Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan
In about a weeks time, I’ll be embarking on a fairly large and complex trip to the other side of the world. I’ll end up visiting Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan on this trip.
The initial plan is to head south to Australia and attend Physio’s wedding! You may remember back in 2017 when Photos and I visited Physio Down Under! This time, I’ll be returning to celebrate his special day! Since its a fairly long distance to go, I started looking into other opportunities for travel in that part of the world.
At the same time, one of the frequent flyer programs that I use, Aeroplan, had big changes set to occur in September of 2019. The key change was the devaluing of their multi city trip redemption, which is a very lucrative reward. So with that in mind, I knew that I wanted to get one last multi city Aeroplan redemption in before the changes came into effect. This meant that aside from my main destination of Australia, I could make two stops in addition to the destination.
The Route
I went through a lot of different options and ultimately settled on spending a few days in Singapore on my outbound journey and then a few days in Taiwan on my inbound journey. After some tinkering and mulling it over, I ultimately settled on an itinerary that looks like this:
I know what you’re thinking, what is this monstrosity of flight plan?! Wasn’t it just supposed to be Australia, Singapore and Taiwan?
Let me explain.
United Island Hopper
One of the benefits of the (original) Aeroplan Multi City redemption is that, with a little creativity, you can built your itinerary segment by segment. This allows for quite a bit of flexibility if you so choose. Most people (myself included) would prefer direct flights wherever possible. However in this case, while most of the movement is to avoid high carrier fuel surcharges. One “detour” that I intentionally made was to fly on the United Island Hopper.
Ever since I heard about this unique flight, it’s been on my list of things I eventually wanted to do! And since I could manipulate the way I get across the ocean, it was a no brainier for me to make this a priority! I’m truly looking forward to this experience, though I anticipate for it to be an exhausting day of flight (14 hours in total).
New Zealand
The other element of this are the flight segments that occur in New Zealand. Since I’ve already spent some time in Australia, I figured travelling this far is a good reason to “pop over” to New Zealand while I’m in the neighbourhood! So I made sure to allot two weeks to try and explore both North and South Islands!
What makes this portion of the trip more exciting is that both Suzy (from my Korea trip) and Gimpy (Most recently from my Panama trip) will be joining me in New Zealand. Actually Suzy and I will be attending the same wedding in Sydney and then headed over to NZ. Gimpy found a flight deal and will be meeting us in Auckland too.
There were two “musts” on my list: Hobbiton and the Glow Worm caves when it came to New Zealand. Fortunately, both are on the North Island so the three of us will be able to experience these things together.
We’ll drive to Wellington where Suzy will get on a plane to Korea, while Gimpy and I continue on and explore the South Island, before parting ways.
Singapore & Taiwan
Before touching down in Australia, I’ll get a chance to spend a few days in Singapore. While I’ve passed through the airport, I’ve never visited the city itself yet. So this time I’ll get to explore! The plan is to explore the tourist area around the Marina Bay Hotel, eat at the hawker stands and enjoy the vibe of this nation city.
After New Zealand I make my way to Taiwan where my four day stay overlaps with Lebron and Antetokounmpo. They’ll be there for a few days and so we figured we’d hang out together! My thinking is that I’ll be a little tired after all the travelling, so I’m pretty open to just hanging out with good friends and enjoying the Taiwan food scene together!
From Taiwan I’ll fly back home via San Francisco.
Highlights
All things considered, I’ll gone for about a month. And with such a complex itinerary, there is so much to look forward to. In my mind these are the highlights that excite me most:
- Fly the United Island Hopper
- See the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the surrounding area
- See my friend Physio get married!
- See Hobbiton
- Explore the glow worm caves
- Visit New Zealand’s Dark Sky Reserve
- Eat my way through Taiwan
- Experience Singapore Air’s and EVA Air’s Business Class product (through my Aeroplan redemption)
Its been over a year since I’ve gone on a longer trip like this so I’m equally excited and anxious for it! On the one hand there’s so many new experiences on the Horizon that I’m eager to get started. On the other, there are a log of moving parts, and I’m always a little worried if one or two things might go awry. But I do have to keep telling myself that it is part of the adventure and at the end of the day that’s why we travel!
One final note is, most recently there’s been a lot of media about the “coronavirus” outbreak in China. While I’m not directly visiting China, I will be flying in the neighbourhood. So there is a little anxiousness when it comes to being in planes with fellow travellers. So, if you’re able to keep me and my travelling companions in your thoughts and prayers over the next month I’d certainly appreciate it!
Here we go!