?
When is best to book or does it not really matter?
Planning on just going into a travel agent and getting them to sort all the flights out, does that seem sensible? Or is it (much) cheaper to organise yourself?

Heading to the east coast of Oz next year around September(ish) for 3 weeks

I’m sure we’ll all get to read about it

Click your heels

There’s no place like home and away, there’s no place like home and away…

Focus on Oz and ignore NZ, you can’t do both without some severe compromises in 3 weeks. You can see HK as a stop over, 1 or 2 nights at either (or both) end of the trip.

I’d book the flights and sort the rest out all myself personally, if you’re moving around a lot most travel agents will struggle to deal with that. You can get the same flight prices most agents can anyway.

With only three weeks, I would limit your travel days as much as possible.

Try and get an “open-jaw” ticket – e.g. fly into Melbourne & out of Brisbane or Cairns.

If you’re up by Cairns for the reef, having the faff of getting back to Melbourne or Sydney (3 hr flight) will be a pita.

I think you are stretching it a bit to do multiple locations in Oz, NZ and HK all in 3 weeks.

Best to factor in a day or so to recover when you arrive although if you stopover in HK on the way this will help.

Don’t underestimate how long it takes to get around, it’s a huge country. Internal flights can be pretty cheap though so flying about is not too bad.

The last few times we flew to Oz we used the same travel agent and every time they either got us a better deal on flights or better flight times/stop overs. I dont think I would bother trying to do it myself any more.

Weather in NSW/QLD should be pretty nice, but Melbourne could be anything from spring-like to freezing and wet!

Sounds apt – there’s a good chance my girlfriend will kill someone after getting off a flight that long!

Focus on Oz and ignore NZ, you can’t do both without some severe compromises in 3 weeks

This was my initial thought too, but I’ve been over before for 6 weeks so have done most of the east coast, but girlfriend hasn’t. So trying to convince myself it’s do-able! Would be a shame to go all that way again and not see anything new.

Just in case you get some time to yourself….

http://www.trailmate.com.au

ed, you could always sack Oz off completely and just go to NZ, a superior country IMO. May annoy the relatives in Oz mind you, but as they’re 10k miles away most of the time that may not be the worst thing in the world.

Just in case you get some time to yourself….

http://www.trailmate.com.au

I can probably swing 1 or 2 days to ride without the missus, fancy Roturoa if we can get over to NZ.

ed, you could always sack Oz off completely and just go to NZ, a superior country IMO. May annoy the relatives in Oz mind you

Don’t think that would fly with the girlfriend! Plus it’s good friends in Oz and haven’t seen them in ~6 years so would hate to miss that. Just a pity they’re moving from Melbourne to the Gold Coast as I hadn’t really wanted to go there – didn’t think much of it last time.

If you’ve done the east coast why not just consider NZ? I went there en route to Rarotonga and was really impressed. After living in Australia for a year it seemed a more diverse place and a bit less brash and a bit more artistic. Plus it seemed a good bit cheaper.
If you go to Aus, I’d aim for Brisbane and hire car down to Byron Bay and then fly/train to Port Douglas. Melbourne and Sydney, I fear, never really did it for me (apart from the St Kilda hotel, obv).

I fly to NZ a lot, and never understand why people want to do a “stopover” its just the travel industry trying to get more money out of you and the airlines padding the prices. And even worse, you get jetlag twice each way, once is bad enough, and kills at least a day of your holiday each way. Waste of time, just go straight through. To New Zealand.

I prefer a direct bounce route, stopping at either HKG or SIN, if possible, long enough to stretch the legs, have a shower, then back on board for the last bit. Longer stopovers only happen if work dictates it as a necessity.
Also, whoever you fly with, and whatever end of the plane, SeatGuru is your friend!

I think you’ll struggle to squeeze in NZ too. That deserves a three weeks of its own! (Some good fares about at the moment for both countries…)

I’m not massively bothered about HK tbh, but friends and family who’ve been have raved about it. Think I’ll have to sit down with the gf and decide what we definitely want to do and what we’d be prepared to give up! Might also speak to HR and see how pissed off they’d be if I tried to take a month off…

HK is OK but I would heed others advice and just get to your destination as quickly as possible if you only have 3 weeks….. and that destination should be NZ.

Fly to Perth, camper van up to Ningaloo reef (much more fun/accessible than barrier) and back down to margarets river. East coast sucks in comparison 😉 though Melbourne is lovely