Concerto

At last I am finally going to get round to making a redemption to New Zealand, a country I have always wanted to visit. I reckon a number of you will have achieved this already, I remember reading about a number of exotic routings that some folk managed to find. But what I thought I would try and do is to make a One Way to get there, with a major stopover somewhere, and then a One Way back to Europe. The point would be to try and avoid spending too much time getting there and back, as time would be fairly limited anyway, but to create an interesting enough routing to make the whole adventure worthwhile. Effectively, it would probably become a RTW.

One possibility is to go through the USA, with a stop there (on NZ through LAX for example), or Canada. I am assuming that flying Westwards would be a more pleasant experience. On the way back to Europe, I would definitely aim to make a stop in Hong Kong, my birthplace.

Maybe some folk might be planning something similar (say, to Australia) and this thread might be of some use for the planning process. Or perhaps others have wonderful experiences to share!

littlevoices

Personally I'd say go via Asia for a little more variety and interest

If you go via NRT (Japan) or ICN (South Korea) you can get a pleasant stopover, you can also add another stopover on the way too if you'd like as the mileage chart means that Zone 2 - Zone 8 plus Zone 8 to 10 isn't much different from Z1/2-10 directly.

So Europe-ICN (Stopover), ICN -SYD (On OZ), then a final BNE/MEL/SYD-AKL flight with Air New Zealand
Or Europe-NRT/KIX (Stopover in Japan) then NRT-AKL directly (tends to be plenty of availability on the NRT-AKL flight, think its still regional seats though?)

You can put variances in this as well, so I once did;
CPH-ZRH-NRT//NRT-ICN (Finish one Journey), ICN-HKG//-SIN-BNE (Finish one Journey), SYD-SIN//SIN-ZRH (Finish one Journey), not quite to New Zealand but can give you some ideas as splitting in this way let me visit Japan, Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore on a single return to Australia. Though aware this isn't quite what you asked, where the above two aren't too indirect

FlyerTalker46423

My honeymoon itin consisted of MAN-LHR-NRT-AKL-ZQN, WEL-AKL-BKK-FRA-MAN with stopovers in Tokyo and Bangkok. Business out and First return. Back in the day when APD wasn't quite so eye-watering and First was 2x miles.

deee

3 years ago.

2 one way tickets in business class.^

London Toronto Vancouver Sydney (Air Canada) Sydney Auckland Air New Zealand

Christchurch Singapore (Singapore Airlines) Singapore Frankfurt London Lufthansa

Oxon Flyer

You could stop (as I did) in the Cook Islands at Rarotonga on the way between LAX and AKL. Business award seats on this NZ service are normally more abundant than on the direct LAX-AKL.

Concerto

No, it's brilliant! There's lots of great ideas here, and maybe they will inspire other folk on this forum too. I was thinking, maybe I won't even stop in Hong Kong... been there and done that, since it's my birthplace! Time to look at something new!

I like Oxon Flyer's suggestion of stopping in the Cook Islands, I would never have thought of that! Is that a stopover over, with the same aircraft continuing on to Auckland?

Oxon Flyer

One 767 service a week between LAX and RAR, and daily between RAR and AKL, some operated by 320s, others by 772s.

dsf

New Zealand is in Z9

planestupid

How about LHR-Japan (ANA)-Guam (Continental)-Cairns (Continental)-Auckland (Air NZ) and Auckland - Los Angeles/San Francisco (Air NZ)- Mexico City (United)- Frankfurt (LH) - LHR (LH)?

Enjoy! :-)

mec72

Rarotonga is great, highly recommended. There are a couple of flights per week from NZ and then one flight a week (on Saturday night) to LAX. Aitutaki is a great side trip, although a local carrier flies there so need to buy a separate ticket.

Concerto

I am tempted to make Cook Islands (Raratonga etc.) the destination and focus of this trip, following the suggestions here! It seems there are 4 main islands, and probably enough to do for a 2 week slot (which will probably boil down to 7-10 days).

Truth is, it is hard to get more than 2 weeks off at a time for me, and some of these destinations deserve a bit more time like that, like New Zealand. But New Zealand will definitely be the focus of a future trip, and maybe this one if I can squeeze more time out. Although, Summer for us is Winter for them. Maybe I should try and wrangle some musical invitations over there during our Winter (their Summer).