Planning a trip to Australia and maybe New Zealand. Advice?

[Lisa0825]

Hello, all! My niece just moved to a town near Sydney, and I would like to visit her in 2018. But since the flight is so long, and I have some other "wishes" in that part of the world, I thought I would plan for a few weeks, and try to knock them all off my bucket list. I thought I would pop in here and see if anyone has experience traveling around Australia.

In addition to seeing my niece, I also would like to:
1) See the Great Barrier Reef before it is gone.
2) Meet up with an internet friend from Brisbane.
3) Visit New Zealand

So here is something I have been mulling over... 1 week in New Zealand either on the front or back end of the trip. 2 weeks in Australia. Fly into Sydney, visit my niece at her home. Drive up the coast to Brisbane, overnighting somewhere - are there any cool towns in between Sydney and Brisbane where I could spend a couple days? Fly from Brisbane to Cairns for reef and rainforest. Drive back to Sydney, stopping at another town for a visit along the way.

If there isn't much to see between Sydney and Brisbane, I could just fly straight to Cairns from Sydney instead. I was just thinking that I loved my drive up the Pacific Coast Highway in CA, stopping overnight in a couple towns, so I thought the same kind of plan might work, but I know next to nothing about the area, and my niece has only been there a few weeks.