fiddler

Thanks. that would be very nice of you. I Will let you know if I plan to head up to the coast from Wellington. OH wants me to check out Whitby as our potential base if I take up job in capital and coast dhb as her friend used to live there before she moved back to Scotland.

MrsFychan

Know a couple of people who live and lived there. Bit to built up for me but has all you need. give me a shout and I could met you in Porirua and show you Whitby or get the Whitby lot for a coffee.

BEVS

From the thread title only.

Mr BEVS and I usually peg a couple of days. MrBEVS was back and forth every 12/18 months until his Mum passed away & managed an up and running over one good sleep as long as there was one full day to chill

Tom H

When you first arrive, I'd give it a week to be on the safe side. That'll also give you time to get other things sorted such as rental, car, life insurance and some proper coffee

Plus it'll help slowly get you used to NZ time. Especially if you're flying with Emirates as the UK to Dubai leg has to be one of the worst legs for jet lag. Great airline but the 7 hour journey doesn't help.

Axcell family

Congratulations! I have booked flights with Singapore and as my SMC visa will be un-validated, can take 40kgs of luggage, rather than the 30 you would normally get. I emailed the local Singapore Airlines desk and have it in writing, so can produce it if they question me....it can be in any number of 'packages' too.

valleygurl

We have booked with Quantas and as wee opened a ANZ bank account we get an extra 15kg of luggage each.

Kotare

I hope you survive to get to NZ - Quantas are dire so add a week for jet lag :-)

valleygurl

flew with Quantas a few times I wouldn't say they were dire!!!

fiddler

Thanks MrsFychan, I will take you up on that offer. It will be wonderful to get to know about life around here from someone who has made the move. I have taken up on the advice about jet lag because of the tight itinerary I was planning and hence I will stay for 2 weeks rather than one. This has meant that I will be flying in early July rather than May. Once my dates are fixed I will pm you.
Kind regards
Fiddler

Bo-Jangles

Possibly need to consider the context; it's the standard opinion of almost every NZer that anything and everything from Australia is dire.

Kotare

Agreed - but I have flown Emirates, Cathay, Singapore, Air NZ, BA and American Airlines (and Quantas) on the NZ route and the two worst flights were Quantas (though Brunei and KLM were close on other routes). Difficult to believe Quantas could be worse than the American airlines (must have been trying harder) :-)

Venezuelan007

I flew on the 29th from qatar started at 4 am, meaning i didnt sleep that day, then 1 hr to dubai, i slept on this one, 4 in the airport where i snoozed a little. Then 16 to auckland... I didnt really sleep on the flight just a few snoozes here and there.
Arrived to auckland at 10am, hotel at 11, nap at 12 till 3pm, slept from 4pm to 10pm, slept from 12pm to 10 am.
Went to bet 9pm yesterday and woke up at 3am... Cant sleep so... Here i am.
I get one more day to adjust since i start on tuesday... Lets see how that goes

movingtonewzealand

We're all booked now & we've made a real adventure of it - leaving UK in about 4 weeks from now - doing Europe then a holiday in Thailand, a couple of days in Oz, then on to NZ! Excited just doesn't cut it..!!

Lisa Maree

Wowzers - that's a brilliant trip, have a great time!

I'm starting to panic that there is so much more of the UK / Europe I want to see and do but its not possible to fit it all in and still get to NZ with a decent stack of savings. But at the end of the day I could live here forever and still not see all that this side of the world has to offer!

movingtonewzealand

Well we've not had a good break for a while, thought that this was the chance to do it, at least for a few years, it's just the two of us so we've got the freedom to do it.

Also, the price of all the flights combined were cheaper than buying a direct flight! Also amazingly accommodation costs are considerably less than what we were paying in rent so we were convinced! It didn't take much convincing though I'll be honest..

I've been looking at the fabulous food in Thailand and cannot wait to get gone now!

Saying all this though, we are going budget budget budget with our airlines but hey, as long as we arrive alive, I'm happy! More dosh to spend on hols