December 28 – February 6

Throughout the second half of 2023 we began to actively plan for our long-delayed journey to New Zealand and Australia.  Between Covid and various health issues, we’d pushed the trip back two years and now with my sister Bev’s pending retirement, we could move forward with filling in the details for nearly six full weeks (forty-one days) of travel beginning a few days after Christmas. 

Complicating the planning would be the uncertainty surrounding my eye, which would get resolved on November 30^th with the anterior insertion of a new lens after an earlier failed procedure to remove the detached lens.  The surgery went well and the next day we flew to Kansas to attend a surprise retirement party for Bev, which was a success except when I woke up the next morning I couldn’t see out of the affected eye.  It turns out blood from the operation had seeped in front of the lens and it would take time for it to fully disperse.  Long story short, it all worked out and I look forward to getting a new prescription for that eye to compensate for the less powerful lens that was inserted. 

Due to timing and other factors, Joanna and I ended up handling all of the lodging and travel logistics for the trip.  We had two primary criteria for planning based on the fact that there would be five of us (Beverly, Kim, Marty, Joanna and myself).  The first related to lodging and here we decided early on to focus on staying at Airbnb’s which we managed to accomplish with two exceptions, a home stay with Beppie and Ian our Kiwi friends from the Peru trip and a motel stay in Picton on New Zealand’s South Island due to the lack of available Airbnb properties. 

Driving our choices were multiple considerations, starting with a properties cancellation policy, as some have loose requirements (cancel for full refund up to a week before the booked stay) while others have restrictive ones, such as full refund only for 48 hours, or a week, or a month.  Next up would be three bedrooms, so each family unit would have their own space and almost as important, two toilets.  Finally, centrality in each city, and easy access to transportation, eating, and shopping options. 

The second criteria would be transportation and early on we decided not to rent a car in either country for a couple of different reasons, the first being driving on the opposite side of the road.  I’m sure that given time we would have gotten used to it but with alternatives available it made more sense to use buses, trains, and airplanes.  Also, when considering the cost of a car big enough for all five of us and our luggage combined with gasoline expense compared to how reasonable bus travel is in New Zealand, not renting a car became the obvious choice.  And in Australia with just fifteen days of travel there, the distances involved completely ruled out driving and instead we would fly to our destinations.    

I was keen to experience bus travel in New Zealand as it came highly recommended and was, as mentioned earlier, a relatively inexpensive option through the national bus line, InterCity.  Indeed, as it would turn out our four bus rides (Auckland to Tauranga, Tauranga to Whanganui, Whanganui to Wellington, and Christchurch to Queenstown) averaged just $52 per ride.  I’ll break those fares down individually when we get to that part of the narrative, but in the end, we were satisfied with the cost value proposition of bus travel in New Zealand.

Our two other transportation modes were the Interislander Ferry from Wellington in the North Island to Picton in the South Island and the Great Journeys New Zealand Train from Picton to Christchurch.  Outside of plane service, the only way to get from the north island to the south island, a distance of 13.7 miles is via the ferry, a roughly 3.5 hour very pleasant ride through the Cook Strait, that is if the seas are calm.  And fortunately, they were for us. 

As for the rail journey, we opted for it over a bus ride from Picton to Christchurch as we’d heard it ran down the coast providing us with a much nicer viewing experience as well a generally more comfortable ride, which would prove to be the case.  As nice as a bus can be, the train offers the ability to get up and walk around, guaranteed access to toilets (none of our New Zealand buses would feature on board toilets), and usually food and drink to purchase. 

Often with a trip of this magnitude, the first step in planning is deciding what cities to visit, which then leads to setting the itinerary and becomes the basis for all other logistical elements.  For New Zealand given our limited time there, just twenty-five days, this would mean the major cities of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Queenstown.  Add in three other stops, the first being Picton as it is the city the ferry lands at on South Island and the other two somewhat out the way visits to see Beppie and Ian in Tauranga and longtime friends the Quigley’s in Whanganui. 

Planning for Australia would be simpler given our limited time there overall, just sixteen days, and the size of the country in general, rivaling the United States in terms of land mass, roughly 3,119,884 square miles for the U.S. to 2,968,000 million square miles for Australia.  Our first stop would be Melbourne so we could take in the Australian Open tennis tournament, the second would be Cairns so we could visit the Great Barrier Reef and the final would be Sydney. 

And due to the long distances in between them we would fly to each city as it would otherwise take multiple days to traverse the mileage by any other mode of transportation.  Originally, we had intended to visit Uluru/Ayers Rock in the southwestern Northern Territory of central Australia, but we soon found out this would not be feasible as it is not a popular place in the summer due to the extreme temperatures that are experienced there during that period.  As a result, given that only one or two flights a week go in and out it was an easy decision to cut it out of the planning and add the days we planned for it into our Melbourne and Cairns stays. 

With the itinerary in place, we started booking at our lodging and transportation choices in August, completing most of them that month with the exception of a few Airbnb’s which we would finalize by the middle of September.  With three months to go until our lift off on December 30^th we would do some activity planning which would intensify as the end of the calendar year approached.  And we will hit lift off in the next post. 

Links

InterCity Bus: https://www.intercity.co.nz/

Interislander Ferry: https://www.interislander.co.nz/

Great Journeys New Zealand: https://www.greatjourneysnz.com/

Uluru/Ayers Rock: https://www.britannica.com/place/Uluru-Ayers-Rock