4 months in Oz and NZ, is that fair?

[canadianbunny]

g'day punks,
I'm working on planning my RTW trip, and it worked out that Oz and NZ would be squished into 4 months... I'm assuming 2 months in each country is fair. But will I do them justice?

I've been to Oz in 2007, but I traveled along the sunshine coast (Cairns - Sydney). I love Aussies, so I just have to go back!! Aus and NZ are the most expensive countries on my travels, so I'm looking into WWOOFING.

Would it be realistic to buy a crappy used car and try and drive around Aussie- say follow HWY 1 or something? Or is this a bad way to see Oz on a budget? I met some Americans last time I was there, and they had bought a used car to drive around Oz in. Can I give Oz justice in only 2 months?

As for New Zealand, I met one Kiwi in Oz, who was awesome- now I know NZ is much smaller then Oz, but has sooo much to see and do- is 2 months fair for NZ? I haven't been to NZ yet, but blackwater rafting, zorbing, bungee jumping, sheep... I must see it all!

Is the cheapest/only way to get from NZ to OZ by plane?

[mooloo]

Welcome to the boards!!

For your OZ > NZ query you could proberly somehow get a boat over but I imagine it would be a bit of a pain in the butt and you would be better off just flying - there have been some amazing deals at the moment, like $129 auckland > brisbane / sydney / melbourne in fact my flight from auckland to the gold coast was only $109 so you can definately get some bargains if you look around, check out jetstar & pacific blue as they tend to be the cheapest between the countries.

2 months is heaps of time for NZ - are you wanting to do both islands? You could prob do the north island in 2-3 weeks and spend the rest in the south island.

I'm not sure about the car thing in OZ since its such a huge country - plenty of people do it but i don't know if it would be worth it for 2 months or not, maybe someone from OZ can comment on this??

This would definately be viable in NZ as its so small, but we do have some really cheap bus deals so once again may not really be neccessary and may be better to just hire a car for a day here and there for those places the buses don't go to or where you want to explore more.

Check out nakedbus for NZ they often have $1 fares between places and when they're not $1 they are usually really reasonable and they're a relatively new company (3-4years?) so there buses look pretty good.

[canadianbunny]

sweet thanks so much!! and thanks for the welcome!!

Maybe I can push an extra week or 2 onto Oz then if NZ doesn't need tons of time. Do you know by any chance if NZ has car rentals where you can rent from one end of the country, and leave it in another part of the country? Otherwise the bus deal sounds much cheaper!!

[kiwichick]

2 months would be heaps of time for NZ, but it really depends on your style of travel. Im certain we have companies that will relocate cars for u, although i think it can be hard getting a rental car if your under 21 or 25 or something here maybe? Amanda and I are both from NZ and between us we have seen and done alot of it i imagine, so if you have any specific questions feel welcome to ask

[mooloo]

We must have relocate companies although it would depend what direction you go eg north to south or south to north as i have a feeling i have read that there is a lot more demand one way.

I did a quick search for 'one way car rentals' on google.co.nz and chose the first site I found and did a pick up at auckland airport drop off at christchurch airport and the prices ranged from $18-$55 per day the $18 being a small hatchback vehicle and the $55 being a 10 seater van so that may help you out on the pricing for rentals.

Rent a dent rents to under 21's with no difference in price only the excess if you have an accident which 'touch wood' won't happen!

I would still think that busing would be the cheaper option overall and just renting a car for a day here and there (eg on the Otago Peninsula I highly reccomend hiring a car - you can check out my blog for my explanation of why - link in signature)

We also have a flexipass? which you pretty much pay a certain amount for a certain number of km's travelled on the buses and you can go anywhere you want and purchase extra km's if you need - not sure if these are a good deal or not though - try googling flexipass nz.

I did a random search on the nakedbus website for auckland airport > paihia (Bay of Islands - about a 5-6hour drive by car?) for a couple of days time (so relatively last minute) and the prices were $39 going there and $35 going back to auckland.

I also did a Rotorua > Taupo trip (a pretty standard tourist trip - about 1 hour by car) for a couple of days time and it came up with $9 one way.

Hopefully that gives you an idea of the bus prices

Like Kiwichick said - between us we've proberly seen most of NZ so can definately help with anything more specific you may want to know

[canadianbunny]

awesome thanks so much both of you's!! I'll most likely be searching for you guys on here again!

[canadianbunny]

mooloo i'm visiting your blog now and you want to live in Canada! :P have you? I'm in Canada so I can try and return the favor- lol if you need Canada info... ! :D

[mooloo]

Havn't live anywhere but NZ yet unfortunately have been waiting to finish my degree - which cross my fingers I finish next month!

Living in Canada is still one of the things I really want to do and it will happen within the next 5 years! Will definately have to hit you up for info when the time comes!

[kiwichick]

haha sweet im heading to canada for 6 months or so in october visas/savings permitting!!

[mooloo]

Denise are you gunna do the ski season? Are you jacking up a job before you go over or just gunna turn up and see what happens?

[kiwichick]

hey amanda yeah thats the plan! we did look at going through iep but its pretty expensive just for an average job, so looking at heading over in time for the job expos in late october. gotta line up enough work between now and then though so its a little reliant on whether/when i can save enough!

[raoulduke]

Firstly welcome to TPunk!

Secondly apologies for taking so like to reply to this thread, I've let the Australian side down.

You'll be able to see a lot of Australia in 2 months although you'd probably be best off sticking to the east coast if you're going to be driving. I would probably recommend adding more time to Aus just because it's so much bigger than NZ. A lot of people underestimate the size of Australia so make sure you get an idea of how long it's going to take you to drive if you decide to do that.

I don't know anything about WWOOFING but fruit picking is popular amongst back packers up north, although I'm not sure what season you can do it in.

Feel free to ask any Aus related questions and I'll do my best to answer them.