Route tweaking

We have two weeks left before we need to take the plunge and book the flight tickets. The first leg from Helsinki via London to Vancouver for 23.3 is already reserved. We have been looking carefully at the route. Tokyo at the end seems like a great idea but it will be winter and, unless we win the pools, we won't have the money to go skiing for a good amount of time and get out to the bigger ski resorts.

Also we have looked again at Easter Island - it is taking us two flights but we realise it is a great chance, surely the only time we will ever go, and because of the Oneworld flights it is possible so we have to do it. The Galapagos Islands off Ecuador would be great but we just don't have the money for the 2-3000 euro each that it costs - let's see how we do - if we are ahead of budget maybe we can think about it and head north from Lima to Ecuador and check it out. Anyway, Easter Island is in and we are really happy with the rest of the plan. We looked at ways to use the extra flight to get in more Caribbean or Pacific islands. With the Caribbean we would have to go through Miami or back to Puerto Rico - so to get in Barbados for example we would need two extra stops. We could easily add in just Miami but it doesn't excite us that much (it would if we had the funds to make extra side trips to the Bahamas!).

So we looked at the Pacific. We worked out that, by sacrificing Ayer's Rock we could fit in NZ south island by plane rather than have to get the boat there. And we can sacrifice Ayer's Rock and Melbourne and include New Caledonia. This option is a bit of a holy grail for me. We might never go to the Pacific again and I really want a Polynesian-type island on the itinerary. Especially as we probably won't be able to afford a side trip there - and also because going overland from Sydney to Melbourne is a nice way to explore that part of Oz - like Santiago it does mean a backtrack flight and a bit of backtrack overland but I think that is worth it for New Caledonia (and Easter Island).