We’re thinking of taking the family in December.

All advice welcom.

Sure. Millions of people have been there.

Or do you mean anyone of this august gathering?

I have been, but only for a few days and only in Auckland on business and it was about 10 years ago.

It's a lovely place. People are friendly and I felt safe everywhere. It's a tad expensive.

A lot of people think it's closer to Australia than it is... it's about 700 miles.

Auckland is the easternmost city west of the date line, so if you are there on New Years Eve, they make a big deal over being the first place to experience the new year.

Sorry, I can't offer much more.

There is (or was) a really great restaurant run by a Palestinian family on Princes Wharf. All the recipes are the grandma's.

I flew from LAX on Air New Zealand. It was great. The flight leaves at about 11:00 at night, you can sleep the whole way, then it lands about 7:30 in the morning, so you are ready for your first day of fun and adventure. Especially if you fly business class. Their lie-flat seats with memory foam toppers are the best.

Depending on the amount of time you have, you may have to choose one island over the other, and that depends on what type of adventures you want to do.

To go to both, you will need to fly between the two, which costs $ and time.

North Island - more outdoors, rugged "adventure". Things like the the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves are seriously cool. That's where the volcanoes are, and lots of hikes/nature type guided tours, etc. Auckland is the major city and it is urban, shopping, good hotels, etc., and most likely where your international flight will first land. Wellington is also here.

South Island - a bit more of a mix, although if you're truly adventurous you could try the Franz Josef guided glacier tour. It's intense but (according to my kid) a once in a lifetime experience. You need to be fit and willing to exert yourself, so if that's not your idea of vacation, then skip it. The main city here (and likely where you'd fly to from Auckland, it's primarily a domestic airport) is Christchurch, another major urban center with all the urban amenities. My colleague says they are still rebuilding from the 2016 earthquake but the majority of work has been done and it shouldn't affect you at all.

You can bungy jump from multiple locations on both islands - it's one of NZ's "things." Pro tip: if you do this, it's not the time to lie about your weight. Another popular option is renting bicycles and going off on adventures that way.


I can perhaps give you more specific information if I had a better sense of the types of things you might want to do.

Opera Tenor has been there for an extended time and loved it so much he is trying to emigrate there.

My former corp boss, a FABULOUS woman, saved up her vaca time and took 3 weeks there for her 60th with her beloved husband.

She was there in March 2019 when the Christ Church shootings happened. ..She got lots of questions being an American.....

But overall, she said it was the trip of a lifetime. And she has been around ..

Yes. I don't know anyone whose gone and didn't enjoy it immensely.

They are great sailors. Sailed on Lion New Zealand, which won the Whitbread Round the World Race twice. We got 60 mph winds. The boat loved it. There are also short and milder sailing day trips on the bay at the north end of the north island.

The Kiwis are great sailors in any weather.
Went to a Kiwi reserve for a night. It is a tiny island where the birds are protected from traffic and dogs. Never saw one.
Go to Whangerai and learn how to pronounce the word.
Drove over the mountain range to the other side of the north island. Saw beautiful birds that matched no description I could find. The gravel road wound around so much I expected to encounter myself.
Never got to the south island.

That's weird. I could have sworn I responded to this. Maybe I didn't hit send?

Anyway, yeah, we're doing it, for real. We're going for a total of 16 days. We're going to do South Island only. That's just not enough time to do both islands without racing.

So we're starting in Queenstown for a few days, then bopping up the west coast to the northern top (Abel Tasman National Park). All of us are going -- the five Sphinx and In-law Sphinx. It is without question our last international trip of this magnitude as a family; it was very difficult for everyone to get that much time off, and soon there could be grandkids in the mix.

It's a pretty huge risk. If Covid surges, NZ could lock its borders and we'd be standing there holding plane tix that can't be used unless the airline takes pity on us. Or if someone catches Covid and we can't get in, same result.

I'm looking into travel insurance. I rarely buy it, but now seems like the time. I'll have to read the fine print -- so far I have not seen a policy that covers you if a country closes its borders.

Check out Shotover Jet Queenstown if you guys might like an adrenaline/adventure rush. Everyone I know who has gone on that trip raves about it.

Also there is additional risk that New Zealand might close its borders to outgoing travel as well as incoming. This is what Australia did, I'm not sure if NZ ever did that. Bottom line, if this happens while you're in NZ, you will not be able to leave until that restriction is lifted. Again, I'm not sure if NZ ever did this, but I know of many people (Aussies and US citizens) who were stuck in Australia for over a year.

Yup, there is risk. I’m rolling the dice!

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Yup, there is risk. I’m rolling the dice!

Good luck!! Hope you have a great time.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
Check out Shotover Jet Queenstown if you guys might like an adrenaline/adventure rush. Everyone I know who has gone on that trip raves about it.

Also there is additional risk that New Zealand might close its borders to outgoing travel as well as incoming. This is what Australia did, I'm not sure if NZ ever did that. Bottom line, if this happens while you're in NZ, you will not be able to leave until that restriction is lifted. Again, I'm not sure if NZ ever did this, but I know of many people (Aussies and US citizens) who were stuck in Australia for over a year.

my understanding is that when New Zealand went into lockdown in march 2020, they deported all visitors who didn't have official business there. Non-citizens were not allowed to stay.

New Zealand now ranked as the second worst country to move to by expats:

https://www.theguardian.com/wo...rst-place-to-move-to

EDIT: adding link to another report on the survey: https://fortune.com/2022/07/14...-expats-remote-work/

Got me thinking about OperaTenor, IIRC he seriously entertained the idea of relocating to New Zealand for a long time. Wonder what came of it.