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Asia, NZ and Oz for 4 months! Advice needed!

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  • 02-02-2011 1:00am
    #1
    Smiley Lassie!
    Registered Users Posts: 48 ✭


    Hi everyone!

    Myself and my boyfriend are planning a trip for the end of the year for almost 4 months and are just looking for some advice timewise and what we should leave out/keep in depending on time. We're leaving here middle of September and returning home straight after new years in Sydney. We are planning on doing 3.5 to 4 weeks in Asia on way over (want to do Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos but not sure if this is realistic?), then on to New Zealand - in time for the world cup quarter finals, hopefully Ireland will make it! - plan to travel New Zealand for 2 - 2.5 weeks. From there we were thinking of going to Melbourne for a week or so because have a lot of friends there. Would love to do the West Coast as well as the East Coast so maybe fly to Perth from Melbourne, see some of the West Coast, then up to Darwin, do Kakadu etc, on to Cairns, do the East Coast from there to Sydney for Christmas/New Year then home. So if we have approx 4 weeks for Asia, approx 2 weeks for NZ, that would leave us with 10 weeks for Oz (this includes the week in Sydney for xmas so 9 weeks for the rest). So I suppose my main questions would be:


    1) Is it realistic to try and to see so much of Asia in 3-4 weeks? If not, what would be the place to leave out? And what should we try to do while we are there to get the best of our time?
    2) Would it be best to do one island in NZ rather than the two given we will only have 2.5 weeks there probably? Also, we will be flying into Wellington as this is where the QFs will be on that weekend.
    3) How long would you need to do the East Coast comfortably? Based on this, we will probably decide what parts of the West Coast we will get to see. (which are a must see and which could we leave out?) Would love to see Ayers Rock also, is this realistic?
    4) How much money should we budget per person for all of this?

    Sorry for all the questions, we have so much to plan I don't even know where to start!! Also, we don't want to be rushing everywhere if possible!

    Thanks a mill in advance :)


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    #2
    hussey
    Registered Users Posts: 6,240 ✭✭✭hussey


    Smiley Lassie! wrote: »

    1) Is it realistic to try and to see so much of Asia in 3-4 weeks? If not, what would be the place to leave out? And what should we try to do while we are there to get the best of our time?
    Not really, leave out Thailand and you can come back to that later, as Thailand itself could take 4 weeks, I spent 5 weeks doing Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and was fantastic
    2) Would it be best to do one island in NZ rather than the two given we will only have 2.5 weeks there probably? Also, we will be flying into Wellington as this is where the QFs will be on that weekend.
    Probably 1 island is the best, south - but then again it will depend on WC results - won't it?
    3) How long would you need to do the East Coast comfortably? Based on this, we will probably decide what parts of the West Coast we will get to see. (which are a must see and which could we leave out?) Would love to see Ayers Rock also, is this realistic?
    what dates east coast - summer Dec/Jan is storm season and every year there are floods (this year has been the worst) so depends on what you want to see, but 3-4weeks is a good time frame
    west coast is a lot different, the gaps between each place is massive
    It is beautiful there, but not so much the party / things to do as the east coast.
    Yes Uluru is realistic - but whether it is worth it depends on time again! If the middle of the summer it is not really too enjoyable in 40c searing heat, if possible do it in November - will be a bit cooler (maybe 32c!) but not too hot to stop you functioning
    4) How much money should we budget per person for all of this?
    No idea - NZ will be pricey at WC time, Aussie dollar is record highs, and xmas is pretty pricey in sydney


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    #3
    Smiley Lassie!
    Registered Users Posts: 48 ✭Smiley Lassie!


    Hi hussey,

    Thanks a mill for your reply, I'm new to this so not quite sure if I'm using the quote thing correctly so bear with me :)
    hussey wrote: »
    Not really, leave out Thailand and you can come back to that later, as Thailand itself could take 4 weeks, I spent 5 weeks doing Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and was fantastic

    Would we be able to do part of Thailand maybe? One or two of the islands in this time? Or would it be completely stupid? Would leaving Laos out be an option or is Laos too good to miss? I really wanted to go a tiger zoo and I know there is one in thailand where you can hold and feed the baby tigers... do you know if there is any of these anywhere else?!
    hussey wrote: »
    Probably 1 island is the best, south - but then again it will depend on WC results - won't it?

    We're not going to plan around the world cup I don't think, more about the travelling and seeing the country, the World Cup is a very good bonus. What we are planning is to go to Wellington for the QFs... we will be flying in for this. Then move on after that, what are the best things to do on the South Island and how long would you need? Things I wanted to do in NZ were the skydive (I've read that it's best to do it in NZ?) and also go to the set of the Hobbit but I think thats on the north island?
    hussey wrote: »
    what dates east coast - summer Dec/Jan is storm season and every year there are floods (this year has been the worst) so depends on what you want to see, but 3-4weeks is a good time frame
    west coast is a lot different, the gaps between each place is massive
    It is beautiful there, but not so much the party / things to do as the east coast.
    Yes Uluru is realistic - but whether it is worth it depends on time again! If the middle of the summer it is not really too enjoyable in 40c searing heat, if possible do it in November - will be a bit cooler (maybe 32c!) but not too hot to stop you functioning

    For east coast, if it would take 4 weeks, we would be there from end nov to christmas, the reason we were looking at this time is because we will be in sydney for christmas and I thought it would make sense to do the East Coast then?? The main thing I want to do and spend time at is diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Would it be worth doing East Coast in November and West Coast in December and then flying to Sydney from somewhere else for Christmas? To be honest, I don't know too much about the West Coast but I've heard it's amazing. What would be the main spots there and how long would you be able to do it in? It probably is possible for us to do Uluru in November... depending on East Coast!
    hussey wrote: »
    No idea - NZ will be pricey at WC time, Aussie dollar is record highs, and xmas is pretty pricey in sydney

    Would €10k cover it do you think? We will have friends to stay with in Sydney and Melbourne anyway.

    Sorry for all the questions! This will probably be the only chance we'll get this long for a holiday so want to do it properly! :)


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