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Over the past couple of weeks, MrsK and I have completed a short lap round the South Island of New Zealand. This was something we had planned a few years ago, but having the company I worked for going broke meant we had to delay our plans until now. It would be MrsK's first trip to the South Island of NZ and for me, the last time I was in those parts was a conference in 2000 in Queenstown. I expected many things would have changed since then, and they had.
We decided to replan our trip for October, as our birthdays are nine days apart and we have done many trips to encompass one or both birthdays. This time we did both. As part of the planning I looked at ways and means to get to Christchurch, and of course really the only option was using points to use the Emirates flight from Sydney to Christchurch and back, in bus class. We had never flown with Emirates, no reason just their flights never came up for planning. Plus, the choice between bus class in a Qantas A330/B737 or an Emirates A380 with an onboard bar - not even a contest.
Now the theme of our trip. I've been an avid user of @tripwaffle for my recent trips. I have been running it in parallel with TripIt Pro and comparing the functionality. I have been so impressed with what Tripwaffle has to offer, I decided to go Tripwaffle alone - going 'commando' so to speak.
We don't mind doing road trips, and aim to keep the driving to 2-3 hours per day at the most. Also, finding places to stay where we could walk around to take in the sights/bars/restaurants. So after roughing out some options, looking at what was available accommodation wise with Booking.com, AirBnB, and direct using Accor points we locked in our trip.:
- Murray's Bus from Canberra to Sydney International and stay overnight at Rydges Sydney International Airport. EK412 departed at 8.50am so being able to walk across from the hotel, through check in and into the Emirates Lounge for a champagne breakfast would work
- Flight to Christchurch, and spend the first three nights there, at Quest Cathedral Junction apartments, as it was in a central location and we would walk to most places. We celebrated MrsK's birthday there
- Pick up the hire car from Apex HIre Cars in the city - I've used them several times and found them good to deal with being a single company, and no drop off fees
- First leg of the trip from Christchurch to Oamaru, and stay the night at The Whitehouse. It's in an old restored building and in a central, walkable location.
- Next leg from Oamaru to Dunedin, to stay at Fable Dunedin. We took a route off the main road to run along the coast, and not going direct into Dunedin, but over the back roads through Port Chalmers
- Then Dunedin to Gore, to stay at the Riverlea Motel Again we planned to use the back roads along the coast, and unexpectedly part of it was on a gravel road - MrsK says I could find a gravel road in the middle of Melbourne - living in the country and remote areas I don't mind them
- Queenstown was our next stop for three night, cashing in some Accor points and staying at the Hotel St Moritz, and using that as a base to explore the area.
- Then onto Lake Tekapo for our next stop, staying at the Woolshed Apartments booked through AirBnB
- Our next stop was in Timaru, at the Grosvenor Hotel
- The final leg was to Christchurch Airport to catch EK413 back to Sydney, and celebrate my birthday at the onboard bar
- As we would arrive into Sydney in the evening I look at the different accommodation options, and came across a cheap deal through Luxury Escapes for two nights at the Hotel Indigo Potts Point/Kings Cross.
- The last leg was back home on the Murray's bus from Central Station to Canberra
I'll add in the photos and commentary for each of the legs, stops, thoughts, etc over the next couple of days.
