New Zeland and stopovers

[Simon TW]

I'm off to New Zeland in February to dive dive dive and see my sister and an old mate.

Has anyone got any suggestions for diving on the stopovers?

[Simon A]

Simon,
Having done the trip a few times (tip:- fly Air NewZealand, they have very good leg room in cattle class, 34 inch seat pitch). My preference is unless there's a stopover you realy want to visit, do the trip in one go and spend the extra time in NZ. I find that dealing with jet lag twice is a pain.
HTH
Simon A

[BigHairyAl]

If you can, squeeze in the Similan Islands. Really wanted to go in June, but it was out of season.

Thailand, BTW.

[triplefin]

Originally Posted by Simon A

Simon,
My preference is unless there's a stopover you realy want to visit, do the trip in one go and spend the extra time in NZ. I find that dealing with jet lag twice is a pain.
HTH
Simon A

Couldnt agree more. I did it via LA to get the extra baggage allowance as I was taking my diving kit and camping for a couple of months. Plenty of fabulous diving over there. I'd save the stopover for a seperate trip.
Have a great time its a superb country

[gibbon]

I am tempted to agree about flying AirNewZealand, and not stopping over.

Then there is the LA bagage & Security to weigh up, could be a large advantage.

However if MalaysianAirlines are comaprable then you are welcome to come via here, with many short haul options available to you, and some local diving to boot.

[Simon TW]

I'm not pressed for time, I can stay in NZ for three months but intend to keep it to four weeks (I miss my dogs) I can do up to a week each stopover so I don't mind if it's a flight to some major airport and then a short hop to some magical dive sites.

Wrecks or reefs, up to 100 metres (a bit deeper if its special)

[Rookie]

Comfy seat, personal entertainment thingy, very good food, and they keep the booze flowing. I'd use em again in a flash. Plus, avoids the US security farce. We did the trip last year and stayed for a week on Tioman Island. Diving was resonable, food was cheap and very good. I'd recommend it as a good relaxing destination, but probably not a hard core dive destination.
I was barely Ocean diver then though, and it was our honeymoon, so not just a dive trip.

Rookie

[Allan Carr]

Air New Zealand economy is the best in terms of space and on a trip of that length, it really does make a difference. Having done the trip several dozen times over the years, I'm afraid that I disagree about doing it in one go. Travelling west (a longer day) always made the jet lag easier for me and breaking the journey also made it easier to adjust because at least you can get a decent sleep.

Both the Cook Islands and Fiji have some reasonable diving as stopovers - Cook Islands has better coral but less fish.

[Anemone]

Originally Posted by jonny

I am tempted to agree about flying AirNewZealand, and not stopping over.

Then there is the LA bagage & Security to weigh up, could be a large advantage.

However if MalaysianAirlines are comaprable then you are welcome to come via here, with many short haul options available to you, and some local diving to boot.

Yeah, Air NZ are pretty good for these long hauls.........especially now I believe they have the screens in seatbacks - a major improvement!

The LA luggage and security pantomime gets on my tits, probably because Im not at my best by then, but for God's sake........they even made a song and dance about me taking a picture of our plane, which had been nicely decorated with Lord of the Rings marketing.

Jonny, is there much diving to be done direct from Kuala Lumpur? Can you recommend anyone/websites? Thanks in advance.

[BJ]

Assumning you do not want to make any extra flights, I would recommend either of the following:

Fiji - Nadi - Benqa Lagoon - Benqa Adventure Divers - very BIG sharks.
Tahiti - Papiete- Tahiti Iti - lots of pretty little blacktip sharks.

Look it up on divernet travel section next week after the software engineers have been in with the insecticide!