Location-by-location dossiers for the 22-night trip, 28 Aug – 19 Sep 2026. Built for reading on the ground, not as inspiration — tables first, verified against current 2026 sources, an NZD figure next to every price.
The master booking table, pulled from all six locations, sorted by deadline. This is the action list — everything else here is reference.
Fri 28 Aug – Thu 3 Sep, 6 nights, 3 people. Waikiki base, windward coast, North Shore, Pearl Harbor.
Thu 3 – Mon 7 Sep, 4 nights, 3 people. Labor Day weekend, Alcatraz already booked.
Mon 7 – Sat 19 Sep, 12 nights, split into the confirmed 3-person week and the open 12–19 block.
Canadian side (Fallsview) — the actual overnight base for this stretch.
American side — day-trip only, framed as a crossing from the Canadian base.
Day-trip from Niagara — TIFF running 10–20 Sep rules out sleeping here.
Final stop — the city itself, 1–2 nights, before flying BUF→JFK→Auckland.
Every location page follows the same structure: a short orientation paragraph, a ranked table of 12–20 things with cost/hours/booking-lead-time columns, a skip list of overrated options, and a logistics block. "Book ahead?" in the main table is always one of No / Same day / Days / Weeks — if it's not No, the exact site to book on is named in the same cell.
A few things believed true earlier in the planning turned out to be wrong or outdated once actually checked:
USD throughout, CAD for anything in Canada, NZD in brackets. Rates used, verified 5–10 Aug 2026: 1 NZD = 0.587 USD, 1 NZD ≈ CAD 0.82. Both rates move — re-check before paying anything over roughly NZD 200.