Thursday, May 22, 2014

Planning and preparing for our epic vacation to New Zealand and the Maldives


Trip Index

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At our workplace, employees earn a 2-month sabbatical every 7 years and have up to 3 years to use it (or lose it).  Kaleb was already eligible over a year and a half ago; he decided to start it in March 2014 and check off a destination from his and my bucket list - New Zealand.  I had already taken my sabbatical a couple of years ago (read about my adventures starting here), but I did have 32 vacation days accrued.  I was able to negotiate one month off from work with my manager and co-workers in order to join Kaleb for half of his sabbatical.

PLANNING

Kaleb and I wanted to focus on hiking and nature in New Zealand and traditional guided land tours didn't suffice.  Through extensive searching online, I found an 18-day self-driving hiking adventure package through New Zealand Wholesale Travel.  We had one more week to plan so I considered another place I was interested in - the Maldives.  This destination has been frequently featured in travel magazines and global warming discussions (as the lowest country in the world, it'd be underwater in 50 years or so if sea levels continue to rise at their current rate), and we were already flying halfway across the globe, so why not?

A trip of this magnitude may drain one's bank account, but I used lots of opportunities to save on costs.  I will describe my techniques for saving money on major trip components to help the reader get an idea of what's involved.  It can get a bit technical, and I hope you can follow along...one or more of these tips might help you in the future!

Here is a breakdown of the travel components that were obtained pre-trip:
  • Business class plane tickets for almost every leg of the trip
  • 18 day self-drive Hiking Explorer trip of North and South Island, which included the following:
    • Private transfers and rental car where applicable
    • All accommodations
    • Tongariro Guided Day Walk
    • Air New Zealand coach flight from Taupo to Christchurch
    • 3-day all-inclusive Routeburn Track Guided Walk
    • Helicopter ride to Franz Josef Glacier
    • Tranz Alpine train ride from Greymouth to Christchurch
  • 1 night at the Sheraton Singapore Towers before heading to the Maldives
  • 7 nights at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island resort
  • 1 night at the Holiday Inn Express Clarke Quay in Singapore returning from the Maldives
  • City tour in Seoul during transit back to the USA

Business class tickets:  One normally would save money flying in the back of the plane versus up front, but I redeemed 270,000 United MileagePlus frequent flyer miles for a pair of business class tickets from the US to Auckland, Christchurch to Singapore (a 9 day stopover here to fit in the Maldives trip), and Singapore back to the USA via South Korea.  This was done back in July 2013 so 8 months in advance.  I also transferred American Express Membership Rewards points to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles to redeem for roundtrip flights between Singapore and the Maldives.  I priced out our whole flight itinerary and it would have cost around $13k per person if paying cash!   Redeeming frequent flyer miles for business or first class tickets is a great value.  Besides, not all of the United miles were actually flown by me (what Flyertalkers call "butt-in-seat" miles or BIS miles).  I had applied for personal and business United credit cards that offered bonuses of 50k miles each after a certain dollar amount of spend within a few months.  Many of the cards waived the first year's annual fee, so it was basically free miles for my normal spending, then I'd cancel the cards if I didn't want them before the year was up.  I also supplemented my stash of United miles when they had a 40% off sale on miles as well as taken advantage of 2.2 cent per mile "Award Accelerator" offers seen from time to time within my flight reservations on the United website.  In the end, the cash value of the miles I redeemed for business class awards was less than had I spent my own money to buy economy tickets.  If you are interested the hobby of collecting miles and points and want to learn more, I recommend reading blogs such as The Points Guy or Million Mile Secrets and peruse Flyertalk.com.  You should also have excellent credit, not carry a balance (not worth it to go into debt for these bonuses), and be highly organized to keep track of which cards you've signed up for, which cards to cancel, and timing your purchases to meet minimum spend for the bonuses within the requisite period of time.

enjoying the United "BusinessFirst" cabin

To collect AMEX points, I applied for a credit card with a sign-up bonus of 60k Membership Rewards points which I transferred over to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer to redeem for Singapore to Maldives flights.  Booking Singapore Airlines award flights online gave a 15% mileage redemption discount so that helped save miles, but by the time I needed to secure flights for the trip (a few weeks before departure), I only accrued enough points for business class going there and economy class return.  Singapore Airlines is one of the best to fly in economy, and the flight was only 4.5 hours long, so it wasn't so terrible. ;)

Singapore business class on the A330-300

As we were flying business class most of the time, this allowed access into the airline lounges.  Some of them had decent food offerings and drinks so we didn't have to buy breakfast/lunch/dinner, saving on meal costs.

late dinner in the lounge

18-day self-drive itinerary in New Zealand:  I didn't save much money by booking with New Zealand Wholesale Travel, but I saved a lot of planning as the itinerary was already efficiently thought out and they took care of securing reservations for air/transfers/rental car/hotel/activities.  Their Hiking Explorer itinerary suited us well, and I just sent a few emails back and forth to change the accommodations.  I used a credit card that didn't charge foreign transaction fees to pay for the package, so that saved up to 3% versus a card that charged fees.

land tours won't have this kind of itinerary!

Pre-night at the Sheraton Singapore Towers:  I wanted to be close to the Newton Food Centre to get my eating on, and the Sheraton was just right next door.  I redeemed 6k Starpoints to get a reduced "Cash and Points" room rate and saved a couple of hundred dollars.  I had received a 30k Starpoints sign-up bonus from applying for a Starwood Preferred Guest credit card and had been redeeming the points for reduced nightly rates instead of free nights as the points were worth more using the "Cash and Points" option.

BBQ stingray, sambal leaves, sugarcane juice and Tiger beer

7 nights at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island resort:  Room rates during this time of year (high season) were around $1200 a night plus 18% tax and service charge for the lowest "Beach Villa" category.  $10k for the week?  No, I did not pay that price.  Nor have I spent a lot of nights at Hilton hotels to earn points.  So how did I save?  I applied for the Hilton HHonors Reserve credit card that offered 2 free weekend night certificates as a bonus that was fortunately redeemable at this resort, as not all properties participate.  I also took advantage of the Daily Getaways program offered by the US Travel Association, selling discounted hotel and rental car point packages to promote traveling.  In fact, the deals are going on right now through June 20, 2014.  If you purchase a package with an American Express card, you also save 10%.  Last year, I bought 500k Hilton HHonors points for about half a cent each, redeeming 380k for a 5-night stay at the Conrad.  This, combined with the 2 free night certificates, made the stay cost around $262 a night...as the entire stay was on points or certificates, no taxes or service charges would be collected either!  I'd happily spend $262 a night versus $1200 plus tax to stay in a villa in paradise.  Die-hard hobbyists can get the price even lower (or free), but for my time and trouble, $262 was good enough.  Included with the Hilton HHonors Reserve credit card was complimentary HHonors Gold status, which qualified us to get free breakfast as well as afternoon tea and happy hour every day at the Conrad, saving a lot of money!

the patio of Beach Villa #206

Post-night at the Holiday Inn Express Clarke Quay in Singapore:  I got a 25% discount off prevailing rates using my travel agent ID, but everyone can collect a ton of extra IHG Rewards Club points each stay if you sign up for bonus point promotions that are listed on this blog.  With one stay, you could amass thousands of points to redeem later.  Some hotels have redemption promotions (PointBreaks) as low as 5000 points.  You can also buy large packages of points through Daily Getaways too.  I didn't use the points I had purchased from last year's Daily Getaways for a free night as my cash rate was cheaper than the points required for a free night at this property.  (besides, I am saving the points for a week long stay in an overwater bungalow at the InterContinental Bora Bora Thalasso Spa...hint hint...)

City tour in Seoul:  Our return journey had a 10-hour layover in South Korea and I found that Incheon Airport offered "free" city tours for travelers in transit.  (not exactly free as you had to pre-purchase lunch for $13 USD per person)  It was relatively easy to sign up using this website.  I booked the tour 6 weeks in advance.  What a great way to spend a layover!

Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul

That's pretty much the bulk of the trip savings - by taking advantage of credit card offers and collecting points and miles cheaply.  Note that I collected all these points and miles on my own and spent it on two people...if Kaleb had opened his own credit cards, we would have earned miles faster and saved more money as I wouldn't have to buy discounted miles.

PREPARATIONS

We were taking only one checked bag of clothing each for the entire trip since the rental car was small and we didn't want to have bags sitting in the back seat to tempt thieves while stopped at sights on the road.  It was a challenge to pack as there were places in NZ that were cold and we were hiking, but the Maldives was in the 90's every day.  We layered a lot of clothes, wore packable jackets, and brought small boxes of laundry detergent for washing.  The motels in New Zealand usually had a laundry room or a washer/dryer inside the unit itself, which was very convenient.

Another way we saved money was on meals during the trip.  New Zealand and the Maldives are very expensive when it comes to eating at restaurants.  We packed lightweight pouches of freeze-dried backpacking food (Mountain House brand, sometimes on sale at REI, and Costco may seasonally stock bulk boxes) and cup-of-noodles in a small checked bag (which, when emptied, made space for souvenirs!).  The food was perfect for quick lunches and dinners, paired with fresh fruits and veggies from the grocery store.  Everywhere we stayed had a large hot water kettle, which was essential.  This might not whet everyone's appetite but it worked well for us.  It was the first time I had freeze-dried food and it tasted great!  (and this is coming from a foodie)  Eating cup-of-noodles is comforting to me anyway.

The Maldives are known for diving, and on the Conrad Maldives FlyerTalk board I had been following, people were saying "If you love snorkeling, you'll love diving" and that diving was a must so I put away my fear of drowning and got my Open Water scuba certification.  Kaleb was already certified and I thought it would be nice if we dived together as buddies.  I did an Intro to Scuba Diving class a decade ago in Bora Bora, and though I enjoyed myself, I remembered thinking about how far down I was from the ocean surface and how terrible it would be if I ran out of air, etc. so I didn't put scuba certification high on my bucket list.  But after seeing pictures of Maldives diving sites and reassurances from my already-certified girlfriends Karen and Rachel that it'd be all right, I signed up for a Beginner Scuba course in January through Fish Eye Scuba, which consisted of classroom time, pool dives Jan 11th weekend, and open water dives Jan 25th weekend.  I was really lucky with the weather...no rain and every day was in the 70's!  I had no trouble with the classroom work.  The pool work was more difficult as I am not a good swimmer.  One of the requirements was to swim 200 yards without stopping.  I swam mostly on my back, ending up being the last person to finish, with a 70+ year old man finishing a minute ahead of me!  He swam over to me and said "I'm so glad I wasn't last!"  Gee thanks!  I could have done a 300 yard swim with mask and snorkel instead, but I wanted to see if I could do it without.  The instructor said that if he thought any of us would have problems, he'd make us do it with the snorkel, but I'm glad I didn't get that far behind.  The swimming was immediately followed by a 10-minute tread in the water.  The instructor asked if I needed a break before the tread and though I huffed and puffed, I said "Nope" since I didn't want to seem weak, haha.  Floating on your back was allowed while doing the tread so I did a mixture of both to pass the test.  During the pool exercises, I had problems with equalization (popping your ears when diving down).  I was the slowest of everyone to clear the ears.  While we were kneeling on the bottom of the 14-foot pool, I started to panic when I thought about being deep in water and how slow it was to suck air out of the regulator in my mouth.  But I convinced myself to be calm and breathed slowly.  Eventually I figured out that the air regulator I had wasn't the best as I got a different one for my open water dives and it was much easier to breathe.  Open water diving in January was not ideal as the lake we were in was 48F, which meant we could only do two dives a day due to hypothermia risk, despite wearing 7mm thick wet suits.  Friends were suggesting I finish the open water requirement in warm Maldives waters, but I didn't want to waste any vacation time plus the costs were high there.  I survived the freezing open water dives, plus I got better at equalizing my ears!  I'm glad I got certified, as I was able to see amazing things diving in the Maldives.  I'm even looking forward to future diving trips!

not thrilled to dive into a 48F lake
I am certified for life!
much warmer waters in the Maldives
a tiny critter you can't really see while snorkeling

I'll describe the trip in detail starting with the next blog entry.  (the Trip Index above gives you a hint of what we've experienced)  Until then, stay tuned!


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