New Zealand AbD meets

[2-pointdoe]

We just booked our flights for December through ABD because we had a credit. We received a quote late afternoon and said to book it. By the next day when they booked, costs had gone up substantially - I verified on my own. Decided to book and not wait to see if they would go down because I did not want to chance either not getting flights or the price going up more.

 

[Mathmagicland]

We just booked our flights for December through ABD because we had a credit. We received a quote late afternoon and said to book it. By the next day when they booked, costs had gone up substantially - I verified on my own. Decided to book and not wait to see if they would go down because I did not want to chance either not getting flights or the price going up more.

Nice! I’m on the October trip but don’t have good feeling it will happen with the NZ travel restrictions out a couple of weeks ago,,,so am not yet booking my air.

 

[DCPhotoGal]

We just booked our flights for December through ABD because we had a credit. We received a quote late afternoon and said to book it. By the next day when they booked, costs had gone up substantially - I verified on my own. Decided to book and not wait to see if they would go down because I did not want to chance either not getting flights or the price going up more.

Gosh, I hadn't even thought of this! But I guess if my June Greece trip gets cancelled I can apply the credit to my NZ flights. I'm not feeling too confident about them letting us in by December, but we'll see!

 

[Hannah nz]

From today NZ is back in a short lockdown, level 3 Auckland and level 2 rest of NZ, due to three new cases in the community that can't be linked to the border yet. It possible that it was gotten through laundry from air lines. These level changes might be the new normal for us with these new for contagious variants coming through. On the positive side vaccines have been approved and border staff will be the first to get it.

 

[couture1]

Hi, or Kia Ora ! AbD is going to New Zealand! The Inaugural tour season is October 2021 thru April 2022.

Looks like there is a lot of interest in the new AbD New Zealand Adventure as a couple of them are already waitlist only & all early booking discounts are taken. I don’t find a NZ meets thread, so thought I’d get one started for people to share thoughts, ideas, and planning.

Who’s going to New Zealand and when? Any pre or post tour plans yet? Have you been before or will this be your first visit?

I’m on the October departure, currently planning two pre-nights but that might change as plans evolve and flights get booked.

im reserved with three teens for December 25 2022. Anyone else booked?

 

[TravelJunkieHubby]

We have two teens on the Dec 22 adventure- kids looking forward to meeting others.

 

[WeLoveABD]

We are booked for the March 13 Adult only trip-- looking so forward to it!

 

[DjmNash]

We have two teens on the Dec 22 adventure- kids looking forward to meeting others.

We are on the Dec 22 adventure too: 14 yr old and 9 yr old. So looking forward to it!

 

[couture1]

Anyone else on the Dec 25 2022 adventure?
We are one mom and three teens (16,18,19)
Arriving on Christmas and looking for activities to explore before evening welcome dinner

 

[TravelJunkieHubby]

We are on the 12/22 one but we are planning to check out the SkyTower, the All Blacks rugby experience near the SkyTower, the Maritime museum and the Britomart/take the train to the Auckland war museum

 

[TravelJunkieHubby]

Here are some more recommendations from someone in the know:

Dining

o Soul Bar & Bistro (Get a reservation…this is my favorite restaurant in town. I ate here twice. Delicious!)

o Oyster and Chop (If I remember correctly, you are vegetarian but the salads here are so good.)

o Good Luck Coconut

o Lots of great restaurants around the marina all within walking distance of the hotel



· Activities

o Sky Tower (..assuming you will be doing the America’s Cup sailing on Day 2 rather than Sky Tower alternative)

o New Zealand Maritime Museum

o Auckland War Memorial Museum

o SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton’s Aquarium

o Albert Park

o Tons of shopping in downtown



If you are Lord of the Rings fans, I would recommend you do take the time for a tour outside of the city and do Hobbiton. It’s two hours outside of Auckland but I’m pretty sure the tour would pick you up in town and return you.



Hobbiton™ Movie Set Tours (hobbitontours.com)

 

[Hannah nz]

Anyone else on the Dec 25 2022 adventure?
We are one mom and three teens (16,18,19)
Arriving on Christmas and looking for activities to explore before evening welcome dinner

Most places are closed on Christmas and public transport will be running on a lighter schedule. Book a place for lunch as soon as you can or you will be limited to some fast-food places or petrol station/dairies.

It should be nice and warm our being in summer so I would recommend something outdoorsy. The botanic gardens will be open (visitor center closed) so you can walk around there. You could also go swim at a beach nearby or do a bush walk/hike.

You could consider taking the ferry to Waiheke island to explore, I think some of the wineries do a Christmas lunch - Mudbrick does.
There are lots of good walks and beaches.

 

[sayhello]

So I was going through the New Zealand itinerary online, and noticed one change to the current (2023) itinerary. (All the trips this spring were included in the 2022 season itinerary). On Day 6, the "Island Hopping" day where you fly from Rotorua to Christchurch, instead of the morning activity being the visit to Te Puia (the native arts school with the geothermal geyser area) they have an e-bike city tour of Rotorua listed.

Traverse the trails on an e-bike tour through the natural beauty of Rotorua. Get off the beaten path on this bike ride that takes you through the city, around Lake Rotorua and the geothermal wonderland known as Kuirau Park.

I thought maybe they did that because they were getting rid of the e-bike ride outside of Queenstown, but nope, there's that e-bike ride still listed, also. Maybe they're hoping the people who won't want to do the one in Queenstown (only half the people on my trip did) would be more willing to do a "city" version in Rotorua? So now they have 2 zip-lining excursions in the same ABD, and 2 e-bike rides in the same ABD. Not sure how I feel about that. Still not sure I'd be up for the Rotorua e-bike ride, but at least it sounds like you still get to see some geothermal features.

I skimmed the itinerary, and didn't notice any other changes beyond lunch being included in Franz Josef instead of on your own.

Sayhello

 

[Mathmagicland]

So I was going through the New Zealand itinerary online, and noticed one change to the current (2023) itinerary. (All the trips this spring were included in the 2022 season itinerary). On Day 6, the "Island Hopping" day where you fly from Rotorua to Christchurch, instead of the morning activity being the visit to Te Puia (the native arts school with the geothermal geyser area) they have an e-bike city tour of Rotorua listed.



I thought maybe they did that because they were getting rid of the e-bike ride outside of Queenstown, but nope, there's that e-bike ride still listed, also. Maybe they're hoping the people who won't want to do the one in Queenstown (only half the people on my trip did) would be more willing to do a "city" version in Rotorua? So now they have 2 zip-lining excursions in the same ABD, and 2 e-bike rides in the same ABD. Not sure how I feel about that. Still not sure I'd be up for the Rotorua e-bike ride, but at least it sounds like you still get to see some geothermal features.

I skimmed the itinerary, and didn't notice any other changes beyond lunch being included in Franz Josef instead of on your own.

Sayhello

I’d miss Te Puia, thought it was an interesting stop for many reasons.

 

[sayhello]

I’d miss Te Puia, thought it was an interesting stop for many reasons.

Same here. I really enjoyed it.

Sayhello

 

[sayhello]

I posted this in the thread for the new 2024 itineraries/dates, but thought I'd re-post it here for those interested:

So they have re-done the New Zealand itinerary a bit. Comparing 2022/23 to 2024/25 (I'm comparing the Adults Only itinerary, not sure how much difference there is to the standard departures):

Day 2, the Fish Market tour has been replaced with a "Private Tour of Wynyard Quarter Neighborhood". Otherwise the same.

Day 3, the trip to Waiheke Island for the zipline/winery lunch/visit to Oneroa is gone altogether (no surprise!) and you leave for Rotorua (basically Day 4 of the old itinerary). Evening and dinner is OYO instead of at the Marae (which remains as evening for Day 4 on the new itinerary).

Day 4 is basically Day 5 of the old itinerary (the Kiwi bird hatchery, Agrodome, Rotorua zip-line) with the addition of the Marae experience and dinner.

Day 5 is Day 6 of the old itinerary, with Te Puia back. However the punting on the Avon is moved to Day 6, and Day 5 has a City Tour of Christchurch.

Day 6 is new, with additional time in Christchurch (I like this). There's a sightseeing tour of Christchurch in the morning (sites will depend on the weather), the Punting on the Avon, lunch at the Curator's House that we saw while punting, then evening and dinner OYO. I'm a little sad that the punting is moved from after the flight to Christchurch -- it was a wonderful way to relax after the flight -- but at least it's not gone.

Day 7 is back to matching up. Christchurch, Greymouth & Franz Josef. It looks like there is only Lunch at Monteith's Brewery, and the tour is gone (which is fine by me. A tour where they say "this is how it would work if we were still brewing here" was kind of silly). The rest looks the same.

Day 8 in Franz Josef looks the same.

Day 9 is mostly the same, except instead of the stop at the Makarora Country Cafe for lunch, you have lunch OYO during the OYO time in Wanaka.

Day 10 the Dart Valley horse back riding is gone. You instead have an OYO morning in Queenstown. Lunch is still at the Glenorchy Hotel Pub & Restaurant, and then the afternoon has the Dart River Jet Boat or a seemingly different 4-wheel drive experience as an alternate to the jet boat. Includes panning for gold. Dinner & evening still OYO in Queenstown.

Days 11 and 12 appear unchanged (Arrowtown, e-bike ride or more time in Arrowtown including the museum, Gibbston winery & wine cave tour, TSS Earnslaw to Walter Peak Farm for Dog herding demo & Farewell dinner.) Then home on Day 12.

Sayhello

 

[abdgeek]

I posted this in the thread for the new 2024 itineraries/dates, but thought I'd re-post it here for those interested:

So they have re-done the New Zealand itinerary a bit. Comparing 2022/23 to 2024/25 (I'm comparing the Adults Only itinerary, not sure how much difference there is to the standard departures):

Day 2, the Fish Market tour has been replaced with a "Private Tour of Wynyard Quarter Neighborhood". Otherwise the same.

Day 3, the trip to Waiheke Island for the zipline/winery lunch/visit to Oneroa is gone altogether (no surprise!) and you leave for Rotorua (basically Day 4 of the old itinerary). Evening and dinner is OYO instead of at the Marae (which remains as evening for Day 4 on the new itinerary).

Day 4 is basically Day 5 of the old itinerary (the Kiwi bird hatchery, Agrodome, Rotorua zip-line) with the addition of the Marae experience and dinner.

Day 5 is Day 6 of the old itinerary, with Te Puia back. However the punting on the Avon is moved to Day 6, and Day 5 has a City Tour of Christchurch.

Day 6 is new, with additional time in Christchurch (I like this). There's a sightseeing tour of Christchurch in the morning (sites will depend on the weather), the Punting on the Avon, lunch at the Curator's House that we saw while punting, then evening and dinner OYO. I'm a little sad that the punting is moved from after the flight to Christchurch -- it was a wonderful way to relax after the flight -- but at least it's not gone.

Day 7 is back to matching up. Christchurch, Greymouth & Franz Josef. It looks like there is only Lunch at Monteith's Brewery, and the tour is gone (which is fine by me. A tour where they say "this is how it would work if we were still brewing here" was kind of silly). The rest looks the same.

Day 8 in Franz Josef looks the same.

Day 9 is mostly the same, except instead of the stop at the Makarora Country Cafe for lunch, you have lunch OYO during the OYO time in Wanaka.

Day 10 the Dart Valley horse back riding is gone. You instead have an OYO morning in Queenstown. Lunch is still at the Glenorchy Hotel Pub & Restaurant, and then the afternoon has the Dart River Jet Boat or a seemingly different 4-wheel drive experience as an alternate to the jet boat. Includes panning for gold. Dinner & evening still OYO in Queenstown.

Days 11 and 12 appear unchanged (Arrowtown, e-bike ride or more time in Arrowtown including the museum, Gibbston winery & wine cave tour, TSS Earnslaw to Walter Peak Farm for Dog herding demo & Farewell dinner.) Then home on Day 12.

Sayhello

You pretty much hit on all the changes to the 2024 New Zealand trip. The changes are pretty similar with the regular itinerary. I’m glad they took out Waiheke Island and the fish market. However, I’m not sure what they would be touring in the Wynyard Quarter. Unfortunately, they are still traveling over the same dates as last year so some of the itinerary items still might not be available during the holiday trips.

 

[sayhello]

You pretty much hit on all the changes to the 2024 New Zealand trip. The changes are pretty similar with the regular itinerary. I’m glad they took out Waiheke Island and the fish market. However, I’m not sure what they would be touring in the Wynyard Quarter. Unfortunately, they are still traveling over the same dates as last year so some of the itinerary items still might not be available during the holiday trips.

I guess that's always a possibility if you travel over any holiday.

I enjoyed the Waiheke Island day, but they just didn't have it set up well, and it was kind of extraneous to the existing trip. So it either needed to change a lot (not sure there's much to change it *to*) or remove it.

Sayhello

 

[Eastridge]

I thought the Waiheke Island day was fine, but on my trip we did the zip line first and therefore spent little time in Oneroa. Since our America's Cup boat trip was rained out, the ferry ride was our chance to see the harbor and city from the water. Our bus guide took us around the island to various lookouts and we stopped at a beach.

Yes there are two zip lines on the trip but they are fairly different. Some people might be ok with the first zip on Waiheke but not the second in Rotorua. Since the Waiheke zip has parallel lines, it gave different photo ops, to take pictures or videos of the other person. I also liked Mudbrick for lunch.

But I also wanted to spend more time in Christchurch, so the 2024 revised trip offers some different opportunities