Oceania (Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific) - Need advice on warm stopover to NZ in July

Hi all,

I have to go for a conference in Queenstown, NZ in early July 2012. Given that I live in Duluth, MN, I am becoming the laughingstock of my neighborhood for leaving Duluth in summer to head to a winter destination in July.

I'd like to be able to say something positive about my trip by talking about my lovely tropical holiday on the way to or from NZ.

Any suggestions for a relatively inexpensive, interesting place to stop over (e.g., Fiji)? How about Indonesia?

I'll be flying from Duluth-Minneapolis and would MUCH prefer to fly Delta to take advantage of my FF program. So, any creative itinerary that can be done on Delta would be a huge plus.

Open to ideas ...

-Rajiv

DL doesn't fly to NZ or any Pacific Islands, although they do fly into SYD.

If you after a Pacific Island stop over *A will be your main option.

Options
NZ LAX-RAR
TN LAX-PPT (NZ/QF Codeshares)
FJ LAX-NAN (NZ/QF Codeshares)

From RAR/PPT/NAN you can get on an NZ service to AKL then onto ZQN

The Pacific Islands are very hard to get to as a stop over, they are more accessible as single Journey trips from AKL.

AKL-NAN
AKL-RAR
AKL-APW
AKL-TPU
AKL-VLI
AKL-PPT
AKL-IUE
AKL-NOU

Another option is within NZ itself. Parts of NZ are sub-tropical, and the north half of the north island (say 200 km north of AKL) are generally warm even in July (the coldest month). Well worth visiting this much-neglected part of NZ. It doesn't have the big mountains and volcanoes, but has petrified Kauri wood and the 90 mile beach on the very tip of the north shore. Plus some fabulous sea food as the waters are still pristine, great sailing and scuba diving ... so no need to go to Fiji or another south pacific island (which may disappoint you). Time is much better spent within NZ itself in my experience (and I've been to most of these pacific islands, they are not that great for short casual visits).

Thanks for that suggestion. I did not realize far north parts of the north island may be warm. I've been to the bay of islands, rotorua, etc. several years ago.

If I wanted to stay with Delta, what would be a good route to take?

-RV

Sorry I don't have any wisdom to share, but I just wanted to say hello to another DLH-based flyer.

Sorry I don't have any wisdom to share, but I just wanted to say hello to another DLH-based flyer.

Hello a7800,

Yep, just finished my 20th year in DLH!

Thanks for that suggestion. I did not realize far north parts of the north island may be warm. I've been to the bay of islands, rotorua, etc. several years ago.

If I wanted to stay with Delta, what would be a good route to take?

-RV

Your only DL options are via LAX and SYD with a connection onto VA, QF or NZ for the Trans-Tasman segment. One good thing about that is that you can probably connect onto a flight direct from SYD to ZQN rather than having to go through AKL or CHC.

If you are willing to go with a Skyteam airline (so you can still collect points with DL), KE via ICN and CZ via CAN become options with the best US gateways probably being LAX or ORD.

This is great information. You guys are astoundingly helpful. Thanks. Any other suggestions for routines that will allow a short holiday on the way? I definitely plan to spend a few days in Sydney and Melbourne on the way in or out.

This is great information. You guys are astoundingly helpful. Thanks. Any other suggestions for routines that will allow a short holiday on the way? I definitely plan to spend a few days in Sydney and Melbourne on the way in or out.

Are you wanting to ticket this all in one fare? for the purposes of a company paying this fare?

There are not many fares rules to this part of the world that would allow this to be ticketed as a single fare. You could try get a Travel Agent to book you LAX-SYD-ZQN-MEL-SYD-LAX. Likely to be very costly as allot of the sectors would need to be booked on oneway tickets.

This is great information. You guys are astoundingly helpful. Thanks. Any other suggestions for routines that will allow a short holiday on the way? I definitely plan to spend a few days in Sydney and Melbourne on the way in or out.

As noted by cavemanzk, getting all of that will be basically impossible on a single DL ticket. However, a quick look at ExpertFlyer indicates that even the cheapest DL returns for DLH-ZQN include at least one free stopover in SYD. All the fares seem to be based on the MPM for MKE-AKL with the additional mileage required for DLH-MKE and AKL-ZQN being additional allowable mileage.

Based on this your best bet with DL is going to be DLH-MKE-LAX-SYD-ZQN and return with a stopover in SYD in one direction. SYD-ZQN can be on either of VA or NZ.

One more quick question to you experts. When would be a good time to look at ticketing this trip.

At the moment, I'm thinking of skipping the Fiji trip and flying into Christchurch and driving to Queenstown - supposedly a spectacular drive, even in winter.

I'd like a stopover in Sydney and Melbourne and maybe a visit to Auckland thrown in. So, the vacationing will consist of Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, and maybe a driving trip to the top of the North Island.

Wait for a bit to ticket? Just buy DLH-SYD and do the rest on domestic airlines rather than trying to do the whole thing in one shot?

Would appreciate advice.

-RV

One more quick question to you experts. When would be a good time to look at ticketing this trip.

At the moment, I'm thinking of skipping the Fiji trip and flying into Christchurch and driving to Queenstown - supposedly a spectacular drive, even in winter.

I'd like a stopover in Sydney and Melbourne and maybe a visit to Auckland thrown in. So, the vacationing will consist of Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, and maybe a driving trip to the top of the North Island.

Wait for a bit to ticket? Just buy DLH-SYD and do the rest on domestic airlines rather than trying to do the whole thing in one shot?

Would appreciate advice.

-RV

I would try ticketing something like DLH-CHC//AKL-DLH and then buy additional flights return for SYD-MEL-SYD and ZQN-AKL. Remember that your baggage allowances will be significantly lower on the domestic segments (20kg) so that is something to consider. As for when to buy, I don't know much about the market your are looking at so I would start looking at prices now and if the price doesn't look bad, get on it now.