Western Australia - Eastern Australia - Fiji / Tonga - New Zealand... need help with the itinerary/route

Hello world :)

My partner and I (in our early thirties, no kids, no pets, no hassle) are struggling to fix the travel itinerary for our long journey ahead of us.

We are adventurous but still prefer some sort of "order and comfort" and as such want to go prepared and with a plan.

​

1st Part: Western Australia

We pick up our 4 WD rooftop tent camper in Darwin on the 3rd of October and will be driving along the Westcoast for a while, going down the Gibb River Road for a while, checking out Ningaloo Reef, etc. The usual things.

We'll return the camper in Perth on the 31st of October.

I haven't quite nailed down the entire route and haven't booked all the necessary campsites ahead of time yet, but October seems to be far less busy than the winter months, so I'm not too worried.
I want to see the "Outback", snorkel, relax on the beach, enjoy driving gravel roads, etc.

​

All that said, now comes the tricky part and where I could use some help.

I want to visit Rottnest Island and also considered visiting Margaret River for some Whale Watching. I guess, we could go there with the camper before we return it in Perth, since we probably won't spend too many days in the Kimberleys (from what I gathered, October already gets extremely hot up there, there's no more water in the rivers/ponds, etc.). Sound like a plan?

​

Second part: Eastern Australia

The date is roughly around the 2nd or 3rd of November and we would like to fly to Cairns next, visit the rainforest, and snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef (stinger suits, yay).

Optional: Magnetic Island. Since it's right between Cairns and Airlie Beach?

My partner would love to sail in the Whitsunday Islands (and early November seems to still be great for that), while I'm a little shocked by the prices to spend a night on a boat.

Optional: Visit Mon Repos Turtle Sanctuary

My partner has seen Fraser island 11 years ago.. I might still be inclined to do a tour there, but that's optional too.

Leaving from either Cairns or Brisbane to the pacific islands next.

My issues here: how many days to spend in Cairns? 2 nights, 3 nights? One day to travel to Airlie Beach and skip Magnetic Island? Or spend an entire day (2 nights) in Townsville to visit the island? How many days to spend in Airlie Beach? Just drive there, get on a boat, spend the night, and maybe stay one night in Airlie Beach before moving on? Back to Cairns to the plane, or rather continuing south to Mon Repos and then fly from Brisbane?

​

Third part: Fiji or Tonga

The important thing that we have to keep in mind here: We must be in Te Anau (New Zealand) by November 30th, because we booked the Kepler Trail many months ago.

That said, we haven't yet decided yet whether we should go, but narrowed it down to either Fiji (my partner's idea) or Tonga (my own, because I wanted something different). Both are supposedly still great in mid November, with fewer tourists, not too much rain, nor big storms and all that.

We want to relax on the beach most of all and do some more snorkeling after so many many days of long distance traveling and expensive activities in Australia.

Which would you recommend more for that? Price-wise?
I'm not totally against an all-inclusive resort at this point, because island life apparently can get very expensive otherwise.

​

Fourth Part: New Zealand

As I have mentioned above, we booked the Kepler Trail starting on December 1st. So we need to be in Te Anau by November 30th.

We would probably fly in to Queenstown from Fiji/Tonga on the 29th to get there in time.

After the trail, we will be staying in Te Anau for another day, to recover, I suppose.

So, on December 5th, we would head back to Queenstown and start the next and final adventure: Rent a Campervan and tour around New Zealand for 2 weeks before we return back home.

​

​

Additional open questions:

cut eastern Australia short in favor of more relaxing days on the beaches of Fiji or do two weeks of eastern australia and only around 10 days on Fiji after?

Is the northern island worth a visit in new Zealand? if we only have 2 weeks in the camper to get back to Queenstown? (Or should we instead opt to drop it off in Auckland and fly home from there?)

​

(Kepler trail and the camper van rental are fixed and have been booked many months ago already)

​

Your help is greatly valued.

Cheers

Mischa

Submitted August 13, 2022 at 06:33AM by Shandriel https://ift.tt/GxaDe4O