WHY AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
I finished mine 2011 backpacking trip through Argentina and Chile super excited and I already started thinking about the 2012 backpacking trip, which this time would be with my boyfriend (now husband). I thought about continuing to explore the South America or in knowing the Central America, but it was thanks to my daily access to blog Best Destinations, I found an AMAZING promotion with round-trip tickets Rio/Sydney for R$2000, when the normal price was R$3500/4000. Off to discover Australia and New Zealand!!!
I still remember the moment I saw the price and was in disbelief. I spoke to Celo and he was immediately excited! We asked for a 30-day vacation from the company – we worked at the same place – and with everything confirmed, we bought the tickets.
We had no idea what we were going to do in Australia, but we were super excited about creating the itinerary. We knew about the fame of Australia of being the Brazil that succeeded with kangaroos and deadly animals and the fame of New Zealand of being the country of extreme sports with incredible landscapes, but other than that, nothing more. We considered going to Indonesia and Thailand too, but we ended up giving up during the planning, because we thought it would be too little time to see everything in the 4 countries.
Conclusion: Australia and New Zealand, here we go!!!
ROAD MAP
With the help of a friend who lived in Australia for 2 years and worked with us, we put together the following itinerary for our 30 days:
- AUSTRALIA – Sydney and Blue Mountains (5 days)
- NEW ZEALAND – Auckland, Waitomo and Rotorua (3 and a half days)
- NEW ZEALAND – Christchurch, Arthur's Pass, Franz Josef and Fox Glacier (4 days) – with motorhome!
- NEW ZEALAND- Queenstown and Milford Sound (4 days) – with motorhome!
- AUSTRALIA – Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Philip Island and Yarra Valley (7 days) – with motorhome!
- AUSTRALIA – Brisbane, Surfers Paradise and Gold Coast (5 days)
- AUSTRALIA – Alice Springs (outback Australian) (5 days)
- AUSTRALIA – Sydney just to catch the flight back to Brazil
We divided the number of days for these cities according to the attractions we saw and we looked for hostels with private rooms and more affordable hotels. We were taken aback by the prices – everything was extremely expensive! The tours, of course, were worth mentioning.
Just so you have an idea: a glass of Draft beer in any restaurant we visited it cost R$20 when we converted the currencies (Update: At that time, a draft beer in Brazil cost 4-5 reais). It was painful to see the money disappear so quickly, but every penny was worth it, because both countries are truly incredible.
TRAVEL GUIDES
We received 2 Publifolha guides from his mother, Australia and New Zealand, which were extremely useful for us to decide which cities we were going to visit. They are super complete guides and in my opinion, the best on the market, so they came at a great time! Thank you, mother-in-law. 🙂
MOTORHOME
We read in several blogs that to travel around New Zealand the best means of transport is motorhome and look, it really is! We stopped so many times to enjoy the scenery that if we had booked a hostel we would have lost the reservation or would have had to drive at night to get there on time and would have ended up missing the view from the road. I think renting a campervan and sleep in the holiday parks (parking for campervans) It's the same or maybe a little more expensive than renting a car and sleeping in hostels, but the autonomy and privacy that we gain really makes it worth it, you know?
We chose to rent the campervan of the company Jucy, that enchanted us from the first time we accessed it website theirs. They have very competitive prices, are very attentive and it was possible to rent in one city and return in another, because they have many offices spread throughout the country. We researched other companies that had larger “houses”, with bathrooms and everything else, but we preferred to stay with the smaller models, without bathrooms, found in JucyWe highly recommend this company!
The only detail is that if they are at a time of year with mild/cold temperatures (we went in May and it was quite cold at night), choose models that have a heater and therefore stay in holiday parks in vacancies of the type powered (with power). Just plug a cable from your car into the outlet in the parking space and you'll be warm all night! We did this in both New Zealand and Australia.
ACCOMMODATION
As I already knew the YHA hostel chain from my solo trip to Argentina and Chile, we booked most of our hostels there. website when we didn't have the motorhome. When we found cheaper hotels, we booked through Booking same.
EXCHANGE
We researched currency exchange offices in Rio de Janeiro to exchange reais for Australian and New Zealand dollars, but we found the conversion rates not very advantageous. We ended up taking US dollars and we exchanged money at the airports in Sydney (AUS) and Auckland (NZ). We bought the most expensive things with a credit card, paying 6,38% in IOF tax, but at least we earned miles, right? We even looked at VTM (Visa Travel Money) too, but we didn't think it was worth it.
MANDATORY TOURIST VISA
To get there, we had to apply for a tourist visa. We paid a fee of approximately R$200, filled out a form via Internet (read more information) here), we gathered our employment and bank documents and waited for a response. In 3 days, we received an email confirming the visa approval!
Update: I don't know how this process is today. Remember that we went there in 2012.
YELLOW FEVER VACCINE
We took the yellow fever vaccine at the Copacabana health center and we went to arrange the International Vaccination Certificate at the Gávea health center, which was very quick! In less than an hour we left with our wallet in hand, with the yellow fever vaccination stamp already translated.
**** If you think you can enter the country without this, forget it! They are very strict when it comes to inspections to enter the country. Don't give in! ****
IDP – INTERNATIONAL DRIVING PERMIT
We scheduled at Detran international driver's license, the PID. It was ready in no time and we went to pick it up. We just had to show it to the companies where we rented the car and motorhome, since we weren't stopped by any police on the roads, fortunately.
21 HOUR FLIGHT
With all the bureaucracy and itinerary ready, all that was left was to travel!
We flew LAN from Rio to Santiago and QANTAS from Santiago to Sydney. This last flight lasted 21 hours and was super relaxed with lots of food, alcoholic drinks and updated movies. The hard part was adapting to the time difference afterwards… lol.
That's it, folks.
The first big trip with my current husband was definitely the most memorable and special! I have a huge fondness for those 30 days of pure bonding. <3
That's the summary for you. If you want to know more about what we did on a day-to-day basis, check out the links below:
- Summary of 30 days in Australia and New Zealand
- Itinerary – Sydney and Blue Mountains (5 days)
- Itinerary – Auckland, Waitomo and Rotorua (3 and a half days)
- Itinerary – Christchurch, Arthur's Pass, Franz Josef and Fox Glacier (4 days)
- Itinerary – Queenstown and Milford Sound (4 days)
- Itinerary – Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Philip Island and Yarra Valley (7 days)
- Itinerary – Brisbane, Surfers Paradise and Gold Coast (5 days)
- Itinerary – Alice Springs (Australian outback) (5 days)
OUR TRIP IN PHOTOS
5 responses
Hello, I discovered your website on the backpackers website and I was very interested in your articles. I have never been backpacking and I have always wanted to do one, but now with your articles I am sure that this desire has doubled. I don't know if it is very appropriate to ask this, but I would like to know how much you spent on this backpacking trip through Australia and New Zealand. If you can't tell me an exact amount, at least tell me something approximate. I thank you in advance for your attention and thank you also for making me even more excited about making this dream come true.
Hello Jorge! I'm glad to know that I helped you in some way =D
Before I tell you the price, I need to point out that I didn’t save any money on the activities considered extreme there… I saved money on food, which I don’t value that much, and on the super cheap flight from Brazil, but I made sure not to skimp on the tours and accommodation (I stayed in a private room in the hostels). Just to give you an idea, I went on a hot air balloon ride over the Yarra Valley, near Melbourne, passing over the wineries, which cost around R$$800 for a 1-hour flight. It was amazing! I went bungy jumping (the highest there) and on the New Zealand swing, also spending around R$$800 for both jumps. The trip to the desert, with a ticket and a 3-day tour, camping in the desert cost around R$$3000. Anyway… there were several things besides those considered “expensive”, that I made sure to do. It all came to R$$16K for a 30-day trip… It was a pain in the wallet, but it was worth every penny. I don’t know what you like to do, but I think a backpacking trip there for 30 days wouldn’t cost less than R$$10K. I hope I helped you! Kisses
Thank you very much for your help. The price was actually what I had imagined. I won't have 30 days to do such an adventure, according to my planning I will have 15, 20 days at most; in this case the price will be reduced, but perhaps not by much, because I enjoy most of the things you mentioned that you did in terms of extreme activities. Once again, thank you very much for your help and, above all, for your attention!
I'm going this year during the same period (August/September) to stay in Australia for 20 days. I'll be staying between Sydney and Brisbane. I wanted to know if you could recommend the places you stayed, places to eat, what to visit, etc.
Hi Laise!!
How cool that you're going to Australia! Have a good trip =D
I just realized that the blog links aren't very visible, right? If you hover your mouse over “hotel”, “hostel”, etc., it will show where I stayed…
In short -
HOTEL
In Sydney I stayed at the Formule 1 Hotel, because I thought it was cheaper than a hostel…but I was looking at a private room.
In Brisbane I stayed at a friend's house.
PLACES TO VISIT
Sydney – Jd Botanico, Opera House, Harbourside, Museums (check out the list in the Sydney post – I really liked them all!), Bondi Beach, The Rock, Chinese Garden, lol… there are so many places!!! Read the post, it’s very well explained.
Brisbane – I thought the Ferris Wheel area was really cool. You have to go up on it! It’s really cool! I visited the amusement parks that are near Brisbane. You can take the train to them and then catch a shuttle bus. It’s really easy! And the level of the parks is excellent…with really, really cool rides! I recommend them =D
You have to go to Lone Pine Sanctuary. A must-see…lol. You have the chance to hold a koala!!! Such a cute animal!!!
If you want more details, read the posts about both cities again… there’s a lot of information there.
Good luck!
Kisses