Trips planned!

[deralte]

I've spent most of the afternoon plotting out my trip to New Zealand. I ended up having to switch the dates of my two proposed trips while I'm here in Korea. I'd wanted to go to New Zealand in early December but since I was booking the flight with miles, I wasn't able to find a flight back that didn't cost an arm and a leg. So instead, I switched to looking at the end of January and found a flight there and back for $75 total. Not bad, eh? (I have tons of miles from flying all the time.) I then switched the date of my trip to India to early December and quickly booked a cheap flight ($430 is not bad, even if the layover on the way is killer... I couldn't use any miles because none of the airlines I have miles on fly from Korea to India). My friend in India (who is also doing her Fulbright atm) already knows the lay of the land so to speak, so it was left to her to book our trip to Bangalore and Hampi. It should be a lot of fun.

So then it was up to me to book my trip around New Zealand. I couldn't go for as long as I wanted to since there's a limit to how much time I'm allowed out of the country while on a Fulbright and the flights eat up days of time unfortunately. I was also dismayed to see there's really no easy way to get around quickly to the places I wanted to see, so I gave up and just made sure I got to see the three things I really wanted to - Hobbiton, glow worm caves, and the Weta workshop. I wish I had the time to go to NZ's southern island but I'd need another two days at least and it would cost a lot to see the places I really want to see from LOTR so I will leave it for another day (and you know, when I'm rich). Still need to find a place to stay in Wellington but other than that, everything major like transportation and accommodation are booked. Any recs for Wellington?

Cold has progressed to the coughing stage which means I'm miserable but happy I'm at least nearing the end of the experience.