Knowing that it will be approaching the high season in New Zealand and Australia when I arrive as the summer season begins, I quickly found that accommodations would be pricey. And, as mentioned in a previous post, I would have to add wifi access to the cost.

I found a decently-reviewed apartment-style hotel called the Bankside Apartments that is centrally located and has good amenities. Oh, and only $15NZD (currently about $11USD) a week for wifi.
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The first leg of my journey is the Cook Islands.  I wanted one exotic destination and this breaks up what would be a really long flight to Auckland.  It’s still almost a 10-hour flight, but better than the 13 or so to Auckland.

Ok, admittedly the thought that “Survivor” shot a season there made it slightly more enticing, not that I will be dropping myself on one of the remote islands there.

Because phone and internet service there is more expensive and possibly spotty, I’ll use these three days as vacation, maybe checking in once a day or so.

After doing some research for a modest priced place to stay, I booked the Aro’a Beachside Inn, which has a great location, good amenities, and nice reviews.  Paradise awaits.

As I search for places to stay, one thing that surprises me is how much hotels will charge for Internet access. The nickel-and-diming of travel seems to get worse every passing day. When companies like Ryan Air consider pay to pee or no-seat travel, it goes from “you’re kidding, right?” to “you’ve got to be kidding me.”

I don’t get charging for wi-fi in hotels. You’re not using up something by using it. You mean to tell me it doesn’t cost more to put some fancy soap in the bathroom than to allow access to a signal?  It’s there whether you access it or not. How different is it from cable or satellite TV? You’re not charged extra for that (and I hope I’m not giving anyone any ideas!) and yet something like satellite is a signal. I’ve also found that the cheaper hotels actually either charge less or not at all than the more expensive ones.

Since I need access to work on the road, I’m finding hotels are charging up to $20/day or something like $4/hr. That’s crazy! And it limits my options as to where to stay. It’s one of the main reasons I’m looking at more apartment stays than hotels. Well, that and easy access to laundry.

Okay, so I should have planned this one a little better.  I looked at the map and figured Sydney to Melbourne doesn’t seem too far.  Guess again.  I’m too used to those high speed European trains where you blink and you’re there.  It’s either fly roundtrip since my next flight is Sydney to Bangkok or take an 11 hour train there and back.  Either way, I probably lose a couple of days.  Should have made the flight from Melbourne to Bangkok.  Hindsight.  So I’ll stick to Sydney and explore the surrounding area and hope to get back there again to see more.  When I can afford a business class flight (14.5 hours in coach?  Yikes!)!

Just got two of three recommended immunization shots–typhoid and tetanus.  Unfortunately, they were out of the Hepatitis A shot, so I have to go back in a couple of days (how an office that specializes in travel immunizations runs out, I don’t know).  I thought for sure they would have recommended one for malaria, but they said I really wasn’t going anywhere that would put me at risk.  Staying healthy is pricey.  I assumed health insurance would cover this, but immunization for travel is not.  I guess one of the few positive things about the health care bill is that preventative care is covered.   I mean, would insurance companies rather cover the cost of an immunization or the care for the disease if you get it by not taking precautions in the first place?  Makes sense to me. 

While there is something to be said for traveling with someone to experience everything with a person you know, one of the reasons I like solo travel is that I don’t have to answer to anyone. If I want to see something, I go see it. If I don’t, I don’t. It’s absolute freedom. Having said that, I have been getting a lot of advice. A lot. For just about every location. While the advice is great, it gets to be a bit of overload. The great thing about travel is that whatever you do, be it a museum or just reading in a park, it’s a new experience and that’s the most important thing.

I don’t usually get trip insurance, mostly because I never travel buying any package, but rather do it independently and wait until I’m pretty sure nothing will stop me from going. However, since this is nearly three months with a lot of flights where the possibility is greater that something might get lost along the way or come up (hopefully not!) that might cut it short. So, I thought it would be good to purchase it. Fortunately, I was able to purchase up to the day I arrive back in the U.S. (Philadelphia), where I really don’t need the coverage for the remainder of the trip. This saved almost $100 on the cost of the premium through Squaremouth.

One thing I tend to do is research things online.  Then research again.  And follow up with more research.  Obviously, you have to weed through a lot, but I look for patterns when people voice an opinion about where to go and how to go about it.  There are certain places I have really wanted to go.  And while 80 (technically, 84) days is a long time, there are certain factors I had to take into account when deciding where to go.  First and foremost, I will be working as I travel.  This means access to wifi.  So, anything jungle-related or too remote would be out.  Also, I have done the “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium” thing, where it’s two days here, two days there.  A short trip is one thing, but three months is another.  I wanted one short stay in a more exotic location, but the rest would be major cities as a base.  I also knew that I wanted to end up in Philly around the holidays, which meant heading in a western direction.

As I have traveled many times solo, I really don’t mind going to places where I don’t speak the language.  But I’ve always been ambivalent about Asia because not only is it a different language, it’s a different alphabet (is it even an alphabet?).  But I knew that in the major cities, English was widely used, so I knew I had to include a couple of stops there.  Australia would be a must, as would be Israel.  I’ve always wanted to go to Greece and I’ve planned Spain a couple of times, only to change my itinerary due to time constraints.

So, I put together the itinerary of Cook Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Israel, Greece, Spain, Philadelphia (and maybe a day in NYC), and back to Los Angeles.  I really wanted to go to Egypt, which would also add another continent to my list of places, but not only did it add a lot to the cost but because there is so much to see outside Cairo, I would rather save it for another time when I wouldn’t be working and have freedom to move around the country a lot.

So the first step would be the plane travel.  I looked at the Star Alliance as I mostly fly United and US Airways (why are we Americans saddled with such bad airlines?).  The cost of their RTW (round the world) ticket was around $6000 for all economy.  Next, I checked with a travel agency that specializes in RTW travel and they quoted me a lot less, but they do point to point tickets as opposed to Star Alliance, which is one ticket with several stops on their member airlines.  Now, the Star Alliance ticket is an easier choice for travel should an issue come up or you want to change a flight.  And had this been a longer trip where I would not be working and have freedom to make last minute changes, this would be a better option.  But the point to point tickets, since I would pretty much have a fixed itinerary, seemed the better, and much cheaper option.  But then, as I said I do often, I started to research my own flights.  And by going to various airline sites, be it something like Expedia or individual airline sites, I found even cheaper flights.  So not only did I save another $500 doing this myself, but I was able to have two of the legs in business class.  It was a lot of legwork, but ultimately worth it.

So how did this opportunity come to me?  Well, one day at work a few of us were having lunch.  My boss, Majid, had just returned from speaking at a conference in Berlin and we got to talking about travel what it was like to live in and travel to a real city (unlike the sprawl that is LA).  I mentioned how I really would like someday not to be tied to a geographic location and even buy a round-the-world ticket so I can travel and work from anywhere.  So he said, “if that’s what you want to do, you should do it.”  Now, maybe Majid didn’t think I would really do it, but give me an opening like that and I will take it!  He then asked me how many days I would want to take until I would return.  My answer of 365 days later didn’t go over too well.  He said he was thinking more like “Around the world in 80 days.”  And so, that set forth this plan in motion.  My first thought was, “I’m really going to do this.”  My second thought was, “how the heck am I going to pay for this?”  But to have this opportunity was too golden to pass up.