JohnM
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2006
- Posts
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- Qantas
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Tomorrow it’s on the bird to start heading to NZ for the rest of January.
The original plan was to join a one-way 15-night Coral Expeditions voyage from Bluff (port for Invercargill) through the southern islands of NZ and Macquarie Island (aka ‘Macca’) to finish in Melbourne.
I did something essentially identical, except it was Bluff-Bluff, with NZ’s Heritage Expeditions in 2019 (The Galapagos of the Southern Ocean) and I was keen to repeat it with PJM as I knew she would love the bird life in particular.
However, it transpired that Coral Expeditions pulled the pin on the extensive voyage because of problems with landing permits, especially and maybe only, for Macca. To not be able to land on Macca, but only pass by, would be worthless in my view as it was an amazing highlight of my previous trip.
A little rummaging on the internet revealed the massive limitations faced especially by new entrants in voyaging to Macca: Macquarie Island World Heritage Area | Parks & Wildlife Service Tasmania.
Only 12 vessels are permitted each year, with a total 2000 pax landings, and no vessel >220 pax (not in itself a problem for CE with maximum 120 pax). Another, I suspect much more onerous, restriction is that vessels must already be Antarctic-approved. I also noticed that Tas Parks is quite late in issuing permits, so I would suspect that throws into too much doubt advance voyage planning.
They have also become severely covid-neurotic, now forbidding interaction with the Macca staff.
C’est la vie.
Anyway, CE offered a full refund or the option of a shorter voyage Bluff-Bluff, departing on the original date, with a cabin upgrade sweetener. I had already made QF J Classic Reward bookings PER-SYD (A330) & SYD-CHC (EK A380) and MEL-PER (A330), so I decided to keep those and opt for the shorter voyage, followed by renting a car in Invercargill and doing a few days touring the S Island back to CHC.
We’re having one night at Rydges SYD on the way out and two nights in Christchurch with the aim of a day driving to Akaroa before flying CHC-IVC.
Leaving all flight bookings in place, I snared QF J Classic Rewards CHC-SYD, again on the EK A380, for a couple of nights’ stopover there, that will enable PJM to visit relos, and then J Classic Rewards SYD-MEL to pick up the original MEL-PER A330 flight.
The short CHC-IVC flight is NZ reward in a whY-only ATR72.
Here’s the updated voyage plan of 8 nights.
Here’s the plan after returning to NZ. Two nights in Wanaka, one night in Greymouth and two nights in Kaikoura. A glacier landing flight (fixed-wing out, helo back) is booked for Mt Cook (fingers crossed for favourable weather) and a whale-watching trip is booked in Kaikoura.
As usual, most of the TR will be after return.
The original plan was to join a one-way 15-night Coral Expeditions voyage from Bluff (port for Invercargill) through the southern islands of NZ and Macquarie Island (aka ‘Macca’) to finish in Melbourne.
I did something essentially identical, except it was Bluff-Bluff, with NZ’s Heritage Expeditions in 2019 (The Galapagos of the Southern Ocean) and I was keen to repeat it with PJM as I knew she would love the bird life in particular.
However, it transpired that Coral Expeditions pulled the pin on the extensive voyage because of problems with landing permits, especially and maybe only, for Macca. To not be able to land on Macca, but only pass by, would be worthless in my view as it was an amazing highlight of my previous trip.
A little rummaging on the internet revealed the massive limitations faced especially by new entrants in voyaging to Macca: Macquarie Island World Heritage Area | Parks & Wildlife Service Tasmania.
Only 12 vessels are permitted each year, with a total 2000 pax landings, and no vessel >220 pax (not in itself a problem for CE with maximum 120 pax). Another, I suspect much more onerous, restriction is that vessels must already be Antarctic-approved. I also noticed that Tas Parks is quite late in issuing permits, so I would suspect that throws into too much doubt advance voyage planning.
They have also become severely covid-neurotic, now forbidding interaction with the Macca staff.
C’est la vie.
Anyway, CE offered a full refund or the option of a shorter voyage Bluff-Bluff, departing on the original date, with a cabin upgrade sweetener. I had already made QF J Classic Reward bookings PER-SYD (A330) & SYD-CHC (EK A380) and MEL-PER (A330), so I decided to keep those and opt for the shorter voyage, followed by renting a car in Invercargill and doing a few days touring the S Island back to CHC.
We’re having one night at Rydges SYD on the way out and two nights in Christchurch with the aim of a day driving to Akaroa before flying CHC-IVC.
Leaving all flight bookings in place, I snared QF J Classic Rewards CHC-SYD, again on the EK A380, for a couple of nights’ stopover there, that will enable PJM to visit relos, and then J Classic Rewards SYD-MEL to pick up the original MEL-PER A330 flight.
The short CHC-IVC flight is NZ reward in a whY-only ATR72.
Here’s the updated voyage plan of 8 nights.
Here’s the plan after returning to NZ. Two nights in Wanaka, one night in Greymouth and two nights in Kaikoura. A glacier landing flight (fixed-wing out, helo back) is booked for Mt Cook (fingers crossed for favourable weather) and a whale-watching trip is booked in Kaikoura.
As usual, most of the TR will be after return.
