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Just Return from Grand Australia and New Zealand
Just returned from three fabulous days on this tour. Any question that I can answer?
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I'm so glad you had such a fantastic time on your trip!
-Tim
We were the group ahead of you, ended tour on Feb 10. Agree about the warm clothing, it snowed when we were in Queenstown!
In any case, it is a great trip.
Before you start out, it might be a good idea to look up an atlas. I mean no disrespect, but you have to have some understanding of where you are travelling to, geographically speaking. Please pay particular attention to the latitude, that is latitude south, for the locations you will be visiting. Also, you need to notice the altitude and terrain, particularly in the South Island of New Zealand. Then you need to take into the account the season of travel and the prevailing weather patterns that will affect the likely (and unlikely) weather you might experience. Overlap all of this with the effects of climate change. It's immaterial whether or not you believe in it, because we have it. That's our reality.
Okay, so you've looked at the atlas and looked at Tauck's itinerary map. First thing to notice is that you are covering a huge geographical area. (The lower 48 fits inside Australia.) Almost regardless of the season you choose, you are bound to get a little bit of everything, weather wise. You are covering (in Australia) the temperate south east, desert, tropics & temperate humid weather in Sydney. For New Zealand, the climate is mostly cool temperate to warm temperate with a strong maritime influence with microclimates everywhere.
So yes, you have quite a task to pack for all of this for the very short time you will be actually here.
My advice has always been to try and chose the shoulder seasons of late Spring or early Autumn, thus, hopefully, avoiding Summer and the extremes of excessive heat in the red centre, the monsoonal rain and cyclones of the tropical north. And remember, those monsoonal rains are picked up by the prevailing winds and find their way down to the south and east coasts. If you want to visit in prime time for the red centre, you should visit in July, August & September. Yes, it will be chilly in the south of Australia & the South Island of NZ, but you will avoid the rainy season and cyclones in the tropics. It's a similar story, but milder & more temperate for NZ, but naturally there will be more snow in the South Island in winter. Plus, you have to consider the ocean as a major, contributing factor to NZ's weather.
So layers are the go. But unless you normally live, without air-conditioning, in 37C+ , thus finding temperatures of 20C chilly, I honestly doubt you will require multiple fleeces or "sweaters". You need layers, preferably natural fibres or similar microfibres (that breathe). And as any traveler already knows, it can snow at any time of the year in the mountains, so that's something you need to consider, particularly for the south of the South Island of NZ.
Summer is not over. For Melbourne, the forecast for the next 5 days is: 29, 32, 32, 34. For Uluru, it is: 34, 40, 41, 41, 42, 40, 39. That certainly looks like Summer to me. And I have to seriously wonder why you would choose, of your own free will, to travel in those temperatures, in the rainy season with cyclones brewing, when they are so many better times to visit Australia. For New Zealand, this is quite a nice season. Which is why I always suggest shoulder seasons as a compromise, if you are squishing both countries into your very short, blink-and-you'll-miss-it visit.
Which all just means ... come again and stay longer!
Cheers,
Jan