Australia and New Zealand 2009 Trip Summary

The famous Sydney Opera House view from the bridge - Sydney Australia
Australian Beach
View of The Remarkables and Queenstown below
Canyoning, New Zealand
Kristina skydiving, Queenstown New Zealand
Spencer under a waterfall - Canyoning New Zealand

QUICK NOTE

People always ask if we’ve been to Australia or New Zealand. The answer is “Yes!”, BUT…..it was a long time ago. We made the trip before this website was even an inkling of an idea. Here’s the summary of our trip, but take it with a grain of salt…any new travel here would benefit from lots of fresh research.

TRIP DETAILS

Trip length (including travel days) - 19 days

Time of year - late Nov - early Dec

Countries visited - Australia & New Zealand

Cities/Locations visited and time in each:

  • Sydney (Australia) - 3 nights

  • Cairns (Australia) - 3 nights

  • Queenstown (New Zealand) - 3 nights

  • Franz Josef (New Zealand) - 1 nights

  • Marahau (Abel Tasman National Park) (New Zealand) - 1 night

  • Taupo (New Zealand) - 3 nights

  • Auckland (New Zealand) - 2 nights

PATH WE TOOK

Fly from Denver thru California to Sydney

Walk in/around Sydney

Fly from Sydney to Cairns

Rental Car in Cairns

Fly from Cairns to Sydney and early the next morning, fly Sydney to Queenstown

Rental Car in Queenstown and drove all the way up to Auckland

Fly from from Auckland thru California (can’t recall the city) to Denver

HIGHLIGHTS

Our highlights from the trip were scuba diving and snorkeling the great barrier reef off the coast of Cairns, and sky diving in New Zealand.

We got to visit both Australia and New Zealand during this trip. Due to the lengthy travel times required to get get there, we knew we didn’t want to leave feeling like we needed another trip just to see the other country!

We loved our time in Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef scuba dives we completed there. Since our visit, they experienced significant coral bleaching AND a significant Cyclone however I wouldn’t hesitate to do some research and go back again!

Our favorite town in New Zealand was Queenstown - where we went skydiving, canyoning, and took a scenic flight in a TINY airplane to the Milford Sound which Rudyard Kipling once called “the eighth wonder of the world”!

OUR NOT-SO-FAVORITE THING

This was a BUSY trip with lots of driving while in New Zealand. In fact…this was back in the day of CD’s, of which we had ONE. A multi-disk compilation of Johnny Cash songs. We new the words to EVERY SONG by the end of that road trip!