I thought it may be helpful for you to know a few things...such as weather and time zone!
I have created a widget at the bottom of the blog with the world clock for you. Remember, Australia and New Zealand are a full day ahead (usually around 16 hours) so plan accordingly.
Also, February will be SUMMERTIME here! It's actually the best month weather-wise of the whole year! I thought it would be nice for you to have a summer holiday during blizzard season. Now let's just hope you can fly!
Well, by now you probably know that the date is February 21st! Yay!
As I mentioned in my last blog "Travel Tips", it takes a bit of time to get here and also to adjust to the time difference. If you're thinking about making the journey, think about making it a holiday!
We would love it if you could spend a bit of time here in Wanaka and the surrounding area. There is so much to do including wine tasting, shopping, fishing, boating, camping, surfing, diving, hiking (or tramping as we call it here!) and traveling around that you should make it worth your while! We have a few ideas for activities for anyone that chooses to hang before or after the wedding. I'll get into that later.
We'd recommend that you try to get here by Monday the 17th if it's at all possible if you are coming from North America. If you are traveling from Australia, it would be awesome if you could get here for the week, especially for Mick's mates as I'm sure he'd like to have a bit of a Buck's night with y'all. Girls, I've got some fun ideas in mind for us too!
We are getting married on a Friday so that anyone coming from OZ that has to get back for work can spend the next day with us winding down and enjoying the Wanaka sunshine.
If there are a few in your family or pack of mates and you're going to stick around, we would definitely recommend and encourage looking into renting a house for the week. It's the most cost effective way to do it. Check out the accommodations tab just above for an idea of prices. If you are keen and want us to check out a house for you, we are more than happy to do so.
It will certainly be a week of events, introductions and catch-ups so we invite you to join us for as much of that as possible! We want to make some serious memories here people!
Ok, so you have decided to pull the trigger and jump on a plane to the other side of the world! Go you!
Before you book your ticket, have a look at these helpful tips for flying to the Southern Hemisphere:
2. New Zealand is an average of 15 hours ahead of time from Boston...which means we are living in the future! When you fly here from Boston, you will jump ahead 2 days and when you fly back, you will most likely land on the same day you took off. Please take this into account when you book your flights. They will detail it for you on your itinerary, so just make sure you are paying attention!
2. Your destination airport is in Queenstown, New Zealand on the South Island. Wanaka is just a one hour drive from Queenstown.
3. The flight should take around 18 hours ideally, and there is no such thing as a direct flight from Boston to New Zealand ;) so be prepared to lay over at least once. You will want to get off the plane and walk around for a little while anyways!
4. When you do layover, Give yourself at least 2 hours (3 is kind of ideal, which is what most airlines will automatically build into your trip) and go for a walk!
5. Layovers are typically in either LA, San Francisco, Hawaii (a bit of beach time?), Auckland (the capital city and at the top of the north island of New Zealand) or possibly Australia.
6. What you want to do is try to book your first flight during the afternoon so that your long flight is overnight (I think most flights are overnight anyways). If you can fly with Air New Zealand or Virgin Air, those are the best 2 airline services to NZ. Quantas isn't bad either, and they have quite a few flights. All of these long flights have all night service, dinner, movies and free drinks! Air New Zealand will give you enough wine to put you in a coma! Snuggle up, pop on a movie and enjoy the flight. Make sure to drink lots of water....even if it means you have to get up and pee 10 times during the night. Dehydration sucks....I know this first hand!
I think that's enough to get you going. Feel free to comment if you have any questions or concerns!
You're coming to New Zealand! Yipeeee!
Kia Ora (pronounced kee-ora) means "Welcome" in the native language known as Maori. You will see it and hear it a lot while you're here!
I will do my best to keep updating this website to give you all of the information you need about making the trip to magical New Zealand.
Here's how the blog works. If you look to your right, you will see that there is a column with titles of the blogs I have written. I will post everything from flight tips to accommodation websites to fun activities you can do while you're here! You can find some helpful tabs at the top of this page which will help you book flights. If you find this site hard to navigate, please let me know. I want to make it as easy as possible for you to find your way around!
