Booking travel tips for multiple stopovers + New Zealand

Kemik

Kemik

Kemik

Soldato
Joined
7 Nov 2005
Posts
4,961
Location
Widnes
Hi guys,

I've been waiting to do a bit of a backpacking trek for a while but going into work straight after Uni threw a spanner in that. I'm now in a position where I've managed to get maybe four weeks straight off work this summer. Unfortunately any more than that will be stretching and the boss has only really agreed to three at the minute. I will be travelling alone.

I have family in Sydney who I want to see for a few days, but other than that I really want to do an adventure tour of New Zealand.

1. Does anyone have any recommendations for good websites or travel agents to plan multiple stop flights?

2. People who have done New Zealand, how long would you recommend to do the major adventure bits? Not massively interested in spending a lot of times in the cities unless highly recommended. Auckland is likely to be base at the start as I have family there.

3. Is it worth stopping in Thailand if I only have a few days or best coming back for 10 nights? This would mainly be for relaxation and a bit of sight seeing, probably on the way back?

4. I have a friend's wedding in Lithuania at the end of July. Is there an easy way to include this in the flight plans as a first stop over?

Thanks!
 
Kemik said:
4. I have a friend's wedding in Lithuania at the end of July. Is there an easy way to include this in the flight plans as a first stop over?

Thanks!
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Probably not. Your best value stopovers will be ones which are natural change points for the flights you want to take - nobody flies to New Zealand from Lithuania (I doubt anyone flies to Asia at all) so you'd need to out and back from somewhere else.

Whereas Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Dubai, Doha etc are all natural stopover points on journeys to Australia and New Zealand. So stopping over adds no extra flights, making it more viable.
 
We did something similar last winter.

We flew with Cathay via Hong Kong to Syndey, had a long weekend in Sydney and did a tour of New Zealand. We got an Air New Zealand flight to Christchurch. From there, we drove a clockwise route around the south island (Christchurch -> Mount Cook -> Dunedin -> Milfound Sound -> Queenstown -> Fox Glacier -> Kaikoura -> Blenhein), took another Air New Zeland flight to Wellington and then drove up the length of the north island (Wellington -> Tongariro -> Rotarura -> Auckland -> Bay of Islands). Finally, we flew back from Auckland with Cathay back to London. In total, this took us the best part of four week with us driving every other day - apart from Sydney and the Bay of Islands, where we spent a few extra days.

We booked all of the flights separately just for convenience's sake.

If you've got a limited amount of time and you're not interested in cities, I'd skip the north island entirely (sadly, that's where Auckland is though). Same with a stopover in Thailand or somewhere similar. There's so much to see and it's so far away that cutting down your time there seems like a waste.
 
Thanks for the tips so far guys!

Tunney said:
If you've got a limited amount of time and you're not interested in cities, I'd skip the north island entirely (sadly, that's where Auckland is though). Same with a stopover in Thailand or somewhere similar. There's so much to see and it's so far away that cutting down your time there seems like a waste.
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I wish I could have double the amount of time to properly do it all but mortgage + demanding boss means very little room to increase the holiday length unfortunately. Could delay for another year or leave the job but that might be a little bit extreme now that I have a mortgage to pay.
 
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