Heading for the South Pacific
In two weeks we will be headed out on our longest trip yet, to the South Pacific. We fly to Papeete, Tahiti, where we spend two days in Papeete and ten days on a cruise through the Society Islands and Tuomotu Islands. Next we fly to Auckland, NZ, and spend five nights on the North Island where we have rented a Corolla. From there we fly to Nelson on the South island where another Corolla awaits us. We spend six days on the north end of South island: Mapua, Kaikoura, & Christchurch; then fly to Queenstown to pick up another Corolla. (Corollas just seem to be a common rental car.) After seven nights in Te Anau, Arrowtown and Queenstown, we fly to Melbourne, AU, for three days; then on to Sydney for three days. Finally, we take the really long flight to San Francisco and back to Denver.
With flu going around, we have managed to stay healthy so far. I hope we can survive the initial flights. From LAX to PPT we have a cheap red-eye flight. I have a dental CE meeting the previous day, so we can't go earlier. The alternative was Air France at about twice the price. Our cruise is all-inclusive and should be relaxing. We are looking forward to some really great snorkeling. Our flight from Papeete to Auckland may be stressful. I bid on upgraded seats, and the bid was accepted. We arrive in Auckland at 10pm, then have to get baggage, go through customs, call the car rental company, have them take us to an off-site location to rent the car, then find our way, driving on the wrong side of the road (left), to our B&B using GPS. It will be a late night. Pray for us. We will sleep in the next morning.
Our next seventeen days in New Zealand should be fairly relaxing; easy driving, mainly day trips, great scenery, some refreshing hikes and boat trips in the bays and fjords. In southern South island, the expected weather will be high temperatures in low 50's F. degrees, lows about 40. Thus, we need both warm and cool weather gear. We plan on larger suitcases for this trip. By now we are into April; real Fall weather in the southern hemisphere.
We fly directly from Queenstown to Melbourne, AU, on a flight connection that only flies a few days per week. We arrive at 5pm on a Friday night at the airport and again, find our baggage, go through customs visa required, then make our way from terminal 2 to terminal 4, and take the Skybus (leaves every 30 minutes) for a hour-plus ride to a stop near our hotel. The alternative is a very expensive taxi ride. However, our hotel is one of the top-rated in the city and should provide a very comfortable stay for the next three days. This will be mainly a city exploration.
From Melbourne, we take Tiger Air to Sydney. Never heard of this airline before, and we have not received advanced e-tickets or seats, but the flight is only 1 1/2 hours. The connection to our hotel should be fairly easy. Another three days in Sydney; said by many to be one of the most beautiful cities on earth. Another city exploration. We are giving Australia lesser attention for two reasons. 1) It is such a big country that the long distances and many locations would require another month. 2) Meeting some Aussies on our last European trip, they immediately started telling us how beautiful New Zealand is..... not how beautiful Australia is, even though they come from Adelaide, Australian wine country. That suggests to me that NZ has the better tourist sights.
Originally, I planned for us to stop in Hawaii or the Cook islands on our way home, to break up that long 13-14 hour flight. But we have already been to Hawaii 6-7 times and a flight from Sydney stops in the Cook Islands only once per week. If we landed, we would have to stay a whole week. Our trip is already long enough, and we will have already spent twelve days in French Polynesia. We used United Airlines frequent flier miles to book the trip home including upgraded seating. We depart Sydney in the morning and arrive in Denver just over two hours later by the calendar (crossing the international dateline).
I doubt we will ever take another trip this long.
With flu going around, we have managed to stay healthy so far. I hope we can survive the initial flights. From LAX to PPT we have a cheap red-eye flight. I have a dental CE meeting the previous day, so we can't go earlier. The alternative was Air France at about twice the price. Our cruise is all-inclusive and should be relaxing. We are looking forward to some really great snorkeling. Our flight from Papeete to Auckland may be stressful. I bid on upgraded seats, and the bid was accepted. We arrive in Auckland at 10pm, then have to get baggage, go through customs, call the car rental company, have them take us to an off-site location to rent the car, then find our way, driving on the wrong side of the road (left), to our B&B using GPS. It will be a late night. Pray for us. We will sleep in the next morning.
Our next seventeen days in New Zealand should be fairly relaxing; easy driving, mainly day trips, great scenery, some refreshing hikes and boat trips in the bays and fjords. In southern South island, the expected weather will be high temperatures in low 50's F. degrees, lows about 40. Thus, we need both warm and cool weather gear. We plan on larger suitcases for this trip. By now we are into April; real Fall weather in the southern hemisphere.
We fly directly from Queenstown to Melbourne, AU, on a flight connection that only flies a few days per week. We arrive at 5pm on a Friday night at the airport and again, find our baggage, go through customs visa required, then make our way from terminal 2 to terminal 4, and take the Skybus (leaves every 30 minutes) for a hour-plus ride to a stop near our hotel. The alternative is a very expensive taxi ride. However, our hotel is one of the top-rated in the city and should provide a very comfortable stay for the next three days. This will be mainly a city exploration.
From Melbourne, we take Tiger Air to Sydney. Never heard of this airline before, and we have not received advanced e-tickets or seats, but the flight is only 1 1/2 hours. The connection to our hotel should be fairly easy. Another three days in Sydney; said by many to be one of the most beautiful cities on earth. Another city exploration. We are giving Australia lesser attention for two reasons. 1) It is such a big country that the long distances and many locations would require another month. 2) Meeting some Aussies on our last European trip, they immediately started telling us how beautiful New Zealand is..... not how beautiful Australia is, even though they come from Adelaide, Australian wine country. That suggests to me that NZ has the better tourist sights.
Originally, I planned for us to stop in Hawaii or the Cook islands on our way home, to break up that long 13-14 hour flight. But we have already been to Hawaii 6-7 times and a flight from Sydney stops in the Cook Islands only once per week. If we landed, we would have to stay a whole week. Our trip is already long enough, and we will have already spent twelve days in French Polynesia. We used United Airlines frequent flier miles to book the trip home including upgraded seating. We depart Sydney in the morning and arrive in Denver just over two hours later by the calendar (crossing the international dateline).
I doubt we will ever take another trip this long.
posted by Wayne | 5:46 PM
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