30th Wedding Anniversary Trip to Oz and Kiwi Introduction
My wife and I spent 25 days in Australia and New Zealand in March of 2019 for our 30th Wedding Anniversary. The next series of blog posts will be more or less day by day o what we experienced along the way. Basically what I had posted as Facebook Photo Albums, just moved over to here.
The trip consisted of flying from Portland to Sydney via Los Angeles. We spent four nights in Sydney. We then boarded a 13-day cruise around New Zealand. Upon return, we flew up to Cairns for 2 nights, then flew to Melbourne for 4 nights and then the long trek home. So much was seen and done. Even by my standards, this was a very epic trip.
Since I like stats, I will give bullet facts to start with:
Cities/Towns Visited
- Australia: 4: Sydney, Katoomba (Blue Mountains). Cairns, Melbourne
- New Zealand: 9: Dunedin, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga, Rototura, Hobbiton, Auckland, Paihia, also went through Fjordland NP via cruise ship
Transportation
Since this blog is about tourist by transit, this is important. And about 98% of all trips we did involve some sort of transit mode other than a private car or taxi.
- # of plane flights: 8, with 3 of them in First Class. The rest in coach.
- # of Cars driven: 1 – in Cairns, rental car price was about the same as Taxi
- # of taxies used: 1 – in Sydney, mainly due to being hungry and the next bus was late by 20 minutes
- # of trains taken from airport/city and back: 1: Sydney
- # of buses taken from airport/city and back: 1: Melbourne
- # of commuter rail systems used: 3: Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland. Wanted to try Wellington, but no time
- # of light rail systems used: 1: Sydney
- # of tram systems used: 1: Melbourne (very useful)
- # of city bus systems used: 3: Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland
- # of Ferry Systems used: 1: Sydney
- # of Funiculars: 2: Wellington & Blue Mountains (Scenic World)
- # of Cruise Ships: 1 – Ovation of the Seas
- # of Tender Ports: 2: Auckland & Bay of Islands
- # of port shuttle buses used: 4: Dunedin, Wellington, Napier, & Bay of Islands
- # tour buses used: 2: Sydney & Tauranga
- # of old fashion touring car used: 1: Napier
Other silly facts
- # of photos taken: 5000+
- # of Hotels used: 0, none, zilch, nada…
- # of AirBnBs used: 3
- # of St. Paul’s Churches visited: 3 (2 in Wellington, 1 in Melbourne)
- # of steps taken: 307,000+
- # of miles walked: 136 miles
- # of floors climbed: 757 floors