Introduction

Irith and I thought long and hard about where we wanted to go for our 40th Anniversary.  A limiting factor was that we had to be able to get tickets on Star Alliance airlines, where we have our miles.  We started by looking for festivals anywhere in the world that took place on January 25.  One that struck our fancy was the World  Buskers Festival in Christchurch, New Zealand.   Unfortunately, there were absolutely no connections from the U.S. to New Zealand for two weeks prior to our anniversary.  And I was looking through every possible gateway from North America.  I looked every day for months starting last summer.  My ace in the hole was that Continental Airlines was joining the Star Alliance beginning at the end of October.  They fly from Honolulu to Fiji and Air New Zealand flies from Fiji to Aukland.  I did not know if tickets would be available, but I was banking on being the first one in when Continental came up on the Star Alliance website.   This is not to mention the same difficulties in getting back.

At long last, we were able to get tickets changing planes in Hawaii.  However, getting home was another difficulty.  Bottom line, we finally decided that the best bet was to continue around the world as that will allow more stopovers (and more options).  So we decided to stop in Melbourne, to visit relatives, and and then Thailand.  Then Irith flies directly to Israel (via Istanbul) and I fly home from Bangkok through Rome and Philadelphia.  After Irith spends her usual two months in Israel, she flies home with a 3 day stopover in Amsterdam.  I join her in Israel for the last two weeks (a separate trip for me) and bring her home via Amsterdam.

That’s your preview.  We are on our way.  First stop, San Francisco.  We will post from there.

Roger