Welcome to the fourth and last installment of my recap for my April trip to New Zealand! If you haven’t already, check out my previous post for part 3.  Auckland  → Bay of Islands → Auckland →Wellington→ Queenstown →Milford Sound → Aoraki Mount Cook → Christchurch →Auckland →Hobbiton → Auckland Aoraki/Mount Cook The bus ride to Aoraki Mount Cook was just under 5 hours, booked as part of my Intercity pass and turned out to be part of a GreatSights New Zealand tour. As far as I could tell, this meant a cushier bus and frequent stops to take photos of the (as always) beautiful scenery. In particular, Lake Pukaki nearRead More →

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 →

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 →