Note that Auckland airport (unlike many in the US) has showers available (in case you do come in on a 6AM flight and want to hit the conference immediately) and that in New Zealand, shower is pronounced "sure". -----Original Message----- From: Ewen McNeill [mailto:ewen(a)naos.co.nz] Sent: Wednesday, 5 January 2005 8:34 a.m. To: Joshua Brady Cc: nznog Subject: Re: [nznog] NZNOG 05' In message <6cdc2eb4050104075957b23612(a)mail.gmail.com>, Joshua Brady writes:
I am booking my flight a bit late, but need to know what airport is going to be easiest to get to from the US. I will be flying KRIC to KLAS for NANOG, then want to transfer over to NZNOG from there (leaving
early 02/01/05). Can anyone advise me on what exact airport I'll need to take? Then travel plans from there?
Keep in mind that 1 Feburary 2005 Pacific Time is 2 Feburary 2005 in New Zealand for most of the day (all but 5 hours). And the US->New Zealand flight crosses the date line. So if you leave LAX on the evening of 1 Feburary 2005 you'll arrive in New Zealand on the morning of _3_ Feburary 2005, effectively missing out on 2 Feburary 2005 completely. As the NZNOG conference starts with tutorials on 2 Feburary, and the main conference on 3 February that doesn't leave you much spare time. Given that you have limited time, the best option is most likely to fly into AKL (Auckland, New Zealand) which is the closest major international airport. Then drive from there to Hamilton as Joe suggests. The flight will get in around 06:00 in New Zealand, and the drive will take about 2 hours, so you'll arrive just before the main NZNOG conference assuming you leave the US on the evening of 1 Feburary 2005. Both Qantas and Air New Zealand fly LAX->AKL daily, and most major US airlines code share those flights.[0] If you can get a good deal it may be worth considering flying into CHC (Christchurch, New Zealand), and getting a connecting flight from CHC to HLZ (Hamilton, New Zealand). HLZ is the closest airport to the conference (about 15 minutes in a taxi), but has limited international flights (mainly only from Australia). There are fairly regular connecting flights from CHC -> HLZ throughout the day with Air New Zealand and some with Origin Pacific; the connecting flights would take about 1 hour. If you had more time you could consider flying via Australia (BNE (Brisbane), SYD (Sydney) or MEL (Melbourne)), but the US-> Australia flight takes about 3-4 hours longer than US->AKL, and the Australia -> New Zealand flights take about 4 hours. With connections it'd probably add 10-12 hours to the travel time, which you don't have spare. Ewen [0] There are a few flights from AKL->HLZ (Hamilton, New Zealand -- the closest airport to the conference) daily, taking about 30 minutes flying time, but the first one is 11:50 so it's not much use to you. _______________________________________________ NZNOG mailing list NZNOG(a)list.waikato.ac.nz http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/nznog