Advice on travel

Advice on travel

I needed your advice on this one, because I believe a fair amount of you have travelled to Europe. Although I'm Portuguese and grew up here, and my parents are Portuguese,  I still hold both Portuguese and Kiwi nationality, as my great aunt and uncle are Kiwis and live in Invercargill. I'm planning to visit them during this year to actually get to meet them. The problem is, travelling from Lisbon to Invercargill takes almost 40 hours. I'm ok with getting to Auckland and actually enjoyed the trip when I visited NZ for the first time in July (didn't have time to go down there), but when I arrived I just felt sorry for those who were continuing their journey onwards to other cities in the country, and can't imagine myself going through what probably is one of the longest non-direct domestic routes in NZ, straight after arriving from one of the longest commercial flights in the world (LHR-AKL). However, if necessary, I won't really bother doing that. Anyway, my question is: Is it worth making a night stopover in Auckland and then continue my journey or is it better to simply do it all at once? My big issue with the stopover is my budget, which is not particularly elastic...

Hope you guys can help me deciding on this!

Flight from Auckland to Invercargill would only be about 2 hours and there are usually some direct flights. So really, if you don't mind travelling for another couple of hours I'd do that.

 

I should refrase that, how long is the stop over in Christchurch? Would only be half an hour - an hour wouldn't it?

It's a hassle to overnight in Akld anyway. May be tired after a flight from Lisbon to NZ but would be better to continue on down (with/without stopover in ChCh) if needs be.

Better to be in Invercargill amongst family (and maybe a bit more tired) than stuck in a motel for a night.

Having done the Europe to NZ a couple of times the hassles of staying one night in Akld to me would far outway the benefits of just getting where you need to go. I say get a connecting flight to Invercargill. The you've done with the hassle and can chill out without another day of being "on the road".

Thanks a lot guys.

Good call. Get out of Auckland as fast as possible! El-Ni�o2010-01-26 09:34:54

The real bitch with Auckland is the completely separate terminal buildings for international and domestic flights. make sure there is a generous amount of time between your estimated arrival time and departure time, because if you cut it too fine, you might be stuck in Auckland regardless.

Yeah, never make the mistake I did - only having 2.5 hours between arriving in Heathrow and departing from Stansted. Even with the people I sat beside on the plane from SYD > LHR giving me a lift to Stansted, hooning down the M25, I was 45 mins late!.

50 quid and 2.5 hour wait to get the next Go flight up to Edinburgh

That's not really too big of a deal, I once missed my connection to Wellington after coming back from overseas because I didn't realise the clocks had changed on that weekend, and I got put on the very next flight, no problems or additional charges or anything. Have to say Air New Zealand has always been good like that to me, in stark contrast to some other companies (I'm looking at you, Aerolineas Argentinas....)

Hello guys,

Maybe you will have recovered in time to come up to Wgtn in two weeks.

I really wanted to go to the match actually! I loved Welly and wanted to go back, but it's way too expensive for me. And I'll be leaving on Saturday back to the European Winter  . LisbonKiwi2010-02-26 07:37:48

I once got a free day/night in Singapore courtesy of Singapore Airlines. We were late in arriving from Abu Dhabi and I missed my connecting flight to NZ (Mechanical problem in Abu Dhabi). They put me up in a nice hotel and I had a full day to shop around for some unexpected bargains.