Newbie needs advice for South Pacific travel

[goldnucs]

I live in Arizona and am planning a trip to Taiwan, Australia and NZ this coming spring for business. My dates are totally flexible and I'd like to squeeze a cruise in somewhere along the way to surprise my wife as a [very] belated honeymoon. As I've never been to any of these locations I plan to do some touristy things along with the business. As scheduling such an itinerary isn't tough enough, add to the mix that I am in a wheelchair.

 

My [very preliminary] idea is to fly to Taipei from Tucson with a stop "somewhere" along the way to avoid being stuck in an uncomfortable airplane seat for 14 hours, even if it means traveling east to do so. I understand that a stopover in Hawaii could get quite pricey and I'm not averse to stopping in Guam or any other not-so-lavish destination just to break-up the flights. I'm thinking that an arrival date in Taiwan coinciding with the end of the Chinese New Year might be interesting so as to catch some of the festivities and take care of my business immediately following.

 

From Taipei I could fly due south to Perth and then to the east coast of Oz, or directly from Taiwan to Sidney, Melbourne or Brisbane. Then from AU to NZ before the journey back to the States.

 

I understand that there is a cruise from AU to Auckland which is quite nice and that would eliminate the cost of the flight between the two.

 

I sure would appreciate any and all input any of you pros out there might have to offer.

[Hlitner]

Several different cruise lines (Princess, RCI, Holland America and more) cruise those waters doing various itineraries. Both Princess and RCI have pretty routine cruises (about 2 weeks) that go between Auckland and Sydney (we liked this cruise). So you need to simply use any cruise search engine (just google "discount cruises") which are offered by many travel agencies to get a list of what is availble to fit your time frame. You are probably aware that the main crusing season down-under is during our winter (their summer).

 

Hank

[Talisker92]

Dear Goldnucs,

I can understand your situation, as my late wife needed a wheelchair on the last cruise we went on.

We just got back from an Auckland to Sydney cruise, stopping in Tahiti,using Air Tahiti Nui to break up the flight. The story is on our website

http://home.mindspring.com/~highlandpark/

[goldnucs]

Thank-you both very much for your input and suggestions. Hank, I'm going to go search "discount cruises" right now. Tahiti sounds like a perfect place to get off the plane on the inbound journey from NZ. Not much in the way of options though between LA and Taipei though, and of course, east to west is the longer haul.

 

Steve, fantastic website! I saved it to my favorites as it every bit as good as a tour guide. Please accept my condolences on your loss of Kathy.

 

Rick

[Talisker92]

Steve, fantastic website! I saved it to my favorites as it every bit as good as a tour guide. Please accept my condolences on your loss of Kathy.

Rick

Thank you for you kind words, Rick. Kathy is my present wife. My late wife Sally, passed away 5 years ago.

[goldnucs]

OUCH! So sorry about that Steve. AND KATHY!