Travel Forum / Destinations / Australia and NZ / November 2003

My turn to ask the questions instead of answering them.  I'm planning a week
long sprint from Chch to Invercagill & back the week before Christmas and
I've never done the Caitlins.  I have the "Southern Scenic Route" Brochure
but need some personal rec for somewhere to break the ...

 I'm currently planning a 5 week NZ, AUS trip and wondering whether
or not to go to the Bay of Islands and Abel Tasman.
The scenery looks awesome from the pictures I've seen but if you were
to pick one over the other which one would you pick ? Our schedule

 I had a pointer to the RACV stripmaps, at the time
http://journeys.racv.com.au/racvrt/maps/stripmaps.cfm
 On August 27, I downloaded a stripmap (file sm0151m.pdf, the Silver
City Highway from Broken Hill to Tibooburra), but today, in preparation

How long would it take to drive from Adelaide to Sydney ,and is there
anything we should see on the way, ?
Also would 4 weeks be enough time to visit Perth, Adelaide and Sydney,
taking in the sights etc

Just back from my first ever quick weekend trip to Oamaru - "Penguin Capital
of NZ"!!  I was really impressed with the Yellow-eyed Penguins at Bushey
Beach.  They are easily observed free about 2 hours before sunset but for $9
you can take a guided tour down to the nesting sites ...

Australians, New Zealanders. Do you have the urge to travel to Canada?
Particularly to explore the natural beauty of the forests, seascapes
and mountains of British Columbia?  Would you also enjoy showing off
these same types of favorite places in your own part of the world?

               I live in the UK and will be visiting Australia in
December and  was wondering if anyone could help me with some
information regarding the use of my Toshiba laptop in Melbourne.
.The laptop has an inbuilt modem,but I mainly use it with broadband at

I just tried booking Jan 2004, Auckland - Christchurch return using
Air NZ, from the USA - return flight NZ$1380 !
I looked into booking the same flights from NZ, NZ$380.
Any reason I can't claim to live in NZ when I book these flights ?

Here is link to my web page that contains some panorama photographs from
around Australia.
To keep the Web file sizes down, they don't come up all that well but you'll
get the general idea.

Warning - Noise Pollution - Mt Maunganui - NZ - Accommodation
Just stayed 2 nights at Mt Maunganui / Tauranga NZ.
I do not recommend to overnight in any accommodation near Mt Maunganui CBD,
Marine Parade and Mt Maunganui Road

I'm looking to back pack across Austrailia in March '04 and then going
onto New Zealand in April. I'd like to spend less than £1,000 in each
country and would like to do things as cheaply as possible.
Is it feasible to get across the two countries in this time frame and

Howdy All -
I am planning a tour of New Zealand in a few months. I have located
and contacted several tour operators but I wanted to post this in the
hopes that I could get some information (recommendations, warnings,

We're thinking of booking this place for 3 nights or so, and wonder if
anyone can give us their experience staying there. Thanks.
Richard

My wife and I are visiting NZ early next year and are considering
hiring a camper van for a couple of weeks. We guessed that this would
be a good way to see the country, and the cost of hire/fuel would be
offset by the money saved on accommodation and public transport. Are

I just found this NG but I am sure this question gets asked all the
time.  Maybe someone could post it "one more time"!
We will be coming to OZ/NZ in January and from all that I've read in the
weather sites, we can expect it to be quite warm (80* F+) in OZ and a