One Week Only: New Zealand Or Sydney

I'll ask this question on this board, but it involves a seven day extension of our Tahitian cruise in July, 2006..... Is that time better spent in Sydney, Aukland (north) or Christchurch (south) in July. Our first time to the south Pacific and would like some trip planning advise. After spending 2 - 3 days in either city we would like to see as much of the scenic countryside as possible with a rental car or train travel. Is travel restricted on the south island in July due to the winter conditions? Also are the sights in Australia too distant to enjoy during a limited seven day period?

Is that split of time what you really want to do? If you can only spare 2-3 days for whichever city you're starting in, Sydney is not the place. You really need 2 to 3 weeks for the city itself, and another week for neighbouring areas easily reachable from Sydney. That's before you go anywhere else in Australia. But if you could give Sydney a whole week, it would be a good start.

I'll ask this question on this board, but it involves a seven day extension of our Tahitian cruise in July, 2006..... Is that time better spent in Sydney, Aukland (north) or Christchurch (south) in July. Our first time to the south Pacific and would like some trip planning advise. After spending 2 - 3 days in either city we would like to see as much of the scenic countryside as possible with a rental car or train travel. Is travel restricted on the south island in July due to the winter conditions? Also are the sights in Australia too distant to enjoy during a limited seven day period?

Difficult choice.

Auckland itself, IMO, is not biggie. One or two days there is enough. Then you could drive to Rotorua and see many places in that area of the north island, including Napier as well as sites like the Glow Worm caves.

There's lots to see in Sydney. You could easily spend 3 or 4 days there and then drive to another area, such as the Blue Mountains (about a 3 hour drive) and spend a few days exploring that area.

Never been to Christchurch or south island so no opinion on that area.

In July I would opt to stay in Sydney and do as Jane suggests. There is not a lot to see in Auckland and I feel it would be quite cold and miserable to be driving around the North Island at that time of year. We did it in February a few years ago and even then the weather was not that warm.

The best time to see the South Island is in summer which is Jan/Feb. unless of course you are a skier and enjoy all the winter sports.

Sydney in July can be quite sunny and you can often fluke a mild day. There is so much to see there and you could easily fill in a week just sightseeing around the metropolitan area. After a few days you could go up to the Blue Mountains where it can be very cold and windy or to the Hunter Valley and sample some wine or even down south to the lovely Southern Highlands. There are some delightful places to stay around Bowral.

Remember you will be leaving lovely warm weather and coming into our winter from Tahiti. It will be a shock to the system after a 10 day or so cruise around those islands. Also it does take quite a few hours of flying to get to either Auckland or Sydney, around 8-10 hours or even longer if the plane happens to stop in the Cook Islands.

If it were me, I would stay longer in Tahiti or go to the Cook Islands for the week and come back to New Zealand and/or Australia in our summer time. I adored Tahiti and I would stay in Moorea or Bora Bora after your cruise. To me it was paradise.

Jennie