Best time to have a holiday in Australia and New Zealand

by Brenda Robinson
(Sutton Coldfied England)

Best time to have a holiday in Australia and New Zealand

We are planning a holiday to Australia and New Zealand, spending a month in Australia.

In Australia we plan on visiting Perth, Ayres Rock, Sydney, Queensland and Darwin.

Then we are looking at going on a coach holiday to New Zealand for about 3 weeks.

Our original plans were to go to Australia in September then on to New Zealand but we have been told that October is not very good weather wise in New Zealand to see both North and South Islands.

Could you give us some ideas? We were told February is best for NZ but would March/April time be ok for Australia?

WOW! Great question and a tiny bit out of my realm (well the NZ side) but I will tell you what I know...

September is the first month of spring in Australia. Certainly in our part of Queensland, as soon as September hits, the weather changes noticably!

In places you mention I think you would find the weather mostly good. You will also need to consider the affects of Australian school holidays which usually start mid to late September and stagger through to mid October (we stagger the holidays from state to state) and a few events in various spots.

Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Alice Springs warm days, cooler nights. Darwin equatorial climate almost always hot and humid. Queensland spring weather, warming up and should be well before marine stingers and box jellyfish arrive in the northern part of Queensland, which makes going to the reef and other activities around the water so much easier.

September in Sydney is usually really nice, with temperatures getting into the mid 20s during the day and even higher at times. Perth, I think gets a little warmer than that.

In New Zealand, I have found the south island can be cold even in the summer! But I think the main potential issue might be that in October the snow from the mountains in the south Island will be melting which creates torrential icemelt rivers, which are awesome to watch, but may interfere with some of the activities. I am not sure whether it is particularly rainy at that time of the year.

I can imagine February would be awesome in New Zealand as it is the end of the summer months and before it gets too cold in the more southerly parts. If you can verify that to be the case, you want to know about Australia in March/April!

March and April are technically the beginning of our Autumn months, think of September and October in UK and in general the weather in Sydney will be similar though probably warmer! We can still get a bit of rain at this time of the year, or some late season cyclones (Queensland and Darwin).

Temperature wise I don't think it will be too different in March/April to September (maybe a little warmer).

The other thing to think about when travelling at that time of the year is that Easter often falls during March or April, which can affect prices of accommodation, availability and the general busy-ness of the touristy areas when Australian schools are on holidays.

I hope that has been a little useful, my sister lived in NZ for quite a few years, I will email her and see if she can shed any light on the October versus February for you. When she gets back to me I will add any changes in here. If you want to contact me personally, use my contact form and I can answer any direct questions you have, or you can post a question below in the comments.

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