Monday, August 10, 2009

Bargains, I have them.

I have just discovered something.

For around NZ$845 I could fly Pacific Blue to Fiji (about a 5700 k round trip), get transferred to the 4.5-star Sonaisali Island Resort, where I could stay in a beachfront hotel room,bask in a balmy 28 degrees, go on a jungle cruise, have a scuba pool splash and fill my boots on breakfast every day.

OR I could save myself a whole $16 dollars, and make the 612 kilometre return trip from Christchurch to Wanaka (where it is currently about eleven degrees) on Air New Zealand.

Is it just me, or is someone royally taking the piss?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should make a programme about that.

It would, of course, involve you having to undertake both trips, purely for research purposes of course.

(Or you could send your student on the Wanaka trip).

laughykate said...

Now you're talking, Tinman!

And you could work out how much everything cost - i.e divide the prices by what you actually got for your money. Based on that, I am thinking the Air New Zealand boiled sweet would be about the equivalent value of a night's accommodation in a 4.5 star hotel.

Fat Sparrow said...

I've been doing some research on airfares myself, as we'll be moving to Northern Ireland and all and I need to know how much we have to save up. I was also looking to see how much it would be to take my older cat to a friend in South Dakota for her to adopt it. I live in Southern California. It's cheaper to fly to Dublin than to South Dakota. And that's even without the pet fee factored in. And that's a direct flight to Dublin from LA! And it's 2 layovers for the South Dakota trip! What the fuck, Chuck?! It's beyond me, truly it is. It's like the "science" of economics; I am sure it must make sense to some people out there, but damned if I know where the sense in it is.

Anyway, I'm glad to know that it's not just me that is puzzled by these Great Mysteries of the Universe.

laughykate said...

It is cheaper to fly Dublin than South Dakota? Yup, that makes about as much sense as it being cheaper to fly to Fiji for five nights than to fly to little old Wanaka.

But I said that already, didn't I?

Holemaster said...

Fat Sparrow, why aren't you bringing the cat with you? A friend brought his mutt from San Francisco to Dublin last year without need for quarantine.

I flew Dublin-LA return for €450. That's for nothing.

Fat Sparrow said...

$$$, that's why. We're moving to Northern Ireland so that we can become a burden on a different country's welfare system. I'm disabled and on Social Security here, and the Brit husband needs an operation for an extremely serious inguinal hernia, and he doesn't have health insurance here. The hospital told us it would start at $20,000. Yeah. So we're going to shack up with his mum, he's going to get his hernia fixed, and then it will take almost a year for his recovery and he'll probably need physical therapy through that, and then he'll be able to work. And hopefully my health will improve in NI (no more heat stroke, yay!) and I'll be able to work, and then we can both be productive citizens and all over there.

And no, you don't have to have quarantine now, but they do have to be internationally certified, specially microchipped, and tested and then re-tested at 6 months before they can go. That's for the UK, anyway, which NI still is part of, so we have to go by the UK laws. Some interweb friends of mine already found homes for 3 of our cats, and our older dogs will have to be euthanized, as they are older and also have health problems, and we still need to find homes for the one cat and our two snack-sized dogs. We live in a really poor area that has been hard hit by foreclosures, so it's been hard finding anyone local that can afford to take on a pet. And these are spayed and neutered. And we have to be out by the 31st. So yeah, I've been stressing, hence the blethering on, and I'll shut up now.

laughykate said...

Hey Holemaster, your Dublin to LA return is one hundred dollars more expensive than Christchurch to Wanaka.

Fat Sparrow, what a 'mare. Do you want to relocate?

Rob Hosking said...

Why fly Christchurch to Wanaka anyway?

Its one of the best drives I've ever done. Magnificent country.

Fat Sparrow said...

Well, not particularly, especially as I have never been there, but it's what we have to do to be able to try and get a new start. I really don't care for it here in Southern California, it's a shite place unless you're well-to-do, which we are not. And if the Spouse Sparrow doesn't get that surgery, eventually he will end up deceased, bereft of life, an ex-Spouse Sparrow, as his intestines will strangulate and he will cark it. So we gotta do what we gotta do, hence the relocating. I think we'll do okay there, definitely better than here, it's just the getting out of here and moving to my folk's bit that has me all stressed out. Once we're at my folk's, making the move to NI will be a doddle, as we'll have pared down everything by then. But as of now, I have 19 days left to get the fuck out of Dodge, I'm out of moving boxes, out of patience, still have no homes for 3 of my critters, and was laid up today with a migraine and had to go to the doctor's to get a Toradol injection, so that was another day shot to hell.

And I have lived in this house for 15 years and saved everything, even all the baby stuff from my kids, as I thought one decade I'd be using it for grandkids. It's a lot of crap to box up, move to a storage unit, and then sell off.

Meh.

laughykate said...

HI Rob. You're right - I reckon it is the best drive this country has to offer. I was just needing to get there quickly.

Oh Fat Sparrow.

Moving.Is. Horrible.

But moving after fifteen years?

Moving after fifteen years of no throwing-out?

Moving after fifteen years of no throw-out to a different country?

I am crawling into the foetal position and starting to gently rock at the thought.

Fat Sparrow said...

I have penciled in a nervous breakdown for mid-September, as it is possible I may find I have a few spare moments then.

Fat Sparrow said...

And you know, I don't know why it is so expensive to fly Air New Zealand, as they are not even providing uniforms for the crew, so you would think the prices would be lower.

laughykate said...

Exactly ! 'Here's you security key, your key to your locker,your paints and a paint brush.Don't use all your paint at once now.'