Aspire Down Under
This item appears on page 21 of the November 2020 issue.
I read Julie Skurdenis’ article “The Māoris of Aotearoa (part 1)” with great interest (Oct. ’20, pg. 27). My husband and I visited most of the Māori sites mentioned when we stopped in Rotorua on a cruise from Auckland, New Zealand, to Melbourne, Australia, aboard the Radiance of the Seas in February 2019.
Like Julie, we also used the travel agency Aspire Down Under (New York, NY; www.aspiredownunder.com) and their terrific travel agent Joanne Morgan (877/727-7473, ext. 103, joanne@aspiredownunder.com).
Joanne arranged our flight to Auckland from Los Angeles, hotel accommodations at the Sofitel Auckland Viaduct Harbour (21 Viaduct Harbour Ave.; www.sofitel-auckland.com) and a tour of Waiheke Island before the cruise. (We had booked the cruise on our own with Royal Caribbean International.)
We disembarked our 10-day cruise in Melbourne, where we met up with our daughter and son-in-law to travel in Australia for two more weeks. The places we wanted to see were Melbourne, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Port Douglas/Great Barrier Reef and Sydney, but we didn’t want to drive.
Joanne arranged every detail for us — international and domestic flights, hotels, all transfers and several tours. This was an itinerary we would never attempt in the United States for two weeks, but, with Joanne’s help, every detail went like clockwork, and we enjoyed the trip of a lifetime.
SHERRY STURGES
Williamstown, NJ