Clothing, laundry, gifts, art

Dr Rivera

Hi everyone. We are booked on the Oct. 7 Aus/NZ trip. My experience with Tauck is that my drip dry clothes never have the time or dry enough conditions to really dry. I don't want to bring 20+ blouses so could Tauck be more specific about opportunities for doing wash outside our room? We don't want to waste precious site-seeing time shopping but we also don't want to do that last minute at the airport thing. Could anyone who has taken this trip suggest what specifically Australian and NZ products would be worth taking home and at what site/city to take time to shop? It would be really helpful if our TD let us know at the beginning of the trip about posting gifts home instead of dragging them around e.g. how feasible is it to get to a post office?
We are arriving early in Melbourne and would like to fit art galleries into that time. Does anyone have any names or suggestions? We already have the names of the Melbourne museums. Too bad we are missing the NZ summer art fair.
"Word" to Tauck special event planners: how about an art fair event? They could do late spring or summer; there are sooo many fairs all over the world now. Thanks in advance.

s.tyler

We did this trip 5 years ago - still one of my faves. I took jeans - actually never washed them and they never would have dried. Today I have a travel wardrobe - Columbia, NorthFace, etc. - that works very well, dries fairly quickly. We had lots of rain (went in November) and it was quite chilly at times. We bought a beautiful piece of aboriginal art at a shop in The Rocks in Sydney. It was shipped home and we had it put on stretchers at a local framing shop. Actually, we had quite a few hours in the Sydney airport after leaving Christchurch and there were some good shops - the t- shirts I bought were much cheaper than what I saw in Sydney. The one thing that we absolutely loved was not on the tour - we spent an extra day in Christchurch and took the day trip to Acaroa (hope I remembered that correctly). Beauty beyond words. Didn't find Christchurch itself all that exciting - enough museums by then. Have fun!

lvgregger

If there is one outstanding museum to do in Melbourne, we would recommend the Immigration Museum which is within easy walking distance from the Langham. For some reason, it was one of the most touching we have been in for a long time.

Dr Rivera

This is my first time replying so I hope I am following proper protocol. Thank you so much to s.tyler and Ivgregger for
their speedy and helpful replies. At the moment, I have it down to 12 tops. If I may venture another question, it
has been recommended by a friend who has never been to Australia or NZ to take a 30" suitcase for a 3 week trip.
Is this size too big for Australia and NZ? I cannot seem to get a definitive answer as to what size and weights are allowed on Australian and NZ airlines. Thanks in advance for your help.

lvgregger

We had no problem with a quality constructed light weight hardside/softside 30x19x11. Remember your luggage is going to be handled at least 55 times so keep the weight within guidelines. We also both had international size carry-ons which worked perfectly, although they both went in with the luggage on the New Zealand charter flights and of course were in the coach luggage bins. You will have plenty of time to shop. This is a busy, but well paced trip.

Richardb

We are from England and joining the 07 October trip so look forward to meeting everyone. It will be our 5th Tauck experience so KNOW we shall not be disappointed.