Australia and New Zealand

Haven't been to New Zealand but in Australia we used the rail system to go from Sydney to Canberra, from Canberra to Melbourne and then from Melbourne to Adelaide. Worked well for us. By the way, Canberra is boring, boring, boring. Sydney is a gorgeous city and we liked Adelaide a lot, too, though we had friends there so that made a difference.

In New Zealand, it is better to travel in train not because it is faster than car but because in travelling a train, you are able to see the beauty of New Zealand. In all long distance passenger trains, they also have a café carriage which will serve you a range of snacks, light meals and non-alcoholic/alcoholic drinks and open air viewing carriage.

Hi Pamela, the rail service here in Australia is a very efficient way of travelling between most cities and states so unless you enjoy rail travel itself you may not want to travel by train. Having said that local trains are a good way of getting around in cities and there is a more extensive service in the eastern states such as New South Wales than here in South Australia. Of course it all depends on where you would like to go and how much time you have, Australia is rather a big country with long distances between the major cities. You may find the following websites usefull as well as the individual state travel bureau sites.
greatsouthernrail.com.au
nswtrainlink.info
Hope you get to see us soon

The NZ long distance rail system is not well developed and infrequent. It is run as a tourist service rather than a public transport system. Most people fly these days. While the landscape is wonderful the trains travel very slowly eg it would take most of the day to travel from Auckland to Wellington.

An alternative would be the efficient Intercity bus service.

http://www.intercity.co.nz/

We are in NZ at the moment, 2/3rds of the way through a 10 week holiday and enjoying every minute!

My apologies Pamela, significant typo, my message should read the the rail service in Australia is NOT a very efficient way of travelling between major cities and states.

Australia and New Zealand are both wonderful but are quite different and distinct from each other. Long distance bus service can be useful, even when they are very long distance in Australia. Almost all the big cities are sprinkled around the circumference of the continent, so the highly competitive airlines make travel easier, often at moderate fares.

Thank you all for the input about the systems to get around in Australia and NewZealand.
I appreciate all the information I can get Thanks again.

Personally I wouldn't bother with inter-city rail travel in Australia - much better to fly or drive. The standard of trains compared to Europe or even the US is relatively low. The exception of course are the iconic train trips on the Ghan or the Indian Pacific.

To address an earlier comment - Canberra is definitely not boring. But it's not a city designed for the whirlwind international tourist. It is a city built for cars, and the public transport is terrible, which makes it difficult for tourists. And it's a city that benefits from exploration with a local - a lot of its treasures are hidden (even in plain sight).

So if you only have a couple of weeks and are trying to see the highlights across this continent, it would be better to skip Canberra. You're going to be spending enough time travelling between places as it is!