Now for something completely different

[Docker123]

17 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

 

Just a bit of an unfortunate sea state in that video Adrian. Are there cars on that ship? I have been in a ship where the waves were breaking over the bridge. It was in 1976 and the ship was HMCS Yukon, I was a 17 year old sea cadet and found that such seas are not conducive to retaining ones evening meal.

No cars. 
 

that is just a commuter ferry inside Sydney Harbour. 
 

The trip between Circular Quay and Manly can get a little lumpy sometimes. Especially when the ferry crosses the mouth of the harbour. 

[Russell21]

30 minutes ago, Docker123 said:

No cars. 
 

that is just a commuter ferry inside Sydney Harbour. 
 

The trip between Circular Quay and Manly can get a little lumpy sometimes. Especially when the ferry crosses the mouth of the harbour. 

The lumpiness gets to the cancellation stage at times.

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, Docker123 said:

No cars. 
 

that is just a commuter ferry inside Sydney Harbour. 
 

The trip between Circular Quay and Manly can get a little lumpy sometimes. Especially when the ferry crosses the mouth of the harbour. 

Indeed once you approach North and South Head in come the big swells and they come in quite a way sometimes.

[By The Bay]

18 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Indeed once you approach North and South Head in come the big swells and they come in quite a way sometimes.

Here is some footage of surfers catching the waves inside Sydney Harbour on the 20 July 2020.

 

[NSWP]

25 minutes ago, By The Bay said:

Here is some footage of surfers catching the waves inside Sydney Harbour on the 20 July 2020.

 

Good one, we will frighten Lyle away for when he takes his Sydney Harbour Ferry ride.

[sailing canary]

On 8/17/2020 at 12:47 PM, ilikeanswers said:

 

 Museums aren't always accurate.

As Te Papa Tongarewa is the National Museum of New Zealand, I would very much doubt that they were displaying anything that was inaccurate.

Why don't you have a look at their website and search for yourself??

 

https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/discover-collections/read-watch-play/history/voyage-and-discovery-pacific

Edited August 18, 2020 by sailing canary
Added hyperlink

[Aus Traveller]

12 minutes ago, sailing canary said:

As Te Papa Tongarewa is the National Museum of New Zealand, I would very much doubt that they were displaying anything that was inaccurate.

Why don't you have a look at their website and search for yourself??

 

https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/discover-collections/read-watch-play/history/voyage-and-discovery-pacific

On a few of my visits to Te Papa I have explored the special exhibit on Gallipoli. It is beautifully done, but it had an inaccurate claim. It named a particular NZ soldier as among the first soldier to land at Gallipoli at dawn on 25th April. This was wrong. The Aussies landed around dawn and the Kiwis landed in the afternoon by which time the beach was quiet. Of course, the Kiwis were involved in very heavy fighting later. On my next visit, the same sign was still in place. When I went to Te Papa in January this year (at least my eighth visit), I saw that they had changed the sign to "the first NZ soldier". That could have been correct. I have no idea who the first Kiwi soldier was.

 

I recount this story to illustrate the fact that errors can be made. I was very pleased to see it had been corrected - not due to me because I didn't say anything on the earlier occasions when I saw the error. As a guest, I feel that would have been impolite and I probably would not have been believed.

[ilikeanswers]

7 hours ago, sailing canary said:

As Te Papa Tongarewa is the National Museum of New Zealand, I would very much doubt that they were displaying anything that was inaccurate.

Why don't you have a look at their website and search for yourself??

 

https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/discover-collections/read-watch-play/history/voyage-and-discovery-pacific

 

Well looking through the website did settle one thing. They write the Maori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand (Source). Seems the curators of this museum agree with the majority there is no evidence of habitation before Maori settlement😜😉. Hopefully this puts the whole thing to bed🤗.

[peter1956]

On 8/17/2020 at 2:01 PM, Blackduck59 said:

 

Thanks Adrian, Just as I hoped. That was our "splurge" one night for the trip. We will be looking to re-book there in the new itinerary. It will be closer to the end of our adventure now as we will be flying out of Melbourne instead of Sydney. There are direct flights Melbourne to Auckland yes? We are still hoping to fly Air New Zealand direct Vancouver to Auckland and back.

Its around 4 hours flight time Melbourne to Auckland and if Ballarat is your last stop an easy 90 minute trip to Melbourne airport. All freeway, but I would avoid the morning rush hour.

[Russell21]

7 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

Well looking through the website did settle one thing. They write the Maori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand (Source). Seems the curators of this museum agree with the majority there is no evidence of habitation before Maori settlement😜😉. Hopefully this puts the whole thing to bed🤗.

Not by a long shot.

[Docker123]

1 hour ago, peter1956 said:

Its around 4 hours flight time Melbourne to Auckland and if Ballarat is your last stop an easy 90 minute trip to Melbourne airport. All freeway, but I would avoid the morning rush hour.

As Peter indicated, normal life has many flights between Mel and Auck. Not sure who Air Canada partners with for code shares. 

previously there have been 2-3 weekly non-stop Air Canada flights Mel to Vancouver. 
 

who knows in post-COVID

[Blackduck59]

1 hour ago, peter1956 said:

Its around 4 hours flight time Melbourne to Auckland and if Ballarat is your last stop an easy 90 minute trip to Melbourne airport. All freeway, but I would avoid the morning rush hour.

 

Ballarat is the last stop before Melbourne but we will be in Melbourne a couple nights before we fly out.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Lyle, are you planning on booking a return flight plus a one way flight or a Vancouver-Auckland Melbourne-Vancouver open jaw flights. The latter, if available, often works out much cheaper.

[peter1956]

1 minute ago, Blackduck59 said:

 

Ballarat is the last stop before Melbourne but we will be in Melbourne a couple nights before we fly out.

If you are in the centre of Melbourne, the getting to the airport in the morning rush will be OK. its the evening rush you will have to worry about.

I would love to go into Melbourne at the moment and see what its like deserted. The news footage looks amazing. But at the moment we are not allowed .

[Blackduck59]

48 minutes ago, Docker123 said:

As Peter indicated, normal life has many flights between Mel and Auck. Not sure who Air Canada partners with for code shares. 

previously there have been 2-3 weekly non-stop Air Canada flights Mel to Vancouver. 
 

who knows in post-COVID

 

We may end up using Air Canada as they fly direct to Auckland and from Melbourne. As you say who knows what will be in January 2022. We hope to just re-book the Air New Zealand seats we had.

[Blackduck59]

2 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Lyle, are you planning on booking a return flight plus a one way flight or a Vancouver-Auckland Melbourne-Vancouver open jaw flights. The latter, if available, often works out much cheaper.

 

We haven't got the new plan in place yet. The original plan was a return Flight direct Vancouver to Auckland  and there was a connecting flight Sydney to Auckland. We had the Bulkhead seats in premium economy for all the legs. We have compared most options and the Air New Zealand product appealed to us. That being said I have emailed the TA that booked the flights for us, he works (or worked?) at the center that likes flights. I haven't heard back from him. will try calling tomorrow, he has had 2 days to respond and nothing. How this is handled will have a direct effect on whether we continue with Air New Zealand and that travel agency.

[NSWP]

2 hours ago, Docker123 said:

As Peter indicated, normal life has many flights between Mel and Auck. Not sure who Air Canada partners with for code shares. 

previously there have been 2-3 weekly non-stop Air Canada flights Mel to Vancouver. 
 

who knows in post-COVID

Air Canada is a member of Star Alliance, many partners, inc Air NZ. and a couple of dozen others.

Edited August 19, 2020 by NSWP

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Blackduck59 said:

 

We haven't got the new plan in place yet. The original plan was a return Flight direct Vancouver to Auckland  and there was a connecting flight Sydney to Auckland. We had the Bulkhead seats in premium economy for all the legs. We have compared most options and the Air New Zealand product appealed to us. That being said I have emailed the TA that booked the flights for us, he works (or worked?) at the center that likes flights. I haven't heard back from him. will try calling tomorrow, he has had 2 days to respond and nothing. How this is handled will have a direct effect on whether we continue with Air New Zealand and that travel agency.

It's easy enough to check for flights online. I do all my flight bookings myself.

 

That TA often has a high turnover of staff.

[NSWP]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

It's easy enough to check for flights online. I do all my flight bookings myself.

 

That TA often has a high turnover of staff.

Many of the 'Captain's' branches have closed, our one has in Batemans Bay. A franchise, rents too high in the Mall and very little business.  The only other TA in town has cut staff from 5 to 1, the franchisee and they are struggling.  I took some of my son's new Latin America and Antarctic cattledogs round to them last week,  glum looks.

[Docker123]

Yes, the Captain has been closing many offices and removing many staff.  Luke’s ta may have become a casualty.

 

i looked up the Canadian site, it doesn’t have a picture of the Captain. 
 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Lyle, I had a quick look at the Air New Zealand Canada website. It's fairly easy. Once you start entering airport details you then need to select the multi option which takes you to another window. After entering Vancouver and Auckland, select to change to a different airport for the return journey, and enter Melbourne. I used some dates around April/May and it came up with a few choices. The simplest Melbourne one was via Auckland which I expected. 

[NSWP]

2 hours ago, peter1956 said:

If you are in the centre of Melbourne, the getting to the airport in the morning rush will be OK. its the evening rush you will have to worry about.

I would love to go into Melbourne at the moment and see what its like deserted. The news footage looks amazing. But at the moment we are not allowed .

You need to buy a drone, or buy a helicopter joy flight from Essendon Airport, do a flyover ye olde Melbourne town, it would look like Armageddon, no problem getting a table in Lygon Street.

Edited August 19, 2020 by NSWP

[Docker123]

2 minutes ago, NSWP said:

You need to buy a drone, or buy a helicopter joy flight from Essendon Airport, do a flyover ye olde Melbourne town, it would look like Armageddon, no problem getting a table in Lygon Street.

There is a helicopter service. Takes off from a pad on the Yarra and out to the airport.

 

Just on the morning rush, the entrance to the airport can be a nightmare some mornings. Especially on Mondays. Lots of business people who are Taking the early flights to Sydney or Canberra. 
 

[Blackduck59]

Thanks Julie. Right now I just want some answers from the TA, There is a little over $11,000.00 tied up so I would really like some answers. I have sent another email and I will call tomorrow. I won't be able to get any proper new booking information until probably March next year. At that time I may do it myself or use a different TA depending on the outcome of this cancellation and refund. I will be adding input to the "did you get a refund on your flight" thread as this progresses. In the meantime we will start working on the postponed itinerary.

[OzKiwiJJ]

7 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

Thanks Julie. Right now I just want some answers from the TA, There is a little over $11,000.00 tied up so I would really like some answers. I have sent another email and I will call tomorrow. I won't be able to get any proper new booking information until probably March next year. At that time I may do it myself or use a different TA depending on the outcome of this cancellation and refund. I will be adding input to the "did you get a refund on your flight" thread as this progresses. In the meantime we will start working on the postponed itinerary.

Yes, the 2022 flights won't open up until around March. I like to do regular checks on prices leading up to the booking window opening so I know what to expect and what flight options are likely. Sometimes choosing a different day to fly can open up different options or be cheaper.

 

I think your best bet will be to call the TA. 

 

I'm still waiting on a $20,000+ refund from Crystal Cruises. The refund request was put in 138 days ago. We're now at the point of losing money, in AUD terms, on the USD refund as the AUD has strengthened against the USD. We're about to try going down the credit card dispute route.