AAT Kings - Contrasts of Australia & New Zealand - Itinerary

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

Included Meals: Welcome Reception - Dinner with Wine

Accommodation: Melbourne - 2 Nights (or similar)

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 afterward 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 (or similar)

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 one of decisions: explore the Cairns Esplanade, or head up into the hills on a Scenic Railway journey to Kuranda. You’re surrounded by some of the world’s oldest rainforest as you return to base via the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. If that’s not humbling enough, tonight’s dinner at Ochre Restaurant on the waterfront uses native ingredients that the world’s oldest civilisation has consumed for millennia. 

Included Meals: Breakfast, Dinner with wine

This morning you'll fly to Sydney!

On arrival, there's time to relax at your hotel or explore this exciting city before boarding a Magistic Dinner Cruise. Enjoy a contemporary two course a la carte meal and the mesmerizing views of Sydney at night. You'll pass magnificent waterfront homes, beaches and parklands, and all the main harbour attractions including the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

Included Meals: Breakfast - Dinner with Wine

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

Today is free for you to do as you choose. Why not take a day trip to the spectacular Blue Mountains for fresh mountain air and stunning scenery. You’ll visit the charming village of Leura, see the famous Three Sisters rock formation and visit a Wildlife Park to get up close and personal to some of Australia’s cuddly native animals.

If you’ve always wanted to climb Sydney Harbour Bridge, today could be your chance on a thrilling ‘Bridge Climb’. Dinner tonight is beside Sydney Harbour. Because can you ever get enough?

Included Meals: Breakfast, Dinner 

Haere Mai and Welcome to the 'City of Sails'

Fly across the Tasman Sea to Auckland, the City of Sails. The remainder of the day is yours to do as you please. There is plenty to see and do in Auckland. New Zealand’s largest city is located between two large harbours and 48 extinct volcanic cones scattered over the city are evidence of its volcanic past. They also provide a perfect location for viewing the city! A diversely cultural place, Auckland is a great location for marine adventures, wine tasting, forest walks, and urban sophistication. Meet your New Zealand Travel Director over dinner at your hotel this evening.
 

Some Activities and sightseeing options if you have time:

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner with wine

Accommodation: Auckland - 2 nights

Embark on a city sightseeing tour this morning to Mission Bay. Keep your camera at the ready to capture spectacular panoramic views of the skyline, sprawling North Shore and Waitemata Harbour from Bastion Point and Michael Joseph Savage Memorial. Spend the afternoon as you wish.

Meals: Breakfast

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. This evening your dinner is prepared in an earthen hangi at the Mitai Māori Village. It’s an eye-opening (and tasty) introduction to Māori culture.

Meals: Breakfast and Highlights Dinner

Accommodation: Rotorua - 1 night

Spend time at leisure this morning or consider an optional experience. You could visit Te Puia to meet the local Māori community for an introduction to their gift from the gods – the bubbling geysers, mud pools and thermal springs of Rotorua. Later, you’ll fly to Queenstown

**(airfare is not included and must be booked in addition to this itinerary - please contact us to confirm the most up to date details).

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation: Queenstown - 3 nights

Journey over the Devil’s Staircase and along the shores of Lake Wakatipu to Te Anau and its lake, the largest in the South Island. Travel through the rainforest of World Heritage Fiordland National Park, sighting glaciers and mountain ranges. Drive through the hand-hewn Homer Tunnel to the numerous photo opportunities afforded by the Mirror Lake, Pop’s Lookout, Cleddau Valley and the Chasm, Mitre Peak and Bowen Falls before reaching Milford Sound. Enjoy lunch while you cruise on this wonder of nature. Return to Queenstown this evening.

Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

Sleep in, find a rooftop wine bar for lunch, take a stroll around the lake… wherever you wander, meet your fellow travellers for a Highlight Dinner at 1860s Postmasters Cottage.

Recommended Alternative Excursions are:

Meals: Breakfast and Highlights Dinner

Today you will leave the alpine wonderland of Queenstown behind, traveling through Central Otago to the Mackenzie region with time along the way to stop in Arrowtown then Cromwell, situated next to the pristine Lake Dunstan and taste delicious stone fruit at a local orchard. Continue over the dramatic Lindis Pass before reaching the Starlight Highway and Tekapo's world renowned UNESCO Aoraki McKenzie International Dark Sky Reserve. This afternoon enjoys the views of Mt Cook before heading to the iconic Church of the Good Shephard. This evening, see amazing constellations that can only be seen in the southern hemisphere, including the Southern Cross, to the Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way. Your local specialist expert astronomy guide will enhance your knowledge and understanding of our Southern Skies as you admire and ponder the possibilities through our powerful optical telescopes.

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner 

Accommodation: Tekapo - 1 night

Ever wondered what life on the land is like? Meet Angie and Stan Taylor, who have farmed this countryside for more years than they care to remember. The stories you’ll hear over lunch...
 

Meals: Breakfast, Be My Guest Lunch

Accommodation: Christchurch - 2 nights

Community spirit is strong in Christchurch; not only has the city rebuilt since the devastating 2011 earthquakes, but it’s thriving, with architectural innovations like the world’s first church built of cardboard. Take in the sights with an in-the-know local. 

This evening join your Travel Director for a Farewell Dinner.

Meals: Breakfast, Farewell Dinner

Haere rā and Bon Voyage!

We are sure you will enjoy this tour and our promise is to make your travels through New Zealand as hassle-free and hospitable as possible - ensuring that today you leave with a memory card full of photos, and huge smiles on your faces when recalling your time in New Zealand! Have a great homeward journey, farewell and hope to see you again soon in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

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 

Insider Knowledge

A lot of time, effort and knowledge goes into making good beer. Join a masterclass at a small-batch Sydney brewery to learn the secrets.

Local Connection

Pull up a ‘hay bale’ with retired farmers Angie and Stan Taylor and learn about life on the land over a barbecue lunch. Paddock to plate indeed.

Cultural Immersion

Māori culture and traditions are celebrated across New Zealand, as you’ll discover at Te Pa Tu Maori Experience, your hangi dinner prepared in an underground oven. 

Sustainable Footprints

Your visit to the tropics of Queensland helps protect World Heritage areas and the wildlife within then when you plant native trees as part of our Rainforest Restoration project. 

Wildlife & Nature

It doesn’t matter how many times you splash about in the Coral Sea, the Great Barrier Reef never fails to impress. There are too many world records being broken here to mention.

Inclusions

• Specialist team of two highly experienced Travel Director and Driver Guide
• Local Specialists (Guides)
• Centrally located premium hotels

Dining 

• 16 Full Breakfasts
• 2 Lunches
• 1 Dinner
• 5 Dinners with Wine
• 2 Highlight Dinners
• 1 Farewell Dinner
• 2 Be My Guest Lunches

Flight Information

Day 1 – flights to arrive prior to 12 noon into Melbourne Airport

Day 18 – flights to depart anytime from Christchurch Airport

*Internal-vacation flights: Please note that the price above includes land and internal-vacation airfares, which are required to be booked in order to fulfil the vacation itinerary:

• Day 3 – Melbourne to Cairns
• Day 6 – Cairns to Sydney
• Day 9 – Sydney to Auckland
• Day 12 – Auckland to Queenstown
• Return airfares from your home port are not included in the price above.
• Return airport to hotel transfers are included in the holiday price