Australia is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island and the South Island. They are both in southern hemisphere so their winter is our summer. The winter of New Zealand can be very cold specially if you wanted to visit Mount Cook Glaciers. On the other hand, the north end of Australia can become very hot during their summer, specially around Ayers Rock and Cairns rain forest. Ayers Rock is in the middle of desert. The temperature can easily go over 105F (38C) during the summer. Do drink plenty of water if you go to Ayers Rock area during summer session. So the best time to go will be Spring or Fall months if you want to cover both countries in one trip. I went there in January 2024 (their summer month). The weather in New Zealand was perfect but it was hot hot in Ayers Rock.

Qantas and United Airlines have direct flights from San Francisco to Sydney. The flights are about 15 hours. A quick flight of 1.5 hour will bring you from Sydney to Melbourne.

Melbourne is the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in Australia, after Sydney. Today, Melbourne is culturally diverse. It is a leading financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region. The city’s eclectic architecture blends Victorian era structures, such as the World Heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building, with one of the world’s tallest skylines. There are tons of tourist attractions and activities. Bar-hopping is very popular. If you happened to visit in January, you can watch the Australian Open if you are a tennis enthusiast. As a nature lover, I spent a couple of days participated in nature tours around Melbourne. The first one is a small-group Phillip island afternoon tour. Phillip Island, a popular day trip destination from Melbourne, lies just off Australia’s southern coast. At Summerland Beach, spectators gather daily at sunset to watch the Penguin Parade, when Little penguins come ashore in groups. These Little penguins, also known as fairy penguins, are the smallest penguins in the world. The other tour was the Great Ocean Road small-group ecotour. The tour visited the 12 Apostles, Bells Beach, Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, and Great Otway National Park. Both tours are highly recommended.

Back in Sydney, the Blue Mountains small-group tour wasn’t impressive. The Blue Mountain area is just too tourism. However, I really like the Wild Wombat and Kangaroo Day Tour offered by Perfect Day Sydney. The tour left Sydney by noon as animals are active in the evening. The first a couple of hours was just driving toward the southern coast from Sydney. The driving was pretty boring. However, by the evening, the tour will stop at a local park where there are tons of Wombats and Kangaroos. The Wombats are so human friendly. You can stay a meter away from them and take some nice photos. The Kangaroos were just very aggressive to each other so we saw a lot of Kangaroo fight. Good photo opportunities for humans!

Continue on to Cairns, considered the gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, is a city in tropical Far North Queensland. Daintree National Park spans mountainous rainforest, gorges and beach. It claims to have the oldest rain forest in the world. The title has been claimed by many rain forests now I don’t know if I believe it. Swimming or snorkeling in Great Barrier Reef actually are not that good due to coral reef bleaching. The ocean water is murky and good fish is hard to find in coast area. There are a few kind of tours you can take. The cheap and convenient snorkeling tour only ventures out 5 to 10 miles from coast. Better snorkeling tour takes you out as far as 50 miles from the coast in searching of clear water. However, the rough sea makes these long trips unbearable. There are many platforms arched at Great Barrier Reef, which provide a stable platform where you can store your belongs, change snorkeling gears, and have restaurant food. I opted to get on one of these platforms and found it is pretty boring. Snorkeling around the platforms is no better than snorkeling in anywhere else like in the Caribbean. Luckily I took a helicopter flight back from the platform. The day had weather with intimidate rain. The rain stopped as I climbed onto the helicopter. The flight over is a must-do at Great Barrier Reef. The colorful reef is better to be seen from above. My other tour at Cairns was a trip to Cape Tribulation, Mossman Gorge, and Daintree Rainforest. It was cancelled due to rain. I replaced it with a class IV white water rafting which turns out to be a good decision. Rain or not, I will get wet in white water. It was my first class IV experience.

My next stop was Ayers Rock. As said before, it is hot hot in January there. Fortunately, all tours are either in the morning or evening. I did an Uluru 15-Minute Helicopter Experience. It was not impressive. I like the Segway the FULL base of Uluru tour. Segway is the way to “walk” around the Uluru. It took a little over two hours to go around the whole base in Segway. It would be more than eight hours in walk. Walking is not recommended in middle day during heat. Other tour was Uluru (Ayers Rock) Sunset with Outback Barbecue Dinner and Star Tour. Star tour shows you the sky of southern hemisphere, not that impressive. Dinner had nothing to write home about. Only the sunset view of Ayers Rock is worth mentioning. The third tour was the Kata Tjuta small group tour Including Sunrise and Breakfast. This tour stops at Ayers Rock during the sunrise, then continue on to Kata Tjuta. I had some wonderful pictures of the Ayers Rock as sun rises. The Rock was changing color consistently as sunlight was shining on it from change angles. The cloud in the morning desert is also colorful and consistently changing. So a minimum of two tours, one sunrise and one sunset, are recommended at Ayers Rock. There are other tours like the Field of Light seem to be quite good too.

I made a quick detour to Queenstown, New Zealand from Sydney. World-renowned for its adventure, Queenstown is home to a huge choice of adrenaline activities including jet boating, bungy jumping, white water rafting, skydiving and even indoor thrills. Buggy jumping was first invented here in Queenstown. The highlight of the trip was sailing through the stunning Sounds – Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, and Dusky Sound. The New Zealand Sounds are part of the Fiordland National Park. I did an overnight Doubtful Sound Cruise from Manapouri in a tiny boat and a Milford Sound Cruise in a much larger vessel. I like the small boat a lot of better. There were only seven passengers on the cruise to Doubtful Sound Cruise. To get around Queenstown, it is better to rent a car as public transportation is non-existing. Be careful and start driving slowly as New Zealand is driving on the left side. Milford Sound is very scenery. I made many stops on the road from Milford Sound back to Queenstown. There are many Instagram spots. Another good activity to take on the way back is to visit the Te Anau Glow Worm Caves.

Scenery is very good around Queenstown. Just slow down and take some time to visit nearby towns like Arrowtown and Glenorchy. You will not be disappointed at the photo opportunities.

Back to Sydney, a cruise can take you to finish the rest of New Zealand along its coast. Queenstown is not by the sea so it can only be done on a road trip. The ocean cruise normally visits many coast towns or cities. A quick tour to the inside of Sydney Opera House is done before getting on the cruise ship in the morning. The cruise I was on visited the following:

Wellington is the Capital of New Zealand. The Cave to Coast Wellington Highlights Tour covered most of sights in Wellington. Just like any other medium sized city, Wellington has nothing special. It turns out that The Lord of the Rings was filmed in many places in New Zealand. There are many movie sites allocated to the film and Wellington has a gift shop dedicated to the movie.

Napier is famous for its Art Deco buildings, a street next to the cruise terminal has some twenty Art Deco buildings. I did a tour called Gannet Safaris Overland to see Gannet colonies. I like the tour very much. I suggest to take the Gannet tour. When you finish the tour, don’t go back to the cruise ship. Take a walk to the Art Deco street by yourself. It is not far from the pier.

Tauranga – I did a tour to Rotorua Geothermal Living Maori Village which is uneventful. Other than a couple of thermal geysers, there is a dance show by Maoris.

Auckland – The Waitomo Glow Worm Grotto tour by cruise ship was very good. Out of several visits to glow worm caves, this one is the best. The Grotto was lighted up very well so I can see the Glow Worm in “actiion”.

Bay of Islands – Literally hundreds of islands at Bay of Islands. I did my first ever Parasailing over the island. It is very good! I would do it again in a heartbeat. I did the parasailing independently, not via cruise ship. Just walk off the cruise ship, I was right there at Paihia wharf. Flying Kiwi Parasail outlet is right there on the wharf. The forks at the Flying Kiwi Parasail put me on a boat. Then we go to the sky!

Back to Sydney before I flied back to home, I paid a visit to Taronga Zoo. It is easy to do by myself. No need to take a tour. I take the Sydney Public Ferry which has a stop at the Taranga Zoo. The Zoo, IMO, is better than the San Diego Zoo. Taranga Zoo doesn’t have pandas, but has many animals you cannot find in other zoos. It has large numbers of Australian native animals plus many from Africa and Asia. Make a day for the Taranga Zoo, you wouldn’t regret! After the Zoo, take the ferry back to Sydney CBD where you can hooping the bars or museums.

I had no time to go to museums in Sydney. Will make time for them in my next visit.