Why Travelling During School Holidays Sucks – Even When Your Kids Aren’t In School

School holidays ruin everything.

The Australian and New Zealand School holidays have ruined my plans for keeping our end date on our trip to Asia as flexible as possible. We were hoping to simply book a fare back from Singapore to Brisbane closer to when we want to travel, after around two months of travelling.

Out of interest I was looking at the cost of flying directly from Singapore back to New Zealand versus the cost of stopping in Brisbane. Lucky I did.

The two week window we were hoping to travel during hits right during Queensland School holidays which means prices for flights anywhere have already started to sky rocket. This means the cheap flight from Sinagpore to Brisbane isn’t available when we’re likely to need it – instead of A$250 it’s already over A$400. The flights onwards to New Zealand are creeping up in price as well – pushing A$300. On top of flights, we have to pay for a shuttle from and to Brisbane airport which costs over A$100 each return. Total that up and we’re looking at over A$800 to get from Singapore to Brisbane to Christchurch.

If we fly from Singapore back to Christchurch we have to think more carefully about what we take to Asia with us. We were planning on leaving most of our gear at Lee’s parents place in Australia and just travelling around Asia with the bare essentials. I’m not fussed about our clothes but we cannot do without Reuben’s car seat and stroller at home. As luck would have it my Mum is coming to visit in a few weeks so she should be able to take the car seat back to NZ for us – that would leave us in Australia without a car seat for five days. We could ask a neighbour to lend us one to get us down to the airport for our flight out. That does mean leaving our wonderful Mountain Buggy here. We could take it to Asia but it would be a real pain. We were planning on buying a little folding stroller for A$24 which I guess we could make do with at home. Or we could take our bulky stroller to Asia which is going more awkward to carry around when you can’t use a stroller on Asian footpaths.

I found a cheap flight from Singapore to Christchurch ticketed on British Airways that seems like the way to go. It leaves Singapore at 7.55pm, arriving in Sydney at 5.05am where would connect to a Jetstar flight leaving at 7.15am and arriving in Christchurch at 12.25pm. It’s only 12.5 hours all up including the connection and the seven hour flight from Sinagpore is overnight which we know works well for us. I found it on Kayak for only US$540.

The problem is deciding. What to option to book, what dates to book. We don’t know how long to spend in Asia. I’d opt for as long as possible. Lee is worried he’s not going to like it. He’s not into roughing it. He hate being hot, sticky and uncomfortable. I keep telling him he will enjoy it but that we will need to cope with some things he won’t like – bus rides, smelly streets, humidity. He’s also looking forward to winter in New Zealand and I’m not. I don’t like being cold. I’ve been snowboarding once and I sucked.

I’m trying to map out our potential itinerary in my head and decide how long it will all take. I think we need eight weeks with an extra week as a buffer in case we want to stay somewhere longer. I hate the thought of having to be somewhere at a certain point, missing out on something great because we have to haul ass to Singapore to catch our flight home.

The whole thing is really bumming me out. I do like problem solving and I think I’ve found the best solution but I have trouble committing to an idea. I know the longer we leave it the more it will cost for the flights. Even a day or two makes a difference.