Journey to NZ

PompeyPete

FunTime wrote: »

Since you don't need our help, perhaps you can post the best things for me to do whilst I'm there in November.

Start your own thread.;)

Murphy_The_Cat

RHemmings wrote: »

I was born and grew up in New Zealand. My main reason to go is to visit family. I won't be doing a big tour.

any good ?

a few options seem to fit your criteria

AA looks OK with a decent break in both directions for £773

FunTime

PompeyPete wrote: »

Start your own thread.;)

But what if he doesn't see my new thread?

Anyway, this thread is going nowhere. After the OP has given himself a tremendous headache, he'll give up and book all on a single itinerary.
Though his is actually not a bad idea if you have a lot of time and actually want to tour different countries.

RHemmings

FunTime wrote: »

Since you don't need our help, perhaps you can post the best things for me to do whilst I'm there in November.

What do you like doing?

I like walking and staying in cabins on the Coromandel Penninsula. If you do, definitely go to Hot Water Beach where you dig a hole in the sand, and it fills with hot water from thermal springs under the bridge. If you like volcanism, then do the walk up, over, and down Mount Tongariro. But, check that Mount Ngarahoe isn't threatening to erupt. There's lots to do, what do you like?

November is Winter, there's lots of skiing. The Southern Alps are really nice. Wild, uncrowded. Edmund Hillary learnt to climb mountains there. (If that's your sort of thing.)

They now have a thing where you can feed eels. Eels get MASSIVE in New Zealand and they are very keen eaters

If you get to the (literally) Shotover River in the South Island and they still have the jet (edit: jet boat) trips (they did recently) then that's a real fun ride.

In NZ they are always inventing interesting things to do. E.g. bungee jumps were invented there. I think Zorb Balls were as well. There are things like that.

If you're used to the UK, then you can amaze the locals by swimming at the beaches in mid-winter, when the water temperature is about what you get in the UK during the summer. Make sure you have safety support, particular Auckland West Coast beaches.

The thermal regions are worth seeing. You'll see more in the way of Geysers etc. in the out of town valleys than the towns such as Rotorua. The thermal towns smell of rotten eggs. Staying at the Blue Lake outside Rotorua is outside the thermal region and away from the smell.

Don't forget to be way outside the cities for at least one clear night so that you can see the stars. There are MANY more stars visible in the Southern Hemisphere than the North.

MothballsWallet

Back in 2005, I used The Flight Centre - they found me a return ticket from LHR-Seoul Incheon-Auckland for about £800 return (and it was valid for a whole year).

It was 12 hours LHR-Seoul Incheon and Seoul Incheon-Auckland in both directions - 4.5 hours stopover on the way out and overnight on the way back (because the Seoul-LHR flight time had changed while I was living in NZ).

I did book the ticket about 8-9 months before going though.

FunTime

RHemmings wrote: »

What do you like doing?

I like walking and staying in cabins on the Coromandel Penninsula. If you do, definitely go to Hot Water Beach where you dig a hole in the sand, and it fills with hot water from thermal springs under the bridge. If you like volcanism, then do the walk up, over, and down Mount Tongariro. But, check that Mount Ngarahoe isn't threatening to erupt. There's lots to do, what do you like?

November is Winter, there's lots of skiing. The Southern Alps are really nice. Wild, uncrowded. Edmund Hillary learnt to climb mountains there. (If that's your sort of thing.)

Winter?! I don't think so Winter in Auckland is June, July, August.

Auckland’s summer is from December to February, autumn or fall is from March to May, winter is from June to August and spring is from September to November.

So I'll be there Spring/Summer.

I'll take a look at the places you have mentioned. I've bought new hiking clothing for the trip.

RHemmings

FunTime wrote: »

Winter?! I don't think so Winter in Auckland is June, July, August.



So I'll be there Spring/Summer.

Whoops! I have been living in the Northern Hemisphere too long!

I should have remembered that we used to have all those overseas Christmas programmes on TV showing snow and winter when it was midsummer outside.

I'll take a look at the places you have mentioned. I've bought new hiking clothing for the trip.

The cabins are good. Best hiking is in the South Island. When I was young, we went to the same cabin in the Coromandel Penninsula two years running. One year we found it had been occupied by scouts that got there first, and we ended up sleeping outside. The next year we got there and found that it had been occupied by prisoners on an excursion, and we ended up sleeping outside again

If you go through Auckland in summer, try swimming on the West Coast Beaches. The sand is black, including both iron and titanium ore. There is decent surf on those beaches, such that even bodysurfing can be real fun. (But, watch out for rip tides and swim between the flags.)

RHemmings

Returning to topic, there is a suitable looking AUS/NZ specialist travel agent here in Leicester. I am thinking very seriously of having them finish off our booking, which will cost more than minimum but address some of the issues mentioned upthread.

I have now engaged the rest of my family in planning the trip. So far we have nothing even remotely approximating agreement as to where we should go on the way.

richardw

Btw Malaysia Airlines have great fares, aircraft with 3-4-3 and 2-4-2 seating, are members of One World alliance so you could earn Avios for a BA household account https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/household-accounts

Voyager2002

RHemmings wrote: »

If I did this trip, I would certainly need some gold plated travel insurance that would protect me in case of a missed connection.

Such cover does not exist (I have spent a lot of time looking for it, without success).

However, since the purpose of each change of 'plane and ticket is to have a rest and spend some time somewhere new, there should be plenty of slack time in case of delays and schedule changes.

If you are determined to do this, there is a travel agency called kiwi.com who put together separate tickets to make up long journeys at relatively low cost. In the event of a missed connection the agency will sort out the mess, although subject to a lot of T &Cs with fine print and limitations. I do not recommend them, but arranging your trip yourself with lots of separate tickets could end up even worse than using this agency.