Australia & New Zealand - Saving a Dream Vacation

In 2018, I began working with a valued luxury client to create a 23-day New Zealand/Australia Trip of a lifetime.  We had 40+ guests ready to go when the world "paused" in 2020.  Not to be detoured, we rebuilt the adventure for January 2023 with an 11-day sailing on Princess Cruises from Auckland New Zealand to Sydney, Australia. We then added 10 touring days in Australia that included Sydney, The Outback, The Great Barrier Reef, and Melbourne.

I was traveling with this group and on the day of our departure we made it to San Francisco to discover that historic flooding had impacted the Auckland Airport and no flights could land or depart until the water had receded. That day I put on my Travel Consultant hat and went to work like never before.

I had 31 travelers to get to New Zealand when the airport reopened. This meant confirming a hotel in San Francisco while we waited for our flight, planning tours in the Bay Area to make the most of our time, rebooking 31 passengers on 4 different itineraries to get to Wellington, finding a hotel in Wellington on the same day as a record setting Ed Sheeran Concert Event, booking tours in Wellington while we waited for the ship and organizing the shuttle to the port.

All was well! San Francisco and Wellington were a great adventure and we made the ship just 3 days late.  From there we had a wonderful 8 days of touring in New Zealand and Tasmania and met the rest of our group (10 more travelers) in Sydney to enjoy the Land Down Under!