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While I am starting to shop for travel arrangements, here is my wild fantasy to burn $25,000.
Depart from New York on Feb 11th. Arriving Adelaide Feb 13th
Sleep all day and all night Feb 14th to get rid of jet lag.
Watch a cricket match on Feb 15th at the Adelaide Oval
Fly from Adelaide to Sydney on Feb 16th.
Take the plane from Sydney to Queenstown Feb 21st (4 full days of sight seeing in Sydney)
Rent a one way minivan in Queenstown on Feb 24th and drive to Lake Pukaki for a day. (I am hoping there are some hotels near by the lake?)
Arrive Christchurch on Feb 25th - spend three days sight seeing - drop off the rental car at the airport on Feb 28th and catch the plane back to New York.
What are my choices then? we are a party of 7 so a 7 passenger vehicle is what I am looking at unless I am David Copperfield to pack everyone in a 2 door Honda JAZZ Hybrid.
Get a 7/8 seat people mover and stay in a hotel/motel probably as cheap and a lot more comfortable. Also, I don't think the vans have enough seat belts for that many people.
Tip, bring some light weight sleeping bags and find apartment style/self catering accommodation where the smaller kids can sleep on couches (You can always buy some airbeds from The Warehouse to use if there aren't enough) It will be cheaper than paying for extra beds or paying for a van + campsite fees.
While I am starting to shop for travel arrangements, here is my wild fantasy to burn $25,000.
Depart from New York on Feb 11th. Arriving Adelaide Feb 13th
Sleep all day and all night Feb 14th to get rid of jet lag.
Watch a cricket match on Feb 15th at the Adelaide Oval
Fly from Adelaide to Sydney on Feb 16th.
Take the plane from Sydney to Queenstown Feb 21st (4 full days of sight seeing in Sydney)
Rent a one way minivan in Queenstown on Feb 24th and drive to Lake Pukaki for a day. (I am hoping there are some hotels near by the lake?)
Arrive Christchurch on Feb 25th - spend three days sight seeing - drop off the rental car at the airport on Feb 28th and catch the plane back to New York.
Sleep all day and all night to tame the jet lag.
Take my rear end back to work.
Your total time in Australia is five days and you'll be spending one of them travelling and four of them in a generic modern city, in the hottest week of the year? Craziness. Then you have four days in NZ and spend three of them in a generic modern regional centre? How old are the children? Are there any particular interests?
day 1, arrive Adelaide around lunch time. Nap, shower, visit museum, botanic gardens (free and right near your hotel)
day 2, cricket
day 3, Cleland wildlife park (hand feed kangaroos, hold koalas), dinner fish and chips on beach
day 4, tour wine region of your choice
day 5, fly to Sydney in AM, climb bridge
day 6, ferry to Manly or Cooggee to Bondi beach walk
day 7,8 spend night in Blue Mountains somewhere (Katoomba?)
day 9, 10, 11, sightsee around Queenstown (hiking, bungee jumping, jet boats, glaciers, etc) http://www.newzealand.com/au/trips-a.../south-island/
day 12 fly out of Christchurch
You won't sleep all day and night and you won't get rid of the jet lag. When you arrive you'll be hyped up for 2-3hours, then you'll shower and crash, for at least a few hours, potentially all night. You'll wake up withon a few hours of morning, but feel like death that day. Bed will be early but you'll wake up very very early. The third night will be awful, but the day after you'll feel pretty much fine.
For that day you have sleeping scheduled do something gentle and flexible. Allow for a rest in the afternoon, but having nothing planned will drive you crazy. And it will be scaldingly hot that week, so factor that in.
Last edited by WildColonialGirl; 06-19-2014 at 03:11 PM..
Your total time in Australia is five days and you'll be spending one of them travelling and four of them in a generic modern city, in the hottest week of the year? Craziness. Then you have four days in NZ and spend three of them in a generic modern regional centre? How old are the children? Are there any particular interests?
day 1, arrive Adelaide around lunch time. Nap, shower, visit museum, botanic gardens (free and right near your hotel)
day 2, cricket
day 3, Cleland wildlife park (hand feed kangaroos, hold koalas), dinner fish and chips on beach
day 4, tour wine region of your choice
day 5, fly to Sydney in AM, climb bridge
day 6, ferry to Manly or Cooggee to Bondi beach walk
day 7,8 spend night in Blue Mountains somewhere (Katoomba?)
day 9, 10, 11, sightsee around Queenstown (hiking, bungee jumping, jet boats, glaciers, etc) South Island Itinerary & Trip Recommendations | Tourism New Zealand
day 12 fly out of Christchurch
You won't sleep all day and night and you won't get rid of the jet lag. When you arrive you'll be hyped up for 2-3hours, then you'll shower and crash, for at least a few hours, potentially all night. You'll wake up withon a few hours of morning, but feel like death that day. Bed will be early but you'll wake up very very early. The third night will be awful, but the day after you'll feel pretty much fine.
For that day you have sleeping scheduled do something gentle and flexible. Allow for a rest in the afternoon, but having nothing planned will drive you crazy. And it will be scaldingly hot that week, so factor that in.
Now this is the kind of response I was looking for. Thanks!
I had an idea that it will be summer time but didn't know it was the hottest week of the year, what kinda temperature are we talking about?
Kids are aged 16, 14, 10 and 9. No special interest but I guess that may make us opt out of day 4 wine region visit, and replace it with something more of a kids/family friendly
activity?
Except for the Sydney Opera House, we hardly have any interest in concrete jungles - already fed-up with it in NYC. So, we anticipating more of a natural scenery trips.
day 6, what's Manly, or Cooggee? And what's all this talk about ship/cruise to Darling Harbour and Sydney Harbour, should we push it down the list?
day 7, 8, Blue Mountains and Katoomba look fabulous. Thanks for the tip.
day 9,10,11, yep all that except for hiking due to kids. We are looking for a helicopter ride to Milford Sound and do some water sports in Lake Pukaki or Lake Tekapo, also planning to
drive Glenorchy Mount Cook and what not. Question, Will there by any snow on the mountain peaks in this time of the year?
Too many things on "to do" list and too short of a time, and we don't know much about Christchurch top visitors' spots - and I guess we will be pretty tired as well.
I guess you got the gist, perhaps I am trying to pick and choose to downsize the list and make sure I don't need another vacation right after I get back from this one.
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What's your family planning to do whilst you're watching cricket and sleeping?
