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Welcome to the second installment of my recap for my April trip to New Zealand! If you haven’t already, check out my previous post for part 1.  Auckland  → Bay of Islands → Auckland →Wellington → Queenstown →Milford Sound → Aoraki Mount Cook → Christchurch →Auckland →Hobbiton → Auckland Auckland After an easy bus ride back to Auckland, I stored my backpack in the super convenient locker at the bus station (less than $10 NZD), and went to do a bit of sightseeing.Read More →

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Last year on Cyber Monday, I stumbled on an unbelievable flight deal through United Airlines for Air New Zealand and bought a nonstop round-trip ticket to Auckland, New Zealand for $395. For context, a flight like this typically costs between $1100 and $1600, so $395 seemed extremely unlikely. Me being me, I bought it anyway, and then waited a to see if it would be cancelled (this is an actual thing that airlines are bizarrely allowed to do in the case of what’s called a “mistake fare”). A month or two later, my ticket was still sitting untouched in my United account, so I startedRead More →

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February is clearly the best month of the year (how could it be otherwise when it signals my entrance into the world?) and every year I try to make sure my birthday provides an occasion for everyone to recognize February’s awesomeness. This year’s flu season actually loosened its grip on me long enough to allow me to properly celebrate, so I headed off to Portland, Oregon. Originally, I didn’t plan to do much for my birthday, but then I remembered I now have the power of Southwest’s Companion Pass* at my disposal, and I couldn’t miss the chance to use it. Helloooo short getaway!Read More →

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Back in 2016, I realized that the next year would feature an optimal set of travel circumstances. 2017 would be the year in which I’d have Gold status* with Starwood Hotels, Silver status with United Airlines, and a huge (to me, anyway) stockpile of points/miles in both loyalty programs. On noticing this, I set out to find the perfect new vacation spot that had a beach and a cool town to explore.** This perfect place needed to have a Starwood property, and had to be reachable by United (or one of United’s Star Alliance partners). As it turned out, Bali represented the convergence of a solidRead More →