Our journey back to United States from New Zealand had quite an interesting flight itinerary with an overnight layover in Sydney, Australia before finally heading back home. Before we even arrived in Sydney we had a long layover in Wellington with just enough time to go out and explore the city which was totally worth it. When we finally landed in Sydney at 5:45 PM we had exactly 16 hours and 45 minutes to wander the city before the long flight back to the United States.

To recap this was the final city on our trip down under. We had spent a wonderful week in Melbourne with some of the most welcoming people I have ever met. After that Beth and I had a go at driving on the left side of the road on the Great Ocean Road. From there we said a temporary goodbye to Australia and landed in Queenstown, New Zealand to hike in one of the most beautiful areas in the world.

Coming back home to the USA from New Zealand we had a pretty crazy itinerary that had a total of 5 flights. This included a 5 hour 45 minute layover in Wellington and an overnight in Sydney, all before getting on the long flight to San Francisco. While not ideal we did make the most this crazy flight schedule. Keep in mind I used airline miles to get all the flights for free. We were fortunate enough to have business class to Australia but on the way home all flights were back in economy.

Overall our trip down under was more than amazing. We stayed with some amazing friends in Melbourne to get a more local experience but we also went out on our own to explore both the Great Ocean Road and Queenstown. It was a truly wonderful experience and we can’t wait to go back!

Beth and I had an amazing five day adventure in Queenstown, New Zealand. Queenstown is one of the most beautiful places we had ever visited and the DoubleTree by Hilton Queenstown was a perfect place to stay at. Before coming to Queenstown we had spent a week with some friends in Melbourne, Australia and also drove the amazing Great Ocean Road. All this was part of our itinerary to visit both Australia and New Zealand thanks to free award tickets and in business class!

Back to the hotel we stayed at, the DoubleTree by Hilton Queenstown which is situated right on the water that connects to the beautiful Lake Wakatipu. Being a hotel point and airline mile aficionado I managed to get the room for free using 120,000 points for five nights. It runs between 25,000 – 30,000 points per night depending on the time of the year and as a Hilton Honors Diamond elite I received the fifth award night free! All elites do!

5 Full Days to Explore Queenstown!

Wow just wow! That was our first impressions of Queenstown as we walked off the plane and onto the tarmac. Literally everywhere we turned there were incredible mountains and crystal clear lakes. We had just spent an amazing week in Melbourne and touring the Great Ocean Road, both amazing experiences. With that being said we were caught off guard with how pretty New Zealand is.

To get to Queenstown we were able to tack on a free stopover on our award ticket to Australia. For more info on how I was able to get all the flights for free check here. In summary I got two people to both Australia and New Zealand with half of it in business class for free. Only had to pay the taxes! Hotel wise we stayed at DoubleTree Queenstown the bulk of the time and thoroughly enjoyed it.

One of the highlights of our trip to Australia was driving the Great Ocean Road for  three days. We were lucky enough to stay with friends in Melbourne, Australia the majority of time but in the middle of the week we headed out to tour one of the most scenic drives in the world! Our friends thought we were somewhat crazy as three days really isn’t that much time but we think it was just about perfect. Granted we didn’t have time to relax too much but we love being active and busy anyway.

For our journey we started on the southeast side of Melbourne at Noble Park so please keep that in mind if you want to use our trip as a basis for your travels on the Great Ocean Road. The itinerary I will outline below worked very well for us and I would only suggest a couple tweaks based on our experience. I will note those at the end of each section. Bolded items are key stops or activities that we did.