Tips and advice: The Tripologist

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This was published 7 years ago

Tips and advice: The Tripologist

By Michael Gebicki
Bay of Islands, New Zealand Stock photo of the Bay of Islands in New Zealand

Bay of Islands, New Zealand Stock photo of the Bay of Islands in New ZealandCredit: getpublic

MY HUSBAND AND I AND OUR 6-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER WOULD LIKE TO CRUISE FROM AUCKLAND TO SYDNEY NEXT APRIL. WHAT WOULD YOU SUGGEST DOING IF WE GET TO AUCKLAND 4-7 DAYS BEFORE? WE PREFER NATURAL BEAUTY AND WOULD BE HAPPY TO HIRE A CAR.

H. RISELEY, LAKE MACQUARIE

I'd urge seven nights, there are wondrous places to visit to the north and south of Auckland but with four days you won't have time for both. To the north you've got the Bay of Islands, an island-studded seascape with a mild, subtropical climate. Hire a car and head north along the east coast and spend a couple of nights in Russell, the original European settlement in New Zealand. This former whaling town was once known as the "hell-hole of the Pacific", with a history that reads like something out of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Take a catamaran cruise through the islands and out to Cape Brett, at the eastern extremity of the bay or the more leisurely Cream Trip. Treaty House, where the founding document for New Zealand was signed between Maori and representatives of the British crown, is well worth visiting.

Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, Hawaii.

Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, Hawaii.

To the south of Auckland, Rotorua is one of the most extraordinary sights in the country, a hissing, spurting, erupting volcanic wonderland. The Waimangu Round Trip waimangu.co.nz is probably the most complete and spectacular tour of Rotorua. The full day tour includes an easy hike through the Waimangu Thermal Valley to Lake Rotomahana, where a cruiser takes you past steaming cliffs to the narrow isthmus that divides the lake from Lake Tarawera.

The tour also visits a Maori village buried by a volcanic eruption and ends with a dip in the Polynesian Pools in Rotorua. Rotorua also has a well-established Maori community, who trace their ancestry back to the time of the great Polynesian migration of the fourteenth century. Maori culture is stamped indelibly on the town and a hangi, a traditional feast, followed by a Maori concert, is standard tourist fare.

Just a short drive from Rotorua, Waitomo Caves is the bed of an ancient sea that has been lifted and spectacularly eroded into a surreal landscape of limestone caves. The trip through the Glowworm Caves involves a boat ride through the flooded cave to the Glowworm Grotto, where thousands of tiny, luminescent beads hang from the ceiling like constellations of stars. At the nearby Aranui Cave, eons of dripping water have sculpted a delicate stone garden in pink and white.

Provence.

Provence.Credit: Alamy

I PLAN TO TRAVEL TO OAHU, HAWAII WITH MY SISTER AND 80-YEAR-OLD MOTHER FOR A WEEK. PLAN IS POOL, BEACH, WALKS, LOCAL RESTAURANTS AND SHOPPING. ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR MID-RANGE ACCOMMODATION IN WAIKIKI OR ELSEWHERE ON OAHU THAT IS MORE BOUTIQUE THAN THE LARGE, ANONYMOUS TOWER BLOCKS?

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J. OATLEY, CROYDON

Waikiki is probably going to be the best bet, and while I share your preference for small, boutique hotels with nice pools in great locations that's a tough call in Waikiki unless you're prepared to go to $350 per night or more, which is not exactly mid-range. Although it's a tower, one that might work for you is the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort outriggerwaikikihotel.com.

The hotel sits in a prime location overlooking Waikiki Beach, the pool is great and there are lots of dining options within the hotel as well as other amenities. The average room rate per night for a seven-night stay starts at around $250 and that's a bargain for Waikiki.

I AM TRAVELLING TO FRANCE IN EARLY SEPTEMBER, AFTER EIGHT DAYS IN PARIS TO PROVENCE FOR ANOTHER WEEK. FROM THERE I WOULD LIKE TO GO TO TURKEY TO VISIT GALLIPOLI, PROBABLY OVERNIGHT, WITH THE REMAINING TIME IN ISTANBUL. COULD YOU ADVISE TOURS AND MUST-SEE SITES?

S. ROLL, BALMAIN

Provence is as lovely as everyone says, particularly in September. Avignon, the villages of the Luberon region, the weekly antique market in glorious L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, the van Gogh landscapes around Saint-Remy-de-Provence, the Cote d'Azur and the Camargue with its semi-wild horses and gypsy culture are just some of the highlights.

There are several tour operators in Avignon that offer day tours with various themes, including wine, gastronomy and the perched villages of the region. Avignon Prestige Tours avignon-prestigetour.com, La Provence de Claire la-provence-de-claire.com and Experience Provence experience-provence.fr all have English-language tours with excellent reviews. You'll magnify your sightseeing opportunities if you get behind the wheel. Travel at your own pace is one of the true delights here, and driving on the back roads of Provence is not too intimidating.

Rather than staying in Avignon I'd suggest Saint-Remy-de-Provence as a base, it's big enough to have a good choice of accommodation and dining yet great for strolling around and not too overwhelming, and just a short train ride from Avignon.

Since you're close to France's Mediterranean coast you might want to devote a day or two to this strip of sensual delights. Cassis, at the western end of the French Riviera, would be a great choice. You can get there by train although the station at Cassis is about two kilometres from the seafront, and pack your bathers. Gallipoli Tours gallipolitour.com operates day tours to Gallipoli from Istanbul. They also do a two-day tour of Gallipoli and Troy.

In Istanbul, the cruise along the Bosphorus, the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia are just the major sites, but this is a city of a thousand small delights, leave time to wander and explore this labyrinthine wonder.

CONVERSATION OVER TO YOU


The question was "Seating on planes throws you into close contact with strangers whom you might never meet any other way. Ever struck up a conversation that led to something more?"

L. Pharcher writes "Five years ago I had to change my flight to New York and was cursing having to fly from Melbourne to Sydney rather than direct to LA. I was seated next to a tall, handsome, besuited man and we talked nonstop to Sydney. We come from such different worlds, he IT, me disability and government, it seems improbable we would cross paths otherwise. We went on our first date when I returned and he is now my husband. Thanks Virgin Australia! And thanks Randomness of the Universe!"

From A. Szczurowski, "On our first trip to Europe, my friend and I were sat with a Pommie bloke who was living in Paris. He gave us his phone number 'In case you ever come'. Of course we rang him, he met us on the steps of the Opera House, took us to some great little bars, then introduced us to a group of students our age who gave us a fabulous night out visiting several discos before dropping us back at our hotel just in time to board our tour bus."?

From C. Woolmer, "In 2010 I almost missed my flight to Townsville where I was going to a festival with friends. The English man seated next to me listened patiently as I unloaded all my stress from work which had kept me back late. Exactly five years later we said 'I do' at our travel-themed destination wedding in Hawaii! I couldn't believe my luck at meeting my husband on a plane!"?

B. Hoskins writes "Back in 1976 we were travelling by plane from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Sitting next to me was a very well-dressed man who started talking to us. It turned out he was the Senior Vice President of the Hilton Hotels Corporation. Liberace was appearing at The Hilton and on the night, he arranged for us to be escorted to a beautiful private booth with a lavish dinner and the Liberace show, all for free."

Next question: Some prefer to travel solo, others wouldn't step outside alone. Are you a soloist, or is one the loneliest number?

Send response to tripologist@fairfaxmedia.com.au. The best response will win a Lonely Planet guidebook.

SEND US YOUR TRAVEL QUESTIONS

Include your name and your suburb or town and send it oo tripologist@fairfaxmedia.com.au. All published questions will win a Lonely Planet guidebook.

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