{"id":2949,"date":"2023-10-10T08:36:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T12:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2024-01-30T08:47:40","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T13:47:40","slug":"january-2024-austrailia-and-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=2949","title":{"rendered":"January 2024 – Australia and New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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When we talked about places to travel when we retire, the very first destination on both our minds was Australia and New Zealand.\u00a0 So when the opportunity arose on deciding where to go, it was a simple click and pay for what we feel is our priority bucket list destination.\u00a0 I logged into Viking Cruises, looked up the various itinenaries, and quickly spotted that they had a 16 day Australia and New Zealand cruise embarking in Sydney and disembarking in Auckland.<\/p>

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Did someone say birthday?<\/figcaption><\/figure>

I must admit, I got excited in the moment as this is going to be Gina’s Birthday celebration albeit a few months after her major milestone. However, here was the clincher – the ship embarks on January 2, 2024.\u00a0 Which means that if we arrive early, then celebrating News Year Eve in Sydney Harbor is definately a possiblity.\u00a0<\/p>

\"sydney,Seeing the Sydney Harbor bridge ablaze in fireworks on New Years with the Opera House in the background was always the picture we want to see in real life.\u00a0 Considering last year, Zachary was able to witness NYE at the Eifel tower in Paris, after this trip the only major NYE firtwork extraviganza not to be seen in this family is those along the Hudson River in New York. (in all my years of being just being 90 miles away too).<\/p>

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So I made the choices that needed to be made without consulting Gina in order to surprise her – 17 hour flight – booked buisness class air, so while at it, picked a junior suite, add a 2 day pre-cruise hotel in Sydney, then added a 4 day post cruise in Auckland and topped it all off with adding travel insurance – I mean, it may be the only time we get to do this, right? On top of this, January is summer down under making it even better.\u00a0 I was on a roll and the computer keyboard was clicking away. Oh what the heck, throw in the all inclusive beverage package as well (we saw the perks of that on our recent Viking cruise).\u00a0 Okay, at this point we are all set, we paid for everything before Norway trip – just needed to wait in eager anticipation.<\/p>

\"koala,We just hit the 85 day mark until the trip and that means we get to chose shore excursions – the ship if fairly full, the benefit of a junior suite is we get early access to excursion reservations – weeks ahead of some 840 others on the 930 person ship – that is how Viking entices you to book higher class cabins, if you want the reservation perk, then you need to pay for and get a higher class of cabin.\u00a0 We are planning to catch a few excursions that seem interesting and exciting. I will have more information on those once we confirm them. We have not gained the confidence in third party excursions as it does not come with assuance of the boat not leaving without you…. but from what we saw, with some exceptions, the private tours pretty much run parallel with the Viking tours but a slightly less cost.<\/p>

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So look for some posts around the New Year Eve time frame – hopefully arriving in Sydney after a 17 hour flight the morning of News Year Eve (going over the International date line to boot) will not be too trecherous for us, but the hotel Viking has us booked (Marriott at Circular Quay) is right in the heart of the downtown walking distance from the cruise pier, the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge – I guess we are very fortunate to get a room there on such a night.<\/p>

\"\"We got a airline booking a few months ago – Ft. Lauderdale to Houston then Houston to Sydney (that rates in the top list of longest flights in the world). We did use Viking Air + service to\u00a0 get those flights otherwise we would have multiple stops in colder climates. We arrive in Sydney the morning of 12\/31\/23 which is 2 days after we leave.\u00a0 The return is Auckland to Houston and Houston to Fort Lauderdale.\u00a0 \u00a0Notably when we come back, our flight arrive in Ft Lauderdale within an hour or two from the time we leave Auckland – since we are flying west to east, over the date line.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Bottom line of all this – Still getting our head around all this – just trying to image what it will be like make my head spin, it is all too crazy to think about. More to follow.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we talked about places to travel when we retire, the very first destination on both our minds was Australia and New Zealand.\u00a0 So when the opportunity arose on deciding where to go, it was a simple click and pay for what we feel is our priority bucket list destination.\u00a0 I logged into Viking Cruises, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230351823,"featured_media":2940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[50518551,200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia-new-zealand","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peuwlC-Lz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3531,"url":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=3531","url_meta":{"origin":2949,"position":0},"title":"Geelong and Hobart","author":"Jim and Gina Sumislaski","date":"February 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Embarking on the Viking Orion from Sydney, our southward journey toward Geelong\/Melbourne commenced with a pleasant day at sea.The highlight was an exquisite spa experience that left me rejuvenated. My therapist, hailing from Bangladesh and trained in India, worked wonders.Later that morning, Gina had a woman therapist who was good,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Australia-New Zealand"","block_context":{"text":"Australia-New Zealand","link":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?cat=50518551"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_7096.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_7096.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_7096.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_7096.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_7096.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5182,"url":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=5182","url_meta":{"origin":2949,"position":1},"title":"What we are looking forward to…","author":"Jim and Gina Sumislaski","date":"September 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"OMG it's starting to get real! More preparations for our 6 month Worl Cruise.","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?cat=200"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-20443012.jpeg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-20443012.jpeg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-20443012.jpeg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-20443012.jpeg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4131,"url":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=4131","url_meta":{"origin":2949,"position":2},"title":"Viking World Cruise: 29 Countries in 138 Days","author":"Jim and Gina Sumislaski","date":"July 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the first post about the upcoming World Cruise. 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Conditions in the Tasman Sea can vary widely, primarily due to the unimpeded westerly winds traveling from South Africa all the way to Tasmania and New Zealand. These winds\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Australia-New Zealand"","block_context":{"text":"Australia-New Zealand","link":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?cat=50518551"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_9872.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_9872.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_9872.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_9872.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_9872.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3960,"url":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=3960","url_meta":{"origin":2949,"position":4},"title":"Auckland to Tongariro National Park: A Journey Through New Zealand","author":"Jim and Gina Sumislaski","date":"June 23, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Disembarking the Viking Orion, going inland New Zealand","rel":"","context":"In "Australia-New Zealand"","block_context":{"text":"Australia-New Zealand","link":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?cat=50518551"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IMG_0384.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IMG_0384.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IMG_0384.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IMG_0384.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6544,"url":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=6544","url_meta":{"origin":2949,"position":5},"title":"World Cruise – Thursday Island and Darwin Australia","author":"Jim and Gina Sumislaski","date":"February 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Days 56 thru 60 of our 138 day World cruise from Fort Lauderdale to London. \u00a0After leaving Cairns we had a sea day and stopped at the northern tip of Australia in the North Queensland state at a very small Island named Thursday Island. 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