Where to go in Auz

Hi

We (myself and my partner) have booked a 6 month trip to Auz/New Zealand in June.

We are flying into Perth and we cannot decide whether to go Perth - Adalaide - Melbourne and up the East Cost or whether to to Perth - broome - darwin - cairns and down the East cost.

We are ending our trip in Sydney and flying out of Sydney at the begining of January. We have been told by a couple of people to avoid the East Cost in November as this is when "Schoolies" takes place (Kids holidays and hostels /hotels are booked up).??????

Any advice on where to go and what to do would be great.

Also we would like to fly over to New Zealand for 3/4 weeks. We have never been to NZ before so any advice of where would be best to fly into would be great.

Thanks

Suppose it depends what you want to see, bear in mind though you want to be south come nov,dec and jan for the sunshine. and Darwin etc in june,july,august and Sep.

Me personally I would go up top but thats just because I like the sound of it up there compared to Adelaide etc etc.

Also i'm under the impression that there are more jobs in broome and darwin if you hit them at the right time

I live in Cairns, and I think everyone should get to see it. The East Coast is definately worth travelling also. I assume you're going to hire a campervan?
I haven't been along the North so i'm not overly sure what the roads are like. So I would get that checked out. www.racq.com.au which is the queensland website.

Best not to drive around the north from about dec-march as its the wet season and driving in flood water can be quite dangerous

Good luck

I will say as well.. In NZ I landed in Auckland hired a wicked camper and drove around the north island, you could hop on the ferry in Wellington and transfer to the south (about 5 hours) and drive around there. South Island is beautiful, so i the north mind you. My dad flew us down to Dunedin and we caught a bus to Christchurch and the train inland and along the coast to Picton which is the north end of the south Island.

[ Edit: Edited on Jan 15, 2009, at 1:52 PM by JessieG ]

I'd do the Perth - broome - darwin - uluru - cairns and down the East cost trip to start with, the west coast of Australia is amazing and during the winter months (jun-aug) being up north is most comfortable as it's not cold. In the wet season (nov-feb) it can be very difficult to travel up north because of flooding and cyclones. Were you planning on working while you were here? If not I'd write a list of everything you want to see in Australia and get a big map and trace the roads between them to give you an idea of how far you need/want to go. This might also help you choose if hiring/buying a car is preferable to tours/bus, you'll get most places in a standard car/camper but if you do go offroad be careful and try to travel with another group if possible.

If it were me I'd set a rough timeline for example:
Perth-Broome: 4 weeks (all of June)
Broome-Darwin :4 weeks (all of July)
Darwin-Uluru-3 ways: 4 weeks (all of August)
3 ways - Cairns: 2 weeks (until mid September)
Cairns-Brisbane: 4 weeks (until mid October)
Brisbane-Sydney: 2 weeks (until end of October)

Might be too much driving for you, check out my photos to get an idea of what you'll see. I don't really know anything about NZ. Have fun!