AXW Travels

After returning from New Zealand in 2002, I convinced my brother to visit New Zealand with me in 2003. I also took the opportunity to visit another part of Australia, Melbourne. Why Melbourne? I stayed in touch with the two guys I met in 2001, Adam and Anthony, and lived in that area.

Whenever people ask me, “What’s your favorite country?” I always reply that it depends. It depends on whether people are asking about favorite people, favorite food, favorite scenery, etc. When it comes to favorite scenery, New Zealand wins… by far. New Zealand reminds me a lot of western Washington, but there’s something more magical about it.

In 2001, I decided to take my biggest vacation ever… to Australia! I had been traveling for work for a few years at this point and had saved up enough points to help pay for such a big trip.

OK, I’ll admit… after my successful trip to Mexico, I struggled to try to figure out my next trip. Between 1997 and 1998, I switched jobs, so I was now working as a consultant, which meant I traveled a lot for work. I started to earn hotel points and airline miles but not enough to really pay for a trip. I don’t even remember how I thought of it but I started thinking about Club Med and the fact that those are all-inclusive vacations.