Suggestions plz land plus cruise ?

We are at the early stages for a once in a life time trip possibly Feb./March 2018 and recently started feeling overwhelmed . Our interest are nature, amazing beaches, hiking and snorkeling . We will be 60 ish, planning for approx. 4 weeks total travel time but can extend if needed. Unfortunately I struggle big time with long flights but will manage for this one trip . What we have tentatively planned is wanting to spend a week exploring the south island N.Z by land probably at the beginning of the trip. If you were us how would you explore Australia ( want to stay on east coast ) ? Are there cruises that just sail along the coast if we fly over ? The idea of a short cruise in Australia sounds as if we could possibly see more and be more relaxing after our touring in NZ ?? After many months of reading and researching we realize we can only get a taste of these two wonderful countries and enjoy planning our own trips but do need some expert advice. Any suggestions would be so greatly appreciated.

What you need to decide is whether you want to take a cruise along the coast of Australia, just stopping for a few hours in any one place or whether you want to do a land trip which would allow you to stay several days in the same location. (I recommend self-guided as opposed to a group guided tour.) There is no right or wrong answer--just what works best for you considering your interests and travel style.

Having lived and traveled in Australia for several years and having taken my fair share of cruises (although not around Australia), I am somewhat doubtful that an East Coast cruise would allow you to do some of the things you mention to much of an extent, e.g. a 1-day stop in Cairns will not give you the time to do a snorkel tour with Wavelength out of Port Douglas (the best company for snorkel tours) or spend a day hiking and sightseeing in Daintree NP or hike and swim at Mossman Gorge or eat Breakfast with the Birds at the Wildlife Habitat, etc.

If you want to do a self-guided land tour along the East Coast , three weeks would be a good amount of time. I would probably start in the south and work my way north due to the weather. Look to spending 5-7 days in Tasmania, 4-5 days in Melbourne to include 2-3 days driving the Great Ocean Road, 4-5 days in Sydney to include a day trip to the Blue Mountains and 4-6 days in Port Douglas.

Thanks so much GradUT for taking the time to respond. Great suggestions, lots of planning and research ahead

Having been to both countries 3 (New Zealand ) and 4 (Australia ) times, for about 6 months total travel time, my first suggestion is to give up on the cruise idea.

Then, ideally, given your general travel ideas, spent 6 or 7 days on each New Zealand island, driving. Then, 2 weeks traveling in the Eastern side of Australia. Maybe 3 days in Sydney. 7 days or a little more Sydney - Brisbane -Great Barrier Reef. If you still have time, fly to Melbourne. JMHO.

As you mentioned, there really isn't enough time, as Australia is the size of the continental US.

Thanks Cruiser Bruce, I appreciated the honesty regarding land vs cruise touring on a cruise critic site. Exploring combining flying, driving and hotels gives us more flexibility when booking too. I was just thinking it may be less stress doing the cruise but now leaning towards your suggestions.

Driving New Zealand is the best way. I would give thought to train from Sydney to Brisbane, or fly further north to the true Great Barrier Reef, then drive back to Sydney through Brisbane.

Another option would be to fly into Christchurch NZ, drive down to Queenstown via Mt Cook, then fly to Auckland. Possibly also spend a few days exploring Auckland and surrounding areas - Waiheke Island, Waitomo Caves, possibly the Bay of Islands if the cruise doesn't go there, Coromandel Peninsula, Hobbiton if you're a LOTR fan. Then board a cruise around NZ and across to Australia. That way you will visit some of the NZ coastal towns plus, weather permitting, scenic cruising through Fiordland - Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound and Milford Sound, which are much harder to do when land touring in a limited time frame. We did a 12 night cruise on Celebrity Solstice from Auckland to Sydney (via Tasmania) which was great.

Spend a few days in Sydney - I highly recommend a trip up to the Blue Mountains either as a day trip or even an overnight trip, then fly to Cairns and get the shuttle to Port Douglas, it's about an hour from Cairns. Port Douglas is where Wavelength operates from and their reef trips are excellent as GradUT has already mentioned. Port Douglas is also closer to the Daintree than Cairns, and has the most gorgeous beach which is wonderful to walk along. Unlike other resort towns, there are no big buildings overlooking that beach so it appears unspoilt by "civilisation".

If you still have time you could then fly on to other Australian locations, such as Uluru.

Thank you OzKiwiiJJ, you have given us some great suggestions. We definitely would love some beach/ snorkel R&R at the end of this wonderful trip and I have lots to research about Port Douglas, Cairns etc. I have recently learned that our time frame Feb./March 2018 ( need to get away from our cold winter ) that we will be dealing with the most rainy season in Australia with possible cyclones and jelly fish...yuck. We would love to end our trip by relaxing on a gorgeous beach with an occasional snorkel trip and wondering if we should rethink those ideas since it is rainy season and the jelly fish ?

I'm fairly certain Wavelength will have stinger suits for you to wear when snorkelling the reef. Yes, it will be fairly hot and humid up in Port Douglas then but if you do NZ first you will be up there at the end of the rainy season so it shouldn't be too bad. It's worth going to, regardless. Port Douglas is one of my favourite places in Australia. We've spent several holidays there. I recommend this place to stay http://portdouglasmeridian.com/. It's adults-only resort apartments, no kids. Unit 2A is the best one, it's the single story one across the bridge in the picture of the pool. It gets the morning sun but is in shade in the afternoon. It's one block from the main shopping street, and two blocks from the beach.

Sydney usually has really nice weather in March. And it should be perfect in the Blue Mountains then. There are some amazing hikes in the Blue Mountains. There is also several in Sydney. One we always loved to do was The Spit to Manly, very scenic. Bondi to Bronte is also a nice, fairly short walk, or you can go further to Coogee.

I forgot to add in my earlier post, by doing the cruise back to Australia you'll get a couple of sea days to chill out after your NZ travels.

One option for the flight, if you're coming from the US, is to go via Fiji, where you could stopover for a night or so to break the journey. More opportunities to snorkel ;)

What about you the option of cruising one way, which will get rid of one of the long flights, and give you some relaxing cruise time. I did a cruise to Aukland, then a 10 day road trip on the North Island of NZ, which still wasn't enough time IMO. Then flew home.

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions....lots of decisions, feeling very fortunate as there is no wrong one , we just have to research and prioritize what will work best for our timing and finances. We are going to organize a couple different scenario's thanks to all your wonderful ideas. Possibly include as suggested a stop in Fiji or Cooks or even Hawaii to break up the long dreaded flight on return and maybe I can handle it outbound. What we have decided is we will start in NZ exploring on land and we want to end up relaxing on a glorious beach at the end of this once in a life time trip. Not to sure if we will incorporate the snorkeling if one must wear stinger suits. Your help as been greatly appreciated.

I would not let the fact that you have to wear a stinger suit keep you from snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. I have snorkeled at the GBR many times and because we always go in the Australian winter, we wear wetsuits when we snorkel. I have never felt constricted by the wetsuit and a stinger suit is even less restrictive. Besides, the GBR is a World Heritage Site for a very good reason. It will actually spoil you for snorkeling in any other place because it simply is that good.

I second GradUT's comment. Don't let the stinger suits put you off experiencing the GBR, especially if you can do a trip out with Wavelength. The reefs they visit, and the limited numbers on their boats, make it a very special experience.

I have only snorkeled 2x so really a newbie at it. When I originally read about stinger suits, deadly jelly fish, cyclone season I thought hmmm we will not even attempt going to up north to the GB reef. So glad we have 2 years to plan as you both have given us lots to think about. Your suggestions are so appreciated.

I hadn't done much snorkelling for quite some time when I did the Wavelength trip. Because the group is relatively small they keep a good eye on you in the water, and you can use a noodle for extra support. There is usually one crew member in the water and others watching from the boat.

I have only snorkeled 2x so really a newbie at it. When I originally read about stinger suits, deadly jelly fish, cyclone season I thought hmmm we will not even attempt going to up north to the GB reef. So glad we have 2 years to plan as you both have given us lots to think about. Your suggestions are so appreciated.

The thing about cyclone season is that outside of the actual cyclones the weather is usually quite good. Especially in the mornings. In winter it can tend to get very windy and unpleasant offshore.

Another thing to remember about stingers is that their natural habitat is the inshore waters, they are much rarer offshore. However, you'd need to decide on your own risks.

This is excellent guidance. We just got back from exactly this sort of trip. The drive from Chirstchurch to Queenstown via Mt Cook was amazing. We then flew back to Auckland and went north for a few days near Waipu for beach and a cave (glow worms). We then boarded the Noordam for a cruise down the NZ east coast onto Hobart, Melbourne and ended with a few days in Sydney. This took four weeks in March.

We had separately a few years before traveled around Australia to visit Sydney, Cairns and Darwin (late May). That was a two week trip. You could combine these if you had the time and funds. The issue will be if you want to go north the weather is better at opposite times.

Another option would be to fly into Christchurch NZ, drive down to Queenstown via Mt Cook, then fly to Auckland. Possibly also spend a few days exploring Auckland and surrounding areas - Waiheke Island, Waitomo Caves, possibly the Bay of Islands if the cruise doesn't go there, Coromandel Peninsula, Hobbiton if you're a LOTR fan. Then board a cruise around NZ and across to Australia. That way you will visit some of the NZ coastal towns plus, weather permitting, scenic cruising through Fiordland - Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound and Milford Sound, which are much harder to do when land touring in a limited time frame. We did a 12 night cruise on Celebrity Solstice from Auckland to Sydney (via Tasmania) which was great.

 

Spend a few days in Sydney - I highly recommend a trip up to the Blue Mountains either as a day trip or even an overnight trip, then fly to Cairns and get the shuttle to Port Douglas, it's about an hour from Cairns. Port Douglas is where Wavelength operates from and their reef trips are excellent as GradUT has already mentioned. Port Douglas is also closer to the Daintree than Cairns, and has the most gorgeous beach which is wonderful to walk along. Unlike other resort towns, there are no big buildings overlooking that beach so it appears unspoilt by "civilisation".

 

If you still have time you could then fly on to other Australian locations, such as Uluru.

I tend to agree with OzKiwiJJ.

Or

Fly to Cairns, with a stop in Hawaii.

Do GBR, maybe Ayers Rock

Down to Sydney, include the Blue Mts the Zoo, maybe Canberra, cruise to Aukland, some land Time in NZ

Fly home

We found a great company that built land tours around our cruise. We're working with Paula Czarnik at Goway Travel and she's very knowledgeable about AU and NZ as she used to live here. We're on Holland America's Maasdam from Auckland to Sydney and she's included flights from the US as well as to the Cairns area for four days (with Great Barrier Reef and Daintree rainforest/Cape Tribulation tours), staying in Sydney a few days after the cruise (including a bridge climb and a day-long trip into the Blue Mountains), and staying in Auckland for a short while before the cruise (with tours there too). She's been really great to work with and we're thrilled to have "bookends" planned for our cruise.

Thank you everyone for all the great suggestions. We have decided to do NZ by land ( approx. 15 days ). We have 4 weeks total and trying to decide if we should go to Australia and squeeze in Sydney and GBR staying in PD or somewhere up north . Is it worth it being rainy wet, cyclone, stinger season or should we save for another trip when we can focus just on Australia. If we don't do Australia then after NZ we will stop at Fiji or the Cook Islands to relax and break up the trip. Thank goodness we are starting the planning almost 2 years away. The first 15 days planned and now for the rest of the trip. All your thoughts have been so appreciated

Another option if you can have the extra time.

1. Fly non stop from West Coast to AKL.

2. Tour NZ ending up in Queenstown.

3. Fly non-stop from Queenstown to SYD.

4. Tour East coast Aus.

5. Cruise back to West Coast on a repositioning cruise;

Celebrity, RCCL , HAL , Princess. (espc if any go via Tahiti)

They normally leave Aus in March / Apr.