Author	Message
shar towner Member	# Posted: 5 Feb 2008 01:51:39 I have been looking at the various travel options for NZ and Aust. The buses look pretty good for NZ... ie the kiwi experience. What do you think about them? Are they worth the money? If not what is the best way? Aust. is much larger, so planes seem to be the way to go, but are there any other options that allow you to see more of the coutry rather than just the larger airport cities? Any info would be great!

lukehodges Member Sydney	# Posted: 5 Feb 2008 02:35:51 Hi Shar, Depends really on what parts of the country you want to see. There are bus services that go around the country (google greyhound coaches ). To be honest, I'd be more inclined to fly to major cities (get pretty cheap airfaires from virgin blue or jetstar, flight centre should be able to hook you up with something ). From the major cities then you can start going on shorter bus tours like flying to melbourne and then bus it along the great ocean road. Or fly into sydney, do your walk around the city and then try and get a bus service that will take you down along the south coast, etc. Getting around by coach will probably limit you to the national highways which do pass a number of landmarks but will probably cause you to miss more than you gain. Cheers, Luke
Dee_Edge Member Malaysia	# Posted: 19 Mar 2008 08:22:36 Hi Luke, Im planning to go backpack around australia probably by mid of 2009. Kinda fuzzy at the moment as i do not know where should i start first. . What do u think would be perfect city to start my backpack journey first if should i choose perth to be my last stop (got friends staying over there, so i want to spend more time with them before goin back to Kuala Lumpur).. Defeat Never Comes to A Man Until He Admits It
pilotboi87 Member PERTH	# Posted: 6 Apr 2008 06:32:35 Sydney is the place to start, u can get cheap tours that run up the coast to cains then alot of people buy an old car and drive themselfs, if this isnt an option then bus of fly to uluru and check out the redcenter, and darwin/kakado national park is a must, i would also highly recomend broome but only from july to october as its too hot otherwise....enjoy!!!
Dee_Edge Member Malaysia	# Posted: 7 Apr 2008 05:48:44 Thanx a lot for the info pilotboi87!. anyway, i had to choose perth my place to start, as I will be taking budget airlines tiger airways from spore (wayyyy mo cheaper than any airlines i've surveyed, cost only spore $471, even if converted from spore dollars to Ringgit Malaysia, its still extremely cheap in our currency) Will work my way up from perth to adelaide, melbourne, canberra, sydney, byron bay and brisbane then back to perth again...im sooooooo excited rite now. Planning to go in Jun/July. I need to apply an international license as Malaysian driving license are not printed in english. I just want to know whether taking the train is cheaper than the coach, if i wanna travel around (in case i wasnt gonna rent/buy a car) or should i get those rail passes for tourists?? ie. Backtracker pass/rail explorer pass. Defeat Never Comes to A Man Until He Admits It
travelbaby81 Member	# Posted: 12 Apr 2008 17:24:23 I traveled with the Greyhound bus in Australia. It was long busrides, but the country is big too I only traveled the east coast and stopped in Cairns, Airlie beach, rainbow beach, surfers paradise,noosa and ended up in Sydney. It was OK! You should by a pass when you arrive in Australia. I bought it before and it was much more expensive. In New Zealand I rented a car which was kind of cheap. We traveled to the places we wanted to. It was great, but if you are traveling solo I would probably go with the Kiwi Experience!
pilotboi87 Member PERTH	# Posted: 12 Apr 2008 17:30:22 though the places u mention are nice i still say the north part of aus tralia is the best to see, the rail passes r ok i guess though there is not many railroads the go around australia so u may find it difficult to see much on them, busses r better but long journeys can be painful, ie 36hrs perth to broome, flyin then doing shorter tours of hiring a car for anly a few days is the way to go....
Dee_Edge Member Malaysia	# Posted: 14 Apr 2008 05:19:14 thanks for the info to both of u (travelbaby81 & pilotboi87) malaysian currency is sucks since our it is very low (RM1 = 0.34 AUD) , which is one of the main obstacles to travel to other developed countries with strong currencies. dammit!. sigh I do want to a rent a car, which btw i think is more convenient rather than taking the bus/coach but i checked out the avis/etc. car rent in australia - its expensive for me, im not practically demoralized by tis yet since my bf has decided to join me - so we can divide and share the cost in half. hmm.. i thought that buying online i more cheaper than buying over the counter. haha. thats a good tip, i'll keep that in mind travelbaby81. Thanks again for the info guys. Defeat Never Comes to A Man Until He Admits It