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Thread: Critique my New Zealand Itinerary, please

  1. #21
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    This is helpful, we're flying into Christchurch on Feb 2, to Feb 22.. gonna be great! All south island, tons of hiking and fly fishing

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    If you wanna meet up for a beer in Queenstown, shoot me a PM. I’ve tentatively booked a mtb trip from nov 9 - 20th.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BavarianBeast View Post
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    If you wanna meet up for a beer in Queenstown, shoot me a PM. I’ve tentatively booked a mtb trip from nov 9 - 20th.
    Haha sounds good, I will try to remember that - thanks.

    Just trying to hammer down our itinerary and then I'll post the revised one here for a final critique. Definitely taking some suggestions from here.

    What did you pay for flights if you don't mind my asking? I couldn't find anything under about $1600 and we paid $1770 just for a better plane and better overall timetable. Connection through LAX and the long haul with American Airlines.

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    I've got 25 hour flight there and back. Was $1675 after tax.

    Calgary - LAX - Sydney - Queenstown with about 5 hours of layover in total.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BavarianBeast View Post
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    I've got 25 hour flight there and back. Was $1675 after tax.

    Calgary - LAX - Sydney - Queenstown with about 5 hours of layover in total.
    Oh ok that's not too bad then, similar price. At least your layovers are pretty short, ours I think are 6hr on each end but one less connection - probably just going to try grab a hotel room near by and nap. There was one other option with a 1h35m layover but I was too scared we would miss it if your flight had any delay.

    Stupid American Airlines won't let me upgrade to premium economy because I didn't buy that ticket to begin with - first time in my life I haven't been able to just log into the seat selection online and pick a seat in a better 'cabin' class. We got some extra leg room but they said the only way we could get premium economy was to cancel our flights, pay cancellation fees, and then re-book in a different cabin class.

  6. #26
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    FYI, dont forget that NZ now needs electronic visa

    https://www.newzealandetavisa.com/?u...0aAnSNEALw_wcB

    We're going to start going through our itinerary for the south island this weekend.

    What are the must sees? We are flying into christchurch, then will rent a car to travel the island over 3 weeks

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brent.ff View Post
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    FYI, dont forget that NZ now needs electronic visa

    https://www.newzealandetavisa.com/?u...0aAnSNEALw_wcB

    We're going to start going through our itinerary for the south island this weekend.

    What are the must sees? We are flying into christchurch, then will rent a car to travel the island over 3 weeks
    Thanks for the heads up, last time I looked into that it said Canadians were OK, but looks like that has changed.

  8. #28
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    Our Itininerary, only place we're really missing is the NE part of the Island...

    Feb 2-4 Waikuku Beach
    Feb 4-7 Brooklyn
    Feb 7-9 Hokitika
    Feb 9-12 Lake Hawea
    Feb 12-14 Glenorchy
    Feb 14 - 17 Manapouri
    Feb 17- 19 Winton
    Feb 19- 21 Twizel
    Feb 21 Christchurch

  9. #29
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    Alright we've done a lot of reading and looking at other people's itineraries, what do you guys think of this:

    Arrive Nov 8
    Nov 8-10 Auckland (Nov 9 U2 concert)
    Nov 10-13 Rotorua / Taupo (wine tour on nearby island, glow worms, zorbing, etc.)
    Nov 13-15/16 Wellington

    Ferry to south island

    Nov 15-16 Picton / Nelson (long drive day)
    Nov 16-18 Franz Josef
    Nov 18-23 Queenstown - lots of day trips from here (one of those nights in Te Anau en route to Milford sound)
    Nov 23 - fly to Auckland and return home

    Things we're unsure about still as they are detours:

    Abel Tasman
    Christchurch
    Mt Cook

  10. #30
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    Looks good. One full day in Wellington is plenty, so if you steal a day from there it would allow a day trip to Abel Tasman from Nelson.

    Christchurch and Mt Cook probably aren't worth the detour involved.

  11. #31
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    Agree that Christchurch and mt cook aren't worth the detours. I'm a big believer in seeing fewer places and either taking your time on the travel days or spending more time the places you do go.
    Quote Originally Posted by killramos View Post
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    You realize you are talking to the guy who made his own furniture out of salad bowls right?

  12. #32
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    Thanks guys, I appreciate it. We'll probably stick with that then and maybe peel a day off Wellington for one of the other detours.

    Did anyone stay in any especially cool hotels or anything that stood out? We were looking at the Te Waonui Forest Retreat for a night or two.

    EDIT: I should also ask about rental car companies. Looks like the major brands (Budget, Avis, etc.) won't let you use the ferry, but the local ones will. I was looking at Ace - they seem to be reviewed reasonably well and are well priced. Lots of horror stories about Ezi on forums despite them being reviewed well, and Apex's prices are insane (literally double everyone else). Snap rentals is well reviewed too.
    Last edited by Mitsu3000gt; 10-07-2019 at 02:42 PM.

  13. #33
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    @mistu300gt @BavarianBeast

    how were your trips?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Brent.ff View Post
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    @mistu300gt @BavarianBeast

    how were your trips?
    We really liked NZ, probably top 3 for us in terms of countries visited, up there with Japan and Iceland.

    We went Auckland --> Rotorua --> Taupo --> Wellington (Ferry to south) --> Mapua --> Franz Joseph --> Queenstown.

    Highlights:

    - U2 Concert in Auckland
    - Gannet colony on North Island
    - Zorbing in Rotorua
    - Weta Studios tour (Wellington)
    - Mapua area
    - Pretty much everywhere we drove on the South island / Queenstown
    - Every hike we did
    - Night time Kiwi tour where we saw the world's rarest Kiwi type in the wild - lots of patience required but definitely one of the coolest things we did while there

    We got a huge accommodation upgrade at the Rainforest Retreat in Franz Joseph to their best cabin which was a nice surprise.

    The North Island was nicer than we had been reading, at least in our opinion.

    We couldn't go to Milford Sound - we tried for a week to get a private flight in, but winds and rain made it impossible (also wouldn't have seen much if we did go due to the weather).

    I also tried to get a ride in a Seabreacher X but the only day I could do it, winds picked up last minute (literally had my life jacket on ready to go and they cancelled it). We got into a jet boat though which was neat.

    Good food was ridiculously easy to find. People were all super nice. Roads are good, driving on the "wrong" side is easy and you get used to it almost immediately. Loved having our currency worth ~15% more which is a very rare experience haha. Loved the inclusive GST and no tipping. Overall I think it would be one of the easiest countries to transplant yourself from Canada into, despite being on the other side of the world.

    Ended up renting a car from SNAP rentals, it was around $550 for 16 days with full extra insurance and a different drop-off location. 2017 Corolla hatchback. Everyone else wanted around $1400 for the same thing, I couldn't believe the price difference.

    Flight on the AA Dreamliner was really quite pleasant, we had extra leg room on the way there but not the way back and I did prefer the extra room (obviously) but it was for the most part a comfortable flight with decent meals and amenities. LAX is an absolute dump though and I will never do another layover there ever again.

    Rented our Pocket WiFi from "POCWIFI" and it was pretty good. Our AirBnb's were absurdly cheap, I think the most we paid was $150/nt and we had a mix of entire homes, modern city-center apartments, cabins on gorgeous acreages, and lakefront/oceanfront properties. Our Queenstown AirBnB had a million dollar view on the side of the mountain with a big porch and unobstructed views of the bay and I think it was one of the cheaper ones too.

    Thanks again for everyone's suggestions here, they definitely helped.
    Last edited by Mitsu3000gt; 01-06-2020 at 11:42 AM.

  15. #35
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    Any smoke from Australia? Seems to be a thing right now. We leave in 3 weeks

  16. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brent.ff View Post
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    @mistu300gt @BavarianBeast

    how were your trips?
    I scrapped the NZ trip and did a West Coast MTB trip.

    Hoping to head over at the end of February now. Might stay for a bit, some good opportunity there.

  17. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brent.ff View Post
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    Any smoke from Australia? Seems to be a thing right now. We leave in 3 weeks
    Yes, unfortunately some areas of NZ are pretty badly affected. I have cousins living there currently. It's been in the news as well if you're looking for photos or more info.

    This is from yesterday:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/weath...lyptic-orange/

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