Awesom Andy

Please put me and +1 down as gold. Just moved to SYD and hopefully I should still be there come May. Now... Drive? Bus? Train? Hijack a Cessna?

rxgeek

Please upgrade rxgeek and rxgeek+1 to gold. Hoping to coordinate with the OZ rellies, too.
Reservation at Crown Plaza, Friday-Sunday. Flights pending.
Inbound flight purchased. We're Platinum, baby!

Austin787

Put me down as Gold. I traveled AUS to Aus (Austin, TX to Australia) recently and would love to return.

ac777

Nasty earhquake in CHC. I have met chckiwi at the oz fests, hence the post here. Hope she and her family are alright.

serfty

She has reported in that she is fine.

ac777

Good to know. I am thankful.

Mwenenzi

off topic
The quake was north of Christchurch. Other than a good shake at 2 minutes past midnight no effect here in CHC. Kaikoura, 190km north on CHC on the east coast, is isolated;- no road or rail access & very limited telecommunications. It took a good hit. A few thousand people still isolated.

Not long after the Canterbury quake there was another large quake near Seddon (Blenheim area in the north of South Island). This had a large effect in Wellington (home of several FTer's). Central are of Wellington was shut down all Monday.

Still a lot of shakes in Kaikoura & Wellington area
http://canterburyquakelive.co.nz/
http://wellingtonquakelive.co.nz/

Air travel is not effected. The Cook Straight ferry's are not operating:- damage at both Wellington & Picton.

Bindibuys

Thank you JessicaTam for letting me know about this event.
As a local, put me down as Platinum + 1

JessicaTam

Welcome to FT, and the OzFest organising committee.

Perk

Put me down as gold!

anat0l

Put me down as Silver for now.

I'll be a teacher (most probably) next year so skipping away for a weekend is still going to be a big call.

rxgeek

My flight from the US to SYD is ticketed. Now just need to know the best way to and from Newcastle. Of course, if someone has space for 2 in either direction we would be very appreciative. We arrive on 25 May and depart 29 May.
Tips for the rest of our itinerary would be welcome, too. We plan to go to NZ from SYD and tour around a bit. Is AKL our only option?
Then from NZ to MCY or BNE to visit with rellies.

Mwenenzi

There is likely to be others also want to get from SYD to NTL. As post 4 you can get to NCL by train or maybe a self drive rental car/mini bus shared with others.

[off topic]
As for Kiwiland AKL is not the only option. And AKL is poor option, unless you want specifically to go Auckland. Many threads in the ANZ forum on trips around NZ. VA/NZ or QF would be able to offer flights from NTL via BNE/MEL to NZ

Airlines that fly Australia (CNS* MCY* BNE OOL SYD CBR MEL ADL PER) to/from New Zealand (AKL WLG CHC DUD ZQN) (not from all airports to all airports).
- Air Asia D7 (OOL - AKL) from March 2016
- Air New Zealand NZ (codeshares with VA) [Star Alliance] {* winter seasonal}
- China Airlines CI (BNE SYD MEL** – AKL CHC**) [Skyteam Alliance] {** November to March}
- Emirates EK (codeshares with QF)
- Jetstar JQ (owned by QF)
- LAN LA (SYD AKL) [OneWorld Alliance]
- Philippines PR (CNS - AKL)
- Qantas QF (codeshares with EK) [OneWorld Alliance]
- Singapore SQ (CBR WLG) [Star Alliance] from Sept 2016
- Virgin Australia VA (codeshares with Air NZ) (Delta partner)

There is a lot of competition Australia - New Zealand on the trans Tasman route. Flights scheduled to take about 3:15hr to 3:45hr (east bound is faster due to prevailing winds). The flight schedules are padded so they often arrive early.

Trans Tasman pricing is very competitive. Fares are often ~AU/NZ$225-$275 one way in economy/coach, but can be more or less. Both economy & business fares can be low to very low. Or at peak times can be very high (double or triple the lowest). Air NZ often has sales. China Airlines were usually cheapest in the (southern hemisphere) summer 2015-16. Often best to buy on the com.au or co.nz web sites and/or select NZ or Australia in the upper part of web site.

There is no advantage in buying a Aust-NZ return ticket. All are air fares in Australia and New Zealand are sold as one ways. Effectively no such thing as a “return” with or without conditions. A “return” is just 2 one ways in a single PNR. It is often better to buy 1 one ways, including on different carriers. Often ex NZ is cheaper than buying the same NZ to Australia flight as the second leg of a “return” purchased in Australia.

Some of the Australian & New Zealand based airlines have economy only B737/A320 aircraft on some routes/schedules. Air NZ has a few wide body aircraft on some routes or some times.

For trans Tasman flights carefully check what is included in the price. Depending on the airline and/or fare booking class frequent flyer miles, water, food, checked baggage, seat selection and/or in flight entertainment can all be extra to the base fare.

Many trans Tasman economy/coach fares on Air NZ flights only earn (very few) NZ airpoints / VA points and mayl earn nil ff miles to other Star Alliance airline & Air NZ/VA partner ffp’s

[/off topic]

penegal

You aren't leaving much time to go to NZ and "tour"? Unless you are planning to skip the do?

You are "down under" for 5 days and NZ is a ~3-4 hour flight from Sydney.

rxgeek

Sorry if I got you We are definitely DOing and all the other stuff is after it. May stay down under for up to a month.