AAT Kings - Australia & New Zealand Panorama Itinerary

On arrival, you will be transferred to your hotel. This evening join your Travel Director for a welcome dinner - it's a great opportunity to get to know everyone in a unique setting.

Included Meals: Dinner with Wine

Accommodation: Melbourne - 2 Nights

Join your Travel Director for a city sights tour that includes a private walk through Melbourne's famous hidden laneways. You'll discover the city's eclectic little lanes, arcades, café society and fascinating street art. There's time afterwards to explore the city on your own, enjoy an optional experience or simply relax and watch the world go by.

Included Meals: Breakfast

This morning you will be transferred to Melbourne Airport for your flight to Cairns, Queensland. On arrival join a private wildlife journey at Hartley's Crocodile Adventures. Enjoy a boat cruise and encounter koalas, wallabies, birds, crocodiles and more! This evening is free for your to choose from the numerous restaurants that Cairns has to offer.

Included Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation: Cairns - 3 Nights

Get ready for an experience of a lifetime - aboard a high-speed catamaran and cruise out to the Great Barrier Reef. You can snorkel and view this natural living wonder up close (equipment provided) or stay dry and explore the stunning reef from the comfort of a semi-submersible craft, just one metre underwater. Enjoy a tropical buffet lunch before you return to Cairns.

Included Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Today is a free day to do as you choose.

If you’re in the habit of getting up early now, you may wish to begin your day with a horizon-bending hot-air-balloon ride over the Atherton Tablelands. Prefer to stay grounded? Sign up for a guided walk through the Daintree Rainforest, or surround yourself with nature riding the Scenic Railway to Kuranda returning on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. Tonight, join your companions for dinner, with native ingredients highlighted at Ochre Restaurant on the waterfront. 

Included Meals: Breakfast, Dinner with wine

This morning you'll fly to Sydney!

Following a leisurely start to the morning it’s time to switch the tropical vibes back to city highlights as you fly to Sydney. Check into your centrally located hotel and spend the rest of the day and evening exploring as you wish. Ask your Travel Director for sightseeing and dinner suggestions.

Included Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation: Sydney - 3 Nights

Discover one of the great highlights of Sydney, the beautiful Sydney Opera House with a guided tour inside this iconic building. If there was ever a place that slipped from the pages of a fairy-tale, Wendy’s Secret Garden at Lavender Bay is it. Overlooking Sydney Harbour, this pocket of floral paradise is explained by a local volunteer – did you know this was once unused wasteland? Your visit provides a contribution to the ongoing maintenance of the enchanting garden. Explore Sydney’s inner west and enjoy a lunch with the locals at the pub. Then drive through Sydney's hip Inner West to Batch Brewery where you will take part in a masterclass and learn how they combine creatively inspired limited release batches with sustainable practices. 

Included Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

You could spend weeks exploring Sydney. Months even. But you have today, so get set for a wild ride. Your agenda is completely up to you, but we have more than a few ideas. Perhaps a bird’s-eye perspective of the city on a Sydney BridgeClimb? Maybe a ferry to Manly for fish and-chips on the beach? This evening, celebrate Sydney at dinner beside the harbour.

Included Meals: Breakfast, Dinner with Wine

It's time to say Hoo Roo Australia and Kia Ora New Zealand as you fly to Queenstown’s adventure capital. Take in its alpine, mountain town vibe, where the evening is free for you to enjoy one of its many lakefront restaurants and bars. Why not try some of the famous New Zealand lamb with a Pinot Noir from the local Otago wine region?

Meals: Breakfast 

Accommodation: Queenstown - 3 nights

Flying over New Zealand, the first thing you’ll notice is that there’s a lot of farmland. It’s fitting, then, that one of the first people you’ll meet is southern girl Laura, who will introduce you to the sheep farm she was born and raised on. Think sheep mustering and whip cracking as well as the chance to feed and pet the farm animals. Then you’ll feel like you’ve stepped back in time when you arrive at former gold-mining town of Arrowtown. Come dusk, cruise across Lake Wakatipu aboard the TSS Earnslaw; the only thing more inspiring than the peaks of the Remarkables that surround is the festive atmosphere welcoming you to Walter Peak High Country Farm, where a gourmet barbecue at the Colonel’s Homestead awaits.

Included Meals: Breakfast, Highlight Dinner

Explore Queenstown your way! Go wild with a jet boat ride or white water rafting. For the less adventurous there is a wine and garden tour, play a round of golf, or just enjoy wandering through the town and botanic gardens. 

Recommended Alternative Excursions are:

Meals: Breakfast 

Today we depart the adventure capital of New Zealand Queenstown and head north to the City of Sails, Auckland. This evening, why not dine at one of the many eateries on Federal Street, a hotspot for food lovers right on your doorstep. With an impressive accolade of awards between them, there is something to suit every taste at Federal Street.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation: Auckland - 1 night

Today we journey south through the King Country region which was at the centre of the New Zealand Wars in the 1860’s. Join our 'Local Specialist' in a starry wonderland - a cavernous galaxy of twinkling bright green and blue glow-worms that light up the Ruakuri Caves, Waitomo. This evening, we join our hosts at the Mitai Maori Village for an authentic introduction to Maori culture, experience a delicious Hangi feast and cultural performance.

Meals: Breakfast, Highlight Dinner

Accommodation: Rotorua - 2 nights

Cute and cuddly, NZ’s national bird, the kiwi, is also endangered. Go behind the scenes on a working kiwi nursery and hatchery to learn how breeding programs are helping the population thrive. The natural drama reaches boiling point at Whakarewarewa, a geothermal reserve and the country’s only living Māori village, home to famous Pohutu Geyser and the bubbling beauty of mud pools. You’ll cap off your day joining your Travel Director and companions for a Farewell Dinner at Poco Tapas & Wine, where the menu is designed for sharing.

Meals: Breakfast, Farewell Dinner

Haere rā and Bon Voyage!

Bid farewell to your epic Antipodean adventure as you are transferred to Auckland Airport for your onward flight.

Meals: Breakfast

Itinerary Variations – the provider strives to improve trip itineraries. If improvements can be made, or if circumstances beyond their control make changes necessary, the provider reserves the right to vary itineraries and to make substitutions. 

Included Highlights 

• From city life in Sydney to farm life in New Zealand, go behind the scenes while meeting passionate locals. How does an exclusive backstage tour of the Opera House sound?
• Say goodbye to the run-of-the-mill barbecue and have your meal prepared underground in a hangi, a traditional Indigenous experience at Mitai Maori Village.
• Operation Nest Egg may sound like it’s from a Bond movie, but it’s actually a way that the National Kiwi Hatchery is helping boost the population of kiwi birds in the wild. Your visit helps.
• Cairns is a place two World Heritage Sites meet: The Wet Tropics of Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef. Bring your sense of adventure to explore both.

Inclusions

• Experienced Travel Director and Driver Guide
• Quality accommodation
• Travel by luxury coach
• Return airport to hotel transfers are included in the vacation price

Dining 

• 4 Dinners with Wine
• 16 Full Breakfasts
• 2 Lunches
• 2 Highlight Dinners
• 1 Farewell Dinner

** Required Internal Flights: are to be purchased in order to fulfil the itinerary and are NOT included in the land content price - please contact us to confirm these details and any other itinerary updates

•  Day 1 – Flights to arrive prior to 12 noon into Melbourne Airport
•  Day 3 – Melbourne to Cairns: 
•  Day 6 – Cairns to Sydney: 
•  Day 9 – Sydney to Queenstown: 
•  Day 12 – Queenstown to Auckland: 
•  Day 15 - Depart Auckland after midday