The Next Adventure

To some people, New Zealand is considered to be quasi-obscure, although tourism has increased by about 40%. This is the story of how I decided on New Zealand.


I'm currently working a contract position for the Government that finishes at the end of September. Since day one of this contract, I had planned on taking a long awaited trip upon it's conclusion. I had 2 criteria: 1) I didn't want to break the bank and 2) I wanted to go away for as long as possible without compromising #1. The solution: Thailand.

The land of pad thai, elephant rides, white sand beaches, full moon parties, and tons of world travelers. I had figured that I could go for a month and spend less than $2,700, flight included. In fact, I had planned for the flight to be half my budget, as a friend, who had lived in Thailand for a few months, told me that he had lived on roughly $500-800/month (housing, food, leisure, in-country travel). I even planned to meet up with an Aussie friend of mine, a girl I met in September 2008 on a Greek Island Tour. But, as much as I want to go to South East Asia, I have a hard time going all that way and only going to one country. I would feel extremely rushed trying to fit in as many countries as possible in 4-5 weeks.

To quench my thirst for adventure and relative obscurity, I decided to be a bit lenient on the length of my trip. I found 2 tours that I am interested in doing, one in Turkey, the other in Jordan. I pretty much decided that I wanted to do the Jordan tour (versus Turkey). I've only ever heard good things about the country, and after seeing the Departures episode on Jordan, I've been hooked. But...

Then came the day I was secretly hoping for. When we were in Seattle a few weekends ago, my boyfriend mentioned that I should go to New Zealand with him. My boyfriend is going to visit his family and it's possible that I could go. I love Kiwis and from all the pictures and video I've seen, not to mention the stories I've heard, New Zealand is definitely near the top of my Must See list. Once I double checked whether or not he was serious, the ball was put in motion and yesterday, I bought my ticket! And honestly, I couldn't be happier.

Yes, I sacrificed both of my criteria just a bit - I'm only going for 3 weeks (which falls between the timelines for Thailand and the Middle East) and it may end up costing me a bit more that originally planned (but likely less than a tour) - but I'm ok with that.



Wher would you have choosen if you were me, Turkey, Jordan, Thailand, or New Zealand? Or would you pick some place entirely different?