Kiwiprincess

Actually, on that note, keep an eye of Pacific Blue's "Happy Hour" fares between 12pm and 1pm each weekday.

Remember, it is often much cheaper to get a package deal to a place like the Cook Islands rather than book separately. Eg Virgin Blue has a $500 4 or 5 day special to Rarotonga from Auckland.

Ditto with the Gold Coast. Personally I think the Gold Coast has a tendency to be pretty hideous. But it can also be a lot of fun. And good if you get away from the highways and highrises.

Batty

I can vouch for that! We went last year and all up, including spending money, it cost us about $1800 in total. And since $600 of that was for flights which were paid months in advance it really seemed like a very very cheap holiday. You do get what you pay for though But... it was wonderfully relaxing.

Hope you're feeling a bit better today Love30stm - trouble shared and all that

Batty

Keep an eye out for deals - our Dollar was $1.30 to the Tongan currency at the time so it worked out well that way too. Their high season is July to November (when the whales are there - although they were arriving just as we were leaving and that was the middle of July). The return flights were something like $290 each - ridiculously cheap when you consider what it costs to fly domestically here - and we went to an Island called Eua where it was really, really basic but it cost $30 a night per room!!!!! The only problem was that there isn't really a lot to do - you have to make your own entertainment and with teenagers......

Kiwiprincess

Actually that's just reminded me. Grab a few brochures - often the larger resorts in Fiji used to offer cheap/free accommodation to children right up until 17 or 18 years of age. It sometimes meant that it was a one bedroom place and the parents got the bedroom while the children got the living area. But it's one suggestion.

BEVS

On the back of Love30stm recent thread, I thought it might be good to pool our ideas about how to afford off-shore holidays , trips or weekend breaks away from NZ.

I'll copy a couple of the posts over to save folk repeating themselves.

When I had half a thought we might be able to afford a week away next NZ winter , I spent a bit of time trying to find the most cost effective place for us to go from Nelson. I wanted it to include a price for the internal from Nelson to Xch/Auckland or Welly and then onto somewhere outside of NZ. Living a 5 hour drive from an international airport stuff one up a bit. You either have to bit the bullet and do the drive before flying out or spend $$ on an internal flight. The problem we seem to have with the special offers and deals is that they all go from Auck or Xch so this means adding the internal flight cost to the price.

When I was looking, I found the cheapest place to get to seemed to be Tonga. There seemed to be a number of budget places to stay and if you went in the NZ winter then yu got to possibly see the whales.

Kiwiprincess

Hehe I wondered how I managed to start that thread!

Batty

This is where we went http://www.kalianet.to/hideawayeua/index.html

To get there you take the shortest commercial flight in the World - a whole 7 minutes There was an article in the Herald about it a while back and they called it 'the land that time forgot'. If you're into 'michellin stars' this isn't a place to go but if you just want to kick back and meet some really cool people it's brilliant!

teebrown

This is an interesting thread, keep them coming.