I thought you had to be over 18 to be on this site. Clearly I was wrong.[/quote]
Your face is.

miscellaneous flight/trip advice, unrelated to race:


sign up for sale emails from Air New Zealand's US site; if you hit it right (and given that it's not a super busy time of year), you can do closer to 1000-1200USD r/t between SFO/LAX/IAH/ORD and AKL. but you can safely budget 2000 r/t and know that you won't exceed it even if you totally miss sales. but sales that apply to that time period won't happen until early to mid next year.

also, you can choose your class of travel for each leg, so if you're arriving close to race and want to be fresher or are leaving right after race and think you'll be shattered you can pick and choose as you see fit.

I can't sleep for shit in the premium economy seats; either suffer in economy or splurge for business. a better use of spare dollars is to book an economy skycouch row as it's more like "business lite" than premium economy is.

AA occasionally has ultra deals between LAX and AKL (friend got <500 r/t earlier this year...!)

exchange rate is pretty good right now, so paying for stuff now (can houses and rental cars be booked this far out?) with your rich american dollars may save you a bit and give you some free pocket money while you're here.

a 2:1 south:north island ratio is probably about right if you're able to be here for a good chunk of time.

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Eliot
blog thing - strava thing

Definitely worth sorting accommodation early. Taupo isn’t a big place, and although it’s a tourist destination with lots of places to stay, pretty sure it’s gonna be tight with the likely numbers.

i look forward to your apology. It’s going to be late November. The lake whilst not warm will be perfectly swimmable.

We start swimming in October in Tauranga and in fact people are swimming here in the ocean still. It’ll be fine.

What he said.

We do a regular Friday evening swim, check the Facebook page “Taupo Friday Night Swim”. Organiser often puts water temp. Was 17 degrees in late November last year, up to 21 or so by March.

The lake does get colder after a storm or wind, I guess it stirs up the depths where it’s colder. Plus it’s fed by snow melt off the mountain.

But what do I know? I’m only 12 years old. Probably.

You are forgetting Ironman is running it and not a local club race.

I’m a good swimmer and have my spot so clearly I want a swim.

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Very good info here...I've already started to look at flights despite being a year plus out. In regards to the race and accommodation setup do we know where the transition, start/finish line will be? Looking at google maps the town is spread out. Prices look great for this Nov but I'm sure that will change for next year with the race.

Hmmm there is a much bigger race numbers wise on at end of November this year so prices might not be too different . Round lake Taupo ride. Round 7000 riders take part each year. Depending on timing with 70.3 you might be able do on one weekend then the next on following weekend. The main ride is 160kms but other options too.

99.99% the transition will be in the domain in the centre of town where the full Ironman is based. However, whlst it looks like the town is spread out then it's actually a tiny place by world city standards and so you'll be fine no matter where you stay.

For example for Ironman each year I like to be out past the SH5 turnoff which is about 4km from the finish. A good distance out to be able to get there hassle free, but be slightly removed from the centre. It's a doddle to park in town, or simply ride in on a hire bike even.

But book accommodation early, it will fill up. Use bookabach to search for houses (kinda like airbnb).

One thing to be very wary of is the flight from Akl to Taupo. Or more specifically that there is a very good chance your bike won't make that flight with you. Reality is that the flght is on a q300-dash8 and they just don't have the space for 24 bikes in the hold. I would really recommend getting to Akl, spending a night in one of the many hotels near there to rest, and then driving down. It'll take you a day to drive it, but it's a beautiful drive. Or better still do the 3 hour drive to somewhere like Waihi Beach, or Omokoroa, then do the other 3 hours to Taupo the next day. If you are insisting on flying down then get a flight much earlier in the week than the Wednesday. Will give them time to truck the bike down.