[Xylochick216]

I went for 3 weeks in high school doing everything on the East Coast (Cairns/GB Reef, Magnetic Island, Whitsunday Islands, Surfer's Paradise, Byron Bay, Sydney, etc.) and I lived in Perth for 6 months in college. My 6 month stint included 7 weeks traveling to Melbourne, Tasmania, the entire East Coast again, and a week in NZ.

It doesn't really matter if you do NZ first or last. Just see what's cheapest. I'd probably break it up a week in NZ and 2 in Australia. With just 1 week in NZ, pick an island. They both offer so much and are extremely different. I've only done the north island (with the exception of flying out of Christchurch) so I only know things to do there (Auckland, glow worm caves, mud pools and Maori tribes at Rotorua, zorbing).

As for what to do in Australia, you could easily spend a week in Sydney, but I wouldn't recommend that if you only have 2 weeks in the country. See a show and tour the Opera House, take a harbor cruise, spend some time in the park, look around Darling Harbor, etc. The Blue Mountains are gorgeous, too. If you don't want to fly anywhere else, the Great Barrier Reef would be out since the most common point for taking off is Cairns. My favorite place in Australia is Magnetic Island, followed closely by the Whitsunday Islands, but both are fairly far north. Those are warm year-round.

If you don't want to venture that far north, I'd suggest going to Melbourne (I only spent 2 days there and did the Great Ocean Road tour, including a helicopter ride - gorgeous) and Tasmania (incredibly gorgeous, lots of awesome terrain, and the Cadbury factory). I never made it to Adelaide, so I can't speak to that, but Kangaroo Island is supposed to be fun.

Let me know if you have other questions. I'm currently planning a trip for around 20 high schoolers for 2013, so I've been doing a lot of research!