• 6 Dinner (D)
• 14 Breakfast (B)
• 2 Lunch (L)

• Medium level of fitness required

• Day 1: Flights to arrive prior to 12 noon into Melbourne AirportDay 15: Flights to depart anytime from Auckland Airport
  Airport to Hotel transfers are available to purchase on request.
  Flights to and from your tour are not included in the tour price.
   
  Internal-holiday flights IncludedPlease note that prices include land and internal-holiday airfares, which AAT Kings will book in order to fulfil the holiday itinerary: 
  Day 3: Melbourne to CairnsDay 6: Cairns to SydneyDay 9: Sydney to QueenstownDay 12: Queenstown to Auckland

• Comfortable walking shoes
  Warm layers
  Sunglasses, sunscreen and hat
  Water bottle
  Camera

Cruise Sydney Harbour for views of the Sydney Opera House from the water and a passage beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Look out towards Circular Quay, Shark Island, harbourside parks, beaches and waterfront homes as the city unfolds around its waterways.

The harbour has long shaped Sydney’s identity, from its natural coves to its working ferry routes and monumental architecture. Seeing its landmarks from a boat reveals their setting and scale in a way that land-based sightseeing cannot.

Cruise the waterways at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures near Cairns for a close look at Australia’s saltwater crocodiles. The wildlife visit also offers opportunities to encounter other animals associated with the region, including koalas and wallabies.

Tropical North Queensland is crocodile country, where waterways and surrounding habitats support a distinctive range of wildlife. Seeing these powerful reptiles from a purpose-built cruise vessel brings their size and behaviour into focus while introducing the natural world beyond Cairns.

AAT Kings

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers on a walk to Melbourne’s South Wharf for a hosted welcome dinner. The riverside setting offers a relaxed place to share a first meal and get to know the group.

Set beside the Yarra River, South Wharf pairs former port buildings with contemporary restaurants. It is a convivial introduction to Melbourne’s dining culture, with the city’s waterfront atmosphere close at hand.

Walk Melbourne’s lanes and arcades with your Travel Director, discovering café-lined passages, street art and the city’s characteristic mix of intimate laneways and grand boulevards. Look up at ornate Victorian facades and notice how older churches and civic buildings sit beside contemporary murals.

Melbourne’s laneways grew within the city’s nineteenth-century grid and have become gathering places for coffee, small shops and public art. This guided walk reveals the contrast between historic architecture and creative street culture.

Explore the Koorie Heritage Trust in Melbourne through a guided gallery tour and walk focused on Koorie peoples, cultures and communities. Engage with Aboriginal perspectives in a setting dedicated to sharing cultural knowledge and creative expression.

The Trust supports the living heritage of First Peoples in southeastern Australia. Its exhibitions and cultural work offer insight into continuing connections to Country, making this MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience a meaningful way to encounter Melbourne beyond its familiar city sights.

Plant trees with a rainforest restoration team near Cairns and contribute directly to the recovery of Notophyll Vine Forest. This hands-on MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience turns a visit to Tropical North Queensland into practical conservation work.

This rare dry rainforest faces pressure from development. The project aims to restore habitat and strengthen a wildlife corridor for native birds. Working alongside the team offers a grounded understanding of what it takes to protect a landscape whose ecological history stretches back millions of years.

Cruise by high-speed catamaran to the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns and explore its marine world with insights from a local guide. Snorkelling equipment is provided for those who want to enter the water; a semi-submersible craft and underwater observatory offer ways to view the reef while staying dry.

This UNESCO World Heritage-listed reef supports an immense variety of coral, fish and other marine life. Watch for shifting colours and movement beneath the surface while learning about the ecosystem you have travelled to see.

Step inside the Sydney Opera House on a private guided tour that explores its architecture and the performers associated with its stages. See the landmark as a working arts venue rather than only a silhouette across the harbour.

Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the Opera House is celebrated for its sculptural roof forms on Bennelong Point. The tour offers context for one of Australia’s most recognisable buildings and its place in Sydney’s cultural life.

Go behind the scenes at Bondi Surf Life Saving Club with special access to this members’ club. Learn from a surf lifesaving guide about its history and beach safety operations, then share a hosted Be My Guest lunch at the Bondi RSL club overlooking the sand and Pacific Ocean.

Bondi’s surf lifesaving culture is part of everyday coastal life, built around volunteers who watch over swimmers. The club visit gives the famous beach a personal, community-focused perspective that a shoreline stroll alone cannot provide.

Meet a local female farmer at Real Country near Queenstown for a hands-on introduction to southern New Zealand farm life. Watch horse communication and working sheepdog mustering demonstrations, try a stock-whip cracking lesson, and feed and interact with farm animals.

The experience pairs practical rural skills with southern hospitality and the stories of someone who works on the land. As a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience, it also supports The Fairlight Foundation’s work advancing women in agriculture through a donation for each guest.

Explore Arrowtown, a former gold-mining settlement near Queenstown, and browse its small shops and restaurants against a backdrop of South Island mountains. Its compact streets offer an inviting place to appreciate the character of a town shaped by nineteenth-century prospectors.

Gold discoveries transformed this part of Otago during the 1860s. Arrowtown’s preserved historic buildings and riverside setting keep that era visible, offering a distinct contrast to Queenstown’s adventure-town energy.

Cross Lake Wakatipu aboard the TSS Earnslaw, a historic steamship, to reach Walter Peak High Country Farm. Take in the lake and the peaks of the Remarkables before enjoying a gourmet barbecue dinner at the Colonel’s Homestead and a farm show.

The steamship’s traditional character and Walter Peak’s rural setting bring together two sides of Queenstown’s heritage: lake travel and high-country farming. It is a lakeside evening with a distinctly southern New Zealand flavour.

Visit the National Kiwi Hatchery Aotearoa in Rotorua with conservationists who explain the work involved in protecting New Zealand’s national bird. Learn about kiwi breeding and the challenges these flightless birds face in the wild.

Kiwi are nocturnal and rarely seen in their natural habitat, making conservation-led interpretation especially valuable. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience brings attention to the care behind efforts to safeguard an iconic native species, rather than treating wildlife as a fleeting sighting.

Travel through the Waitomo Caves by boat and look up as thousands of glowworms cast pinpoints of light across the cavern roof. The quiet water passage offers an unusually intimate way to experience the caves’ darkness and natural illumination.

Waitomo’s glowworms are the larvae of a species native to New Zealand; their light attracts prey in the cave environment. Beneath ancient limestone formations, the glowing canopy above the water reveals a remarkable adaptation to life underground.

Watch the Penguin Parade on Phillip Island as little penguins come ashore at dusk and make their way towards their burrows. This optional outing from Melbourne focuses on a nightly wildlife behaviour rather than a staged animal encounter.

Little penguins spend much of their time at sea, returning to land after dark. Seeing them emerge from the surf offers a memorable glimpse of Victoria’s coastal wildlife. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Glide above the rainforest on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway to Kuranda, explore the village, and ride the historic Kuranda Scenic Railway through the tropical landscape. This optional excursion combines elevated forest views with a journey along a heritage rail route.

The Wet Tropics of Queensland is a World Heritage-listed rainforest region, while the railway recalls the engineering ambition of the late nineteenth century. The experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge on an optional guided experience for a bird’s-eye view of the city and harbour. The ascent transforms one of Sydney’s most familiar landmarks into a physical encounter with its steel structure and sweeping setting.

Opened in 1932, the bridge remains a defining feat of Australian engineering. From its upper reaches, the harbour’s waterways and urban shoreline come into perspective. The climb is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Travel from Sydney to the Blue Mountains on an optional tour to view the Three Sisters, the region’s distinctive sandstone rock formation. The excursion exchanges city streets for escarpments, forested valleys and expansive mountain scenery.

The Blue Mountains form part of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, recognised for its extensive eucalypt landscapes. Viewing the Three Sisters brings the scale of this rugged terrain into focus. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Cruise Piopiotahi / Milford Sound on an optional excursion from Queenstown, looking up at sheer cliffs, high peaks and waterfalls along the fiord. The boat journey puts you close to the immense rock walls that define this remote corner of the South Island.

Carved by glaciers and set within Fiordland National Park, Piopiotahi is known for scenery shaped by water, ice and steep terrain. The excursion is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Explore Otago’s wine country on an optional tour from Queenstown. Discover a different side of the region through its vineyards and wines, with mountain scenery forming the backdrop to the tasting experience.

Central Otago’s cool climate and dramatic seasonal shifts have made it particularly associated with Pinot Noir. A wine tour offers a way to connect the flavours in the glass with the landscape in which the grapes grow. It is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Walk through the Maori village of Ohinemutu in Rotorua with a local kaitiaki, or guardian. Explore geothermal surroundings and hear ancestral stories while visiting significant community sites, including St Faith’s Church.

Ohinemutu is a living Maori community beside Lake Rotorua, where steam rises among homes and gathering places. Guided interpretation provides insight into its cultural traditions and the relationship between people, place and geothermal land, making this MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® visit especially personal.

Experience Te Po at Te Puia in Rotorua on a guided evening devoted to Maori history and culture. In the carved meeting house Te Aronui a Rua, witness a powhiri welcome and performances featuring waiata, moteatea, poi and haka.

The experience also includes a view of Pohutu Geyser and a buffet dinner of hangi-inspired cuisine. Together, the performance, food and geothermal setting offer several ways to engage with Rotorua’s cultural and natural landscape.