Let's Roll
 

I'm off on my first of 3 FREE Business Elite trip around the world, courtesy of Delta and its SkyTeam partners. Thanks!!!

Thought it would be cool to get feedback and ideas about my destinations from the incredible brain trust here, as I am completely winging this trip without much fore planning at all.

Flew Korean Airlines to Seoul. I was upstairs on an A380, sitting just aft of the lounge in the nose. Cool!

Currently in Seoul, South Korea on a 23 hour layover. Heading to Auckland, New Zealand later today. Not much to get excited about Seoul: lacks the personality of other Asian cities, and the air quality is abysmal. I visited the big tower on the mountain in the center of the city today. Did the shopping and street food thing last night in Myeondong. Overall, a clean, new city with big bucks everywhere. Everyone on the streets is in their 20's. Wonder where all the older people hang out? Inside watching TV?

The plan in NZ is to rent a car for 4 days on the north island, then fly to Christchurch and rent a car for 5 days on the south island. Really looking forward to NZ. I've heard its incredible!

SmileWavy

I was on the North and South Islands of NZ two months ago, beautiful places.

Outstanding!

Hugh, gimme some must sees!

Suh-weet! And cudos for winging it!

Pity I'm in Wellington, which is about half the way up the country. Otherwise I'd have loved to meet up for drinks and to show you around.

for a future round the world. A place not often talked about, Rarotonga - part of the Cook Islands (near Fiji, Samoa), is my new favorite part of the world. It's beautiful as lots of pacific islands are, but it's fun, uncomplicated, the people are genuinely very friendly, you are NOT going to get robbed, and the food is great.

Bill, I might very well make it to Wellington. I'm meeting with Shaun Harris, an IOM TT winner, who lives a bit north of you. If you feel like meeting for a beer, possibly, pm me your telephone number :)

I have a friend who got married and moved from NW Ohio to Aukland NZ....she loves it, and there is sight seeing galore, one of the most beautiful countries.

New Zealand was made for hiking Richard. See if you can do one of the tracks while there. I did the Rees-Dart years ago, best vacation ever. Wish I had had a better camera.

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Sounds like fun, how long are you gone?

Take lots of pics!

I don't mean to hijack your thread, but I am a bit of a world traveler myself.

Monday I had a meeting in Morganton, NC then drove to Murphy, NC for the night. Stopped at Lake Lure, NC for a snack...threw down my Delta credit card so there's 5 more Sky Miles for me:D

Yesterday I took all back rounds to Huntsville, Alabama where I am speaking at a UAS symposium. Don't get no better than a free room at the Embassy Suites.

Aiken, SC Thursday night. Don't be jelly, folks.

Enjoy!

Ha! Zip it.

You have been to places most of us would dream of visiting.

Motion, take mucho pictures. I live for your travels. Can't wait to read about it all.

Funny, I was in Rome (NY) last night and will be traveling through Poland (NY) in my way home toda). I feel so worldly.😜

Hiking is too slow for me and takes too much time. I'm living out of a 20" spinner and a backpack. Trip is 7 weeks total. Having a blast so far!

Seoul Myeondong market:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1426792797.jpg


North island of New Zealand:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1426792822.jpg

Back in the "good old days" my father flew Pan-Am to Japan back and forth about twice a month.

In 1989, I used 70K point for 2 x First Class tickets to Hawaii from upstate NY, which included 6 days of rental car and 40% of the hotel (Sheraton Makaha).

Dad, used 300K to buy 30 days first class travel for two, anywhere in the world. He did this TWICE. Not too long after that, Pan Am went away...

In September 1988, I bought a 3 year membership to the Clipper Club. Almost bought the "lifetime". Pan Am closed up shop Dec 1991, just a couple of months after my membership expired...

If you're in the South Island you really, really really don't want to miss Queenstown and Milford Sound. I visited NZ a number of times without seeing them and could've kicked myself once I got down there. Took a Cessna over the Remarkables- a bucket list experience.

Yep.





.

i know a destination you havent been in a long time!!!

your home! :D

safe travels M. you're who i want to be when i get all mature and stuff..you are living my dream!

Somehow I'm guessing you don't have a corporate gig with 2 weeks/yr vacation with unused days accumulating...sheesh.

Have fun Motion and please do keep us poor landlocked souls posted!SmileWavy

WE ARE ALL GREEN WITH ENVY!:rolleyes:

Oh, wait....I'll be in Oahu and Kauai in two weeks!.....:D

Bill, well I had hoped to make it down your way, but I grossly underestimated the speed of driving around the island, and came up short on time. I made it as far south as Whanganui, and am back up in Auckland now, for a flight to Christchurch tomorrow morning. Next time!

You would have to shoot me first :D

The source of your name just hit me - Motion. Because you're always in it.
Have fun on your travels! Keep us posted and send pics!

Yeah, I'm a rolling stone gathers no moss kinda guy, I guess.

Will do!

Sorry, motion.... Had to do it! :p :D

I'm sorry Dave, you can't do that. I know where you live :)

You burn me down, you burn my neighbors down! Viva la revolucion!

I think this photo captures the essence of the south island. Within a couple of miles, you can go from the beach to a rainforest, to glaciers, to brown, rocky dry mountains. So much diversity. This is the Franz Josef glacier, just to the south of Mt Cook, the tallest peak in New Zealand.

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Just beautiful, I could spend the afternoon lounging in that glacial pool.

Looks like a good location to film in.

Surreal.

Great stuff, keep it coming

Strangely they do a lot of car commercials in the Otago (near the bottom) area of NZ. There is something about the air or light that they like. Companies like Audi, BMW hire a mountain road for a few days, swap the road signs to German and drive on the "wrong" side of the road while filming from helicopers.

A lot of the Lord of the rings footage was filmed not far from where Richard is now. Good trout and salmon fishing too.

The fishing looks off the hook. In 2,000 miles of driving, I've only seen one fly fisherman!

I think I did pretty good for one week on the ground!

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Wrapping up 6 days in Australia. I drove from Sydney down to Melbourne along the coast (long way). Visited friends in Melbourne and Barwon Heads. Drove the Great Ocean Road for a day. Beautiful views along the road. Highly recommended to anyone making a trip to Oz.

The 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road:

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Missed this thread, glad you enjoyed NZ. Did you notice that there are no four lane divided highways anywhere in the Country. When I was there NZ was cold and AU was hot. Silly me I thought the distance from NZ to AU was a few hundred miles, it's a few thousand miles.

Did you catch the permanent sulfur odor in Rotorua,NZ?

Keep the pictures coming, Motion!! Epic trip!

JA

Yep, there are no highways in NZ. There is one just south of Auckland, but its like 2 miles long, LOL. I skipped the Rotorua area... was a bit skeered of all the tourist activity surrounding the Maori villages there. I really do not like crowds.

Wrapped up a week in Japan. I can't for the life of me pick just one photo for Japan, so I'll go with this one. I enjoyed Japan immensely.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1428495629.jpg

Sri Lanka is a beautiful place with lots of potential, but its in much rougher shape than I anticipated. Much nicer than India, but it has a long ways to go before the infrastructure is adequate. Weather is great this time of the year, and long walks on the beach are really nice, as long as you can jump over the sewer streams and avoid dipping your feet into the ocean. Its extremely polluted.

I stayed in the Mount Lavinia area, just south of Columbo. I had plans to explore more of the island, but the public transportation is in such poor shape I decided to just stick close to the hotel.

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