Day 1: Sydney - New Zealand 2016

“I’d rather have a passport full of stamps than a house full of stuffs.” – Anonymous

PREAMBLE

So, if you are following me on Instagram, you’ll definitely know that we just got back from NZ again and the best part is that, this time we traveled with our beloved parents from both sides.

For the record, this was not the first time we traveled together with both sides of parents after we got married. Our first trip was to Melbourne (2011), next was Turkey (2012) and lastly in 2014 we went for Star Cruise trip (Penang – Krabi – Phuket – Penang). We didn’t bring them last year due to my grandfather’s health condition (2015) and we didn’t travel together during I was pregnant with K and during K’s first year (2008-2009) and during H’s 1^st year (2013). In 2010, my PIL didn't join us to Jakarta. So that's a brief fact about travelling with both sides of parents since we got married. Hehe.

PREPARATION

We only have about 6 months from our recent trip to NZ last September (your may scroll my entries to NZ with Motorhome last year/2015). Since both of my parents and Hazri’s parents have never been to Sydney, kami plan pergi Sydney juga so dari sana terus ke NZ; Queenstown to be exact. Memandangkan kami membawa golongan warga yang lebih matang dari segi fikiran dan fizikal, maka kami memang tak bercadang ambil motorhome, just sewa MPV je kat sana nanti. Basically MPV with 11 or 12-seater dikenali sebagai Minibus kat NZ and that would fit 9 of us perfectly sebab MPV macam Alphard atau Welfire hanya muat maximum 8 orang, so we have to settle for Minibus terus.

Nota 1: Rombongan kami kali ini adalah terdiri daripada my parents, ibu bapa Hazri, my youngest brother and my little family unit.

Nota 2: Rombongan kami terdiri daripada 4 warga emas, 3 dewasa dan 2 kanak-kanak.

Nota 3: 1 wheelchair for my FIL and 1 stroller for Hafiya.

DAY 1: 13.03.2016

(KLIA – SYDNEY)

Kami ke KLIA2 dari DU dengan van yang dah biasa kami deal kalau nak pergi travel secara berjemaah begini, since first trip kami ke Melbourne dulu. Punyalah setia bertahun-tahun dengan van yang sama :P We departed from KLIA2 at 11.35pm via Airasia direct to Sydney. Memang sengaja pilih flight malam supaya kanak-kanak (dan ibu bapa) boleh tidur sepanjang 8 jam penerbangan. Kami dah siap tempah makanan dan preferred seats for this flights untuk keselesaan semua.

Ticket flights kami beli pada bulan November i.e. 4 months before the departure date. Ni dah habis survey dah ni so AA paling affordable and dah siap dengan luggage, preferred seat, insurance and meals compared to MAS dan lain-lain. Beza dengan MAS about RM1K all in per pax and flight MAS adalah pada siang hari, so kami terus pilih AA dan memandangkan masa penerbangan MAS dan AA pun sama 8 jam juga. Considering kami pergi masa school holidays, rasa OK juga price yang kami dapat tu.

Photos: My lil darlings just before kami ke balai pelepasan ke Sydney (gate P8)

Stay tuned for my next entries.