My Next Vacation

50 days, 9 hours to take off. 2 days of flying there. 10 days on a boat ...

BotFodder wrote:

2 days of flying there.

Yikes! I generally like flying since I don't do it that often, but I draw the line at a flight from LAX to JFK

Sounds like an awesome trip. Never been scuba diving myself. The closest I've ever gotten to scuba was some light snorkeling in Hawaii.
... screaming through a snorkel tube != scuba

We are leaving 11/12/06 for the following:

Tahiti (2 - days)
Moorea (3 -days)
Bora Bora (3 - days)
Rangiroa (4 - days

Counting hours here also

I didn't know raptors could get passports

It's just been canceled.

Oh no! Why?

B_B

It's ... complicated. And I'm working on alternatives - if there are any.

Good luck.

B_B

Okay - the best explanation as to "why" I can come up with:

A buddy has basically booked the entire boat on his own - a significant (well over $20,000) outlay of cash. He offered several folks (recently married, gift for relatives) folks open spots; others (me included) would pay for spots.

All of the folks offered free spots turned them down! Too much money to fly.

Only two folks (the paying folks) were going "for sure" - it would have been 3 of us on a 10 berth liveaboard. So the idea to postpone came up - all fine and dandy, except:

1. I'm not so sure the boat is going to go for it,
2. They haven't actually scheduled the new trip,
3. My tickets are non-refundable and could cost up to $350 to change (not including any charges for higher rate flights).

My alternatives:

1. Call airlines for credit (resulting in a minimum outlay of $350) and hope for a rescheduled trip.

2. Take a majority of my flights: fly in to Brisbane, but instead of flying on to PNG, stop there and stay a couple of nights. Spend a day at Australia Zoo. Then, grab a short flight from Brisbane to Sydney, where I have friends (if they're going to be around for New Years) and maybe do some diving. My outgoing flights would have gone through Sydney, so I would just board the flight I would have normally returned on. Booking a flight from Brisbane to Sydney is actually well under $250.

I got email back from my friends: We have options.

Paul and Mae live outside of Sydney. Both are divers; and they have two children. Poor Mae usually gets stuck watching the kids ... and probably will this time, too. Paul has suggested we do a 4-5 day liveaboard out of Cairns, and then head to Sydney and hang out until I fly back.

Ideal vacation would be flying into Brisbane on the 29th, staying for a day or two and visit Australia Zoo, and then fly on to Cairns and go diving, then fly to Sydney and hang out for 4-5 days. Crossing my fingers - the less I have to rearrange the flights between the US and AU, the better ...

Hope everything turns out for ya, Bot

It is set:

Instead of leaving on the 27th, I now leave on the 25th.

Staying (arriving on the 27th) in Brisbane for two days; visiting the Zoo (yes, Steve Irwin's zoo) one of those days.

On the 29th, I fly up to Townsville and board a liveaboard for 3 days.

Come back in, drive to Cairns, and on the 2nd, board another liveaboard for a 3-4 day trip.

On the 6th, fly to Sydney and hang out.

On the 10th, fly back to the US.

I will of course be taking many pictures and video.

Sounds awesome! Can't wait to see pics!

Australia: 19 Hrs to take off.

Caymans: 369 days to boarding ...

Hello from Brisbane. Still not quite recovered from the TPA - LAX (5 hours) and LAX - BNE (13 hours) flights. It's 4:45am Thursday here, 1:43PM Wednesday in Tampa. I woke up around 3:30AM after going to sleep around 4PM, watched the last bit of FotR Extended, Disk 2 that was in the DVD player (I had attempted to finish it yesterday afternoon but was too darn tired). Supposed to get up around 6am for breakfast; need to catch a 7AM train, eventually switching to a bus, to get to Australia Zoo around opening. It's actually cooler here than it was in Tampa, though according to what I see now, that's switching back - 56F in the afternoon in Tampa, 61F in the morning here. The weather yesterday was about the same as when I left Tampa - rainy and overcast. Hopefully I'll see sun today.