Jacs

In terms of your earlier query about doing both the GBR and the hobbit tour, if you want to include a cruise in there then I would suggest flying to Cairns in Australia and spending a few days there at the start of the holiday to see the GBR and rainforest area, then fly down to Sydney and get a cruise around NZ. There are some That will do 1 way and end in Auckland where you could fly home, or they do a round trip back to Australia and you depart at Sydney. The Hobbiton film set is closest to the Tauranga port stop, we hired a car from a local hire place and drove their ourselves, took about an hour. There are also usually ship tours that will do it as well. You can get to it from Auckland as well, but it’s a further drive than from Tauranga.

You might not be realizing the distances involved here. NZ isn’t just a quick puddle jump away, it’s more than a 3 hour flight and with a 2 hour time difference, flying there takes half the day away. It won’t be a quick side trip from Sydney.

Can I get tour or snorkle trip to GBR from Sydney

The GBR is a 3 hour flight away from Sydney. It actually runs for nearly 2500km along the coast of australia but the most convenient location to access it is from Cairns, which takes about 3 hours to fly to from Sydney. But you can fly to Cairns airport, stay there for a few days and do a day trip out to the reef and maybe also a trip to the Daintree Rainforest or up to Kuranda to make the most of the trip. If you fly to just spend 1 day snorkeling it might not feel worthwhile.

Be aware that you are not snorkeling off a beach on the mainland. The reef is a barrier reef (hence the name), so it situated about 90 minutes by boat off the coast. Some of the tours will visit multiple spots on the reef and you swim off the boat, others go to a fixed pontoon and you snorkel in a roped off area of the reef. These ones have more people on each tour but also offer other things such as glass bottom boats, underwater viewing platforms, buffet lunch and change rooms etc so may be more convenient.

These trips tend to be all day due to the time it takes to get to the reef. They leave around 9am and get back in about 4.30. Because of the flight times it’s not really possible to do this in one day, you need need to spend 2 nights in Cairns at a minimum, as you need to fly in the night before the reef tour and can’t fly out again the next morning, as you get back too late to get the last flight back to Sydney.

The walk is indeed strenuous, it's a steep slope with natural stairs, then a slower incline back down again with a few rocky outcrops you need to step down. In saying that though I did it at 12 weeks pregnant and incredibly unfit, I just needed to take lots of breaks :) If you can't do the walk you need to go all the way back through the caves. The walk through the caves is on a boardwalk but there are multiple steps up and down which is why it's not wheelchair accessible.

A couple of years ago Sydney harbour was closed and ships were stuck outside for a couple of days as the weather was too dangerous for them to enter. I think that was in March or April? I book domestic flights for the same day but I never book international ones, I prefer a days buffer at least for them, but I usually just extend my holiday by a few days, there's always something new to see even if you've been there before :)

Even though it's so close for us I didn't travel to NZ until my 30's. My first overseas trip was to Thailand when I was 24 I think, then followed up with a Europe rail adventure, USA then our first cruise which was in the Med visiting Egypt, Israel, Greece and Italy.

But NZ is a great location for young travelers, lots of fun activities. I think for Aussies though South East Asia and Europe are the destinations of choice for the 20 something crowd, NZ is seen as something you can do any time at any age so it's put on the back burner unless you're a skier and then it's cheaper then doing it here in OZ :)

we did this when we were in Tauranga, we hired from rite price rentals and they had a shuttle bus that took us to the depot. The drive was scenic enough, and we stopped at a waterfall on the way home. We didn't end up stopping at any thermal areas as we were exhausted after Hobbiton but we would have had the time for a quick look.

I too have heard that it's the vegemite consumption that makes a huge difference to attack numbers on locals vs tourists. I grew up in a bush setting and was taught from a young age to put a dab of it behind my ears when on a bush walk to deter them, until my bodies vegemite levels had increased enough. Now as an adult I don't need to, eating it weekly is enough to avoid an attack.

Thought damper might be a bit complex, used to lave making the dough, wrap it around a sick, cook it, pull out the stick so you have a hollow cone of damper, fill that with syrup.

 

 

Yummy.

This brings back childhood memories of camping, is kids hunting around for the perfect thick damper stick and meticulously wrapping the damper so there wasn't any holes for the golden syrup to drip out of.

On a similar note, what about golden syrup dumplings with thick cream on top?

I can't believe no ones mentioned chocolate ripple cake for dessert! Should be easy enough to find a cookie to use in the US, some whipped cream and bingo. Although I think it's essentially the same as a refrigerator cake (I think that's what you call it in the US?)

We did a NZ cruise in December so similar weather,bathe sounds I wore long pants, warm coat and scarf, but the rest of the stops I was in a tshirt as it was quite warm. I had a cardigan to layer up with but only used it when inside some places and walking through caves and forest that were cool.

Quite different today. DH hopped on a flight to London last night for work and it will take 24 hours with a quick stop over in Dubai, then he turns around and comes home again on Friday. When he was a kid they went to Europe for a holiday and in the 80's that required a stop in the Phillipines, Pakistan & Germany before reaching the UK.

Although it's a lot better than when my Mother moved to the UK as a child which was 6 weeks by ship, her fathers company paid for him to fly but the wife and kids had to go by boat!

Well being in the Southern Hemisphere our seasons are opposite, so Spring and Summer are from Sept-Feb. But the thing to remember for Australia is that only the southern states have 4 seasons, the northern 3rd of the country is tropical climate so they have Wet/Dry season, with Summer months being the wet season with chances of Cyclones (Hurricaines). It's pretty weather similar to Florida in Summer. So for visiting the Great Barrier Reef for example, June to August is the best time, but it cold and wet down south then. If you're wanting to visit all over, you will find the shoulder seasons the best balance, personally I love October. If you're doing this over a couple of months, follow the weather, the first half of the year travel south to north, second half of the year to north to south.

If you're wanting to do a cruise back to Hawaii, they leave around late April, and they return in October. In the winter months there is only the local cruise lines of P&O, Carnival Australia and Princess Australia. During the cruise season you have RCI and Celebrity here also.

We did a tour there with ABC shuttles, they have a few different options from just going to the caves and back to siteseeing around the whole area. The minibus was a bit shabby but it cost about $30 a person with 12 of us for a full day tour.

Another option could be to fly to Queenstown for the 4 days, this way you get to experience the famous mountain scenery. We did this after a round NZ cruise and it was nice to see the center of the country for a little bit. You could turn fly to Auckland for a flight home.

Hello! I know you from another forum ;)

In the wild if you're lucky enough to find one all you're likely to see is a grey lump high up in a tree, they sleep all day in the forks of the trees so you don't see much. Our nature parks are very good, very natural settings for the animals but it allows them to be in a situation where you can actually see them properly.

Bookings need to be made in the name that is on the passport. I never changed my passport when I got married and 7 years on I still travel on my maiden name. We just book all tickets and hotels with my maiden name to avoid any issues.

We did it on Celebrity Solstice in Dec, ended up with a deck 6 partially obstructed, which on that ship meant that the top of the lifeboat was In line with the floor of the balcony. So I couldn't look straight down into the ocean but I still had a full view out and up. It was a great saving and we didn't find the lifeboat an issue. Plus it was good only being one floor up from the main public areas.

Looove vegemite! I always see tourists trying it with a spoon and I think no wonder you don't like it, it tastes gross on its own lol. I was at the height of morning sickness on our Dec cruise and all I wanted for breakfast each day was vegemite on hot buttered toast. Thank goodness Celebrity had it in single serves on the breakfast table lol. But you only spread it very thinly, like a smear, and you need butter on the toast too. I also like it on Crumpets or on Crackers, and in a crusty bread roll, but I don't like it on a sandwich lol. I think I just like it with a crunchy textured bread :)

We did 2 private tours in NZ, in Dunedin and Bay of islands. We were not intending on tipping either due to our tipping cultures, but we did end up giving the Dunedin tour guide an extra $20 to round it up to an even figure, as he had bought the bus a case of beer to try and also a cheese platter at a dairy to sample, out of his own pocket. I saw it more as reimbursing him what he paid and a bit of a thanks for doing it, rather than a tip just because he was a tour guide. The bay of islands guy we gave nothing to, he did a good job but that's what we had paid him to do in the first place.

I went out to dinner on Saturdah night to one of the nicer restaurants in Melbourne. When we paid by card the waitress pointed out that the machine had a spot to leave a tip if we would like to. We paid the bill and did not leave a tip, and I really dislike that places are encouraging diners to pay one. At $100 a head with no alcohol, they were paid plenty in the first place.

Noon should be fine unless the ship is late. I usually fly down to Melbourne same day and book for around noon, and I'm always waiting around for at least an hour, sometimes 2.

It's pretty similar. Around NZ it was easy to find a cafe with wifi where you could get access while having lunch, plus places like Dunedin actually have free wifi zones in the city center. Dunedin also had it available it the dock. Australia is the same, just find a cafe advertising free wifi with purchase, or McDonald's all have free wifi.

I would fly into Melbourne, so much easier to transfer from International to Domestic, and generally less busy than Sydney. With the meds, they're also changed the incoming passenger cars wording in the last couple of years, and now only asks you to declare any controlled substances. For instance I declared the steroids and opiate pain killers I had, and they had a quick look and waved me through.

We recently took our 2 year old GD to Disneyland (the original one in SoCal). I mention this because A) it was amazing just how much she enjoyed it, and B) there's no charge for kids under 3. That's hundreds of dollars saved on a 3-5 day "park hopper" pass. In fact, the only extra kid cost is the food and airfare (you'd pay for on a cruise as well).

 

Just a thought.

Except it would cost around $6000 just to fly to California, then you still have all the holiday costs. Not exactly a cheap holiday for an Australian ;)

Congrats on your pregnancy! I was 12 weeks when we did our 2 week cruise last month, also an IVF baby, our 6th cycle! We had booked the cruise before we fell, and I was a little nervous. We are Australians and the cruise was only to New Zealand, so we had 2 sea days to contend with but the rest of the cruise was never far from shore should something have happened, plus we are covered for health care there. If we were doing an Asia or Pacific cruise I probably would have cancelled.

My morning sickness didn't kick in until 12 weeks, so with a bit of added sea sickness I felt pretty ill most mornings. Having some food on hand to eat in he cabin before heading to breakfast helped. I could always find plenty to eat in the MDR, but struggled a bit in the buffet as I couldn't eat any of the salads, fruit, and didn't trust a lot of the hot stuff either as I had no idea how long it had been there for. I found all I ate from the buffet was cheese pizza, bread rolls, fries and pasta lol.

I was seriously missing fresh fruit but the end so ended up asking the waiter at breakfast if he could bring me an unpeeled banana and whole apple that I could then wash myself, as you can't trust the cut fruits. At dinner I would ask for a large plate of steamed veges to replace any salad that usually came with the meal. Everyone was really accomodating, except for one instance when I ordered a mocktail and got given an alcoholic drink instead. Took 2 sips and thought, this doesn't taste right and asked the waiter and yep, they had out alcohol in it because my package allowed it, even though I didn't ask for it :rolleyes: So after that I took to telling them I was pregnant when ordering a mocktail so they understood I didn't want alcohol for a reason!