Overthinking options for traveling to NZ and Aussie (from Canada) w/ 14 month old

HI! I was trying to think of options for traveling to NZ and Australia later this year, the baby will be between 14 and 15 months old (she is currently 9 1/2 months and 25 lbs )
NZ a friend said she could rent a seat from plunket before we arrived, so looking to see there is something appropriate for her to RF in that they have. My concern would be installation as if they don't have it installed, I'm not familiar with the seats which would make it hard to deal with at the airport on the fly....
For Australia, there is a good chance we won't need to go in a vehicle at all, so I'm going back and forth about that.

I had considered the idea of getting a Scenera to travel with, while I know it isn't approved over there, I know the rule for installing it here and can play with it before we leave and take pool noodles as appropriate with us... It is more for us to try to transport (my mum and I are going with my girls, big girl will be close to 6) and in Sydney we're dealing with trains from the airport... I had the thought of trying to get a US Scenera since they're so much less and just leaving it there at the end of the trip as I'm sure the rental of a seat would be similar costs to that but the Scenera would let us have a set in both countries....

Any thoughts? Anyone else travel and deal with seats over there? We were there when my big one was 22 months and my parents were back for 6 months, they were able to borrow a Britax through friends, but it was a FF seating and FFing isn't an option for a 14 month old in my mind..

I have lots of time, but figure it is worth thinking through so we're good to go!

(oh, and was thinking to throw in the low back booster for the big one as it would likely go on the top of a suitcase...)

I would bring a scenera, we have them over here but they are $200nzd. Yours wouldn't have the right sticker on it, but I'm pretty sure they're exactly the same & I don't think any cop would look twice at it. It's not legal in Australia but I took my radian when we visited and didn't get pulled over, so we were all good I wouldn't hire one through plunket, unless I knew it was new, I'm pretty certain they hire seats out & when they are returned they check them over and re-hire them, I'm also not sure if they hire them to non residents or short term. You could check out www.babyonthemove.co.nz they hire seats out and will help with installation if you need it.

You'll need something on the plane so I'd bring the Scenera!

finn said:

I would bring a scenera, we have them over here but they are $200nzd. Yours wouldn't have the right sticker on it, but I'm pretty sure they're exactly the same & I don't think any cop would look twice at it. It's not legal in Australia but I took my radian when we visited and didn't get pulled over, so we were all good I wouldn't hire one through plunket, unless I knew it was new, I'm pretty certain they hire seats out & when they are returned they check them over and re-hire them, I'm also not sure if they hire them to non residents or short term. You could check out www.babyonthemove.co.nz they hire seats out and will help with installation if you need it.

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Thanks! A friend is getting stuff organized for us, so she'd hire the seat from plunket - she did it when my sister was over with her 5 month old - so we never came across whether or not they'll hire them to non-residents

I guess the big thing is the tethering would be different making it more obvious...

ketchupqueen said:

You'll need something on the plane so I'd bring the Scenera!

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An extra seat on the plane just isn't affordable when going that far Hence aiming before they are 2. DH isn't coming with us even!

I travelled on my own with my 15 month old from Canada to South Africa. I brought a scenera. It was easy. It's SUPER light. I had an umbrella stroller and bungeed the seat to it and strapped dd in. Or I put it over my back by the tether strap (clipped to storage spot). My backpack could go in the stroller, over the handles or on my back. I also had my ergo. So the there were multiple options and it worked fine. I managed to get a free seat on the plane for it 2 out of 4 legs. The other two legs it was gate checked and I had brought bubble wrap and fragile stickers for that. When I got there I was able to instal it in the various cars pretty easily. It would have been better if I'd brought a pool noodle though. I know what you mean about the over thinking thing. I did that too but it paid off in the end. Good luck.

We went last year. #1 was 4.5 years, #2 was17 months. For the eldest, I bought a Clek Ozzi. Luckily, the youngest is tiny tiny for his age and he still fit in his baby bucket (with plenty of room to spare!) so that made it easy. We did have seats even for the baby, and used his SafeSeat on the plane (we felt that, for a flight that long, holding him wasn't feasible).

In Sydney we needed the seats only for the taxis between the hotel and airport, but we rented a car at Cairns airport for our holiday in Port Douglas and there was no question about our carseats. However,the car we ended up with, the seat bight was different from here and the rigid anchors on the Ozzi didn't work. I hadn't anticipated that!