My wife and I are planning a vacation to Australia and New Zealand for next year. At least several weeks long. Traveling from the NYC Metro.
We realize that if we wait until our Spring / their Fall, there will be less crowds, less heat and less cost, etc. But for various reasons it would work more ideally in our schedule to do it during our winter (late January or in February).
So what we want to understand is how big a trade off that is. Just how much more crowded will it be? How much more will it costs (fights, hotels, etc.)? How oppressively hot will the temp be and or will it be more or less rain, etc.? Versus doing it in say April or May? Are the crowds 2x? 3x? Is the cost double? Etc.
Other things to consider about the timing of the trip?
The weather is dependent on where you are in Australia or in New Zealand; there are areas that aren’t particularly hot and areas that are EXTREMELY HOT. Some areas will be quite wet, some areas will be very dry.
Both countries will be a lot more crowded as their schools will be on summer vacation and that comes through in increased costs and lower availability in bookings as well.
We spent most of the month of Feb in NZ this year, and it wasn’t oppressively hot anywhere (we were on both the south and north islands). We were lucky to have NO rain to speak of on a 14 day bicycle trip on the South Island, and it was actually chillier overall than we expected it to be on the trip. In my opinion, there was no place that was overly crowded, but we live in the DC area, so we may measure things differently than someone from a less populated area.
I can’t speak of the costs comparatively, because we didn’t consider other times.
We were in Australia for 2 weeks at the end of January this year. It was unseasonably cool in Melbourne and Sydney – highs in the 70’s and low/mid 80’s? We were hiking in NZ for February (both islands) and it was definitely not hot. Long sleeves and layers most days, some we needed coats and wool hats.
It’s probably fair to say that you will pay more in their summer for flights and hotels. I don’t know how overrun NZ is with tourists November-February. We went to NZ in early April and felt it was a good time to go. It was definitely cool at night and on cloudy days on the south island. It was very pleasant everywhere otherwise, on both islands. We went river tubing through glow worm caves and didn’t find it too cold.
It doesn’t sound like you’re looking for a beach holiday. If you are, go during their summer. If not, maybe hold off until their fall. Frankly, when visiting NZ, assume you’re going to spend a lot anyway just getting there. I’m not sure how much cost the different seasons make when you’re talking about a fair amount of money in the first place. I would buy flights for their summer sooner rather than later if you decide to go at that time of year.
We are doing this trip, meeting up with my daughter in December who will be studying in Oz for fall quarter. Then flying to NZ for Christmas and New Years holidays. We’re not able to be flexible due to 2 kids with college schedules, so we’re just going when we are able to go. We do have some flexibility on return trip as only one family member is returning home right after the holidays and 3 others are staying through the second week of January. Airfares are higher than during shoulder season, but drop a little by mid-January and didn’t seem significantly higher to me as it’s already a big investment to get to this part of the world. We were able to use miles and points to defray the costs of airfare.
I would book flights and accommodations soon if you decide to go in the height of their summer – hotels and Airbnbs were already filling up in parts of the South Island when I booked in June. According to my Kiwi friend, expect places like Queenstown to be busy during the summer holidays, she called it “festive.”
As for Oz, my husband’s family is from Sydney and he has said expect it will be hot in the summer, especially in the north in Queensland and NT. Depending on your itinerary, that might make a difference in your planning. We’ll be mostly at beach locations in NSW and Brisbane so are not too concerned about the heat. Enjoy your planning!
If you are in Melbourne during the Australian Open (1/12-1/26) it is a fantastic event. I was in Australia January 2022 (Melbourne, Whitsundays and Sydney) and the weather was great. We were in Melbourne 5 days and one day was hot, another cold and two “just right”.
I can’t believe so many of us were in NZ this year - we were there in April visiting D21 who was studying in Wellington. :). I’m not much help to the OP though, I think April was sort of their off season so we had plenty of choices with hotels and Air Bnbs. Our weather was great - cool and perfect for hiking and leaf peeping on the South Island, warm but not too hot in Wellington and warm enough for a beautiful catamaran trip in Northland.
Just by happenstance, most of the rental cars we got were hybrids. The one that was gasoline only - we noticed how expensive the gas price was. I wouldn’t say costs to stay there were low, but we weren’t doing a budget conscious trip.
I loved New Zealand, but it’s been 20 years since I was there. My one piece of advice: don’t take your shoes off on the flight. We traveled from Boston to CA and then from CA to NZ. On the second leg of the flight, we upgraded to business, and I was actually able to sleep. I took off my shoes and didn’t try to put them on until we were about an hour from Auckland. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get into the shoes. I ended up wearing them like flip flops.
Agree with @Bromfield2. I don’t normally have trouble with ankle swelling, but someone suggested wearing compression socks on our 15+ hour flight, so I did (they have have been a little too big for me, but they helped.). My ankles swelled a little, but not badly.