Feb/Mar 2026 –
I mentioned previously that I travel with a small women’s group through a community called Women Travel Abroad . I traveled to Puerto Rico and Costa Rica with this group and they were wonderful trips. I fell in love with Costa Rica and have plans to spend part of my year there once I am done working for Corporate America or I stumble upon a company that will allow me to work from anywhere in the world as long as I . I had previously planned a trip to Greece in 2025 but due to some unforeseen circumstances was unable to go. But that is alright, I had a blast in my travels across the US. You would know there is always something good waiting for you if you just keep looking forward. That opportunity came in the offering of a trip to New Zealand.
What I like about traveling with Women Travel Abroad (WTA) is that you can pay over time for your trips, you have solo accommodations, and the groups are small enough where it is relatively easy for the group to move and provides some time to venture out and explore on your own. The group has really awesome set of hosts and support system. Check them out, this type of travel isn’t for everyone but if it resonates I would recommend you say yes to yourself, you deserve it! I so looked forward to my trip to New Zealand, I took it as a delayed birthday present to myself.
The year (2025) went by so fast. My trip was paid off and I was on the hunt for a cost effective flight from the US to New Zealand. I had researched and found that there were a few places that offered direct flights from the US (Dallas Fort Worth, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago). Because I am able to drive to most places and use various parking apps to locate airport parking options I considered making a trip to Houston where I have family as a potential city to depart from. I set alerts through google.com/flights to track pricing starting in early 2025 from the various locations to figure out which would work best for me. I was just about to pull the trigger on a flight when my family needed to my assistance as I am always willing to do, especially if it gives me an opportunity to travel to places I had not been to before. I was on my way back to Houston (Spring) Texas, which provided me an opportunity to check yet another location off my list and the opportunity to spend some quality time with one of my nieces.
We spent a few days in Hot Springs Arkansas. I had planned to visit Arkansas someday but wasn’t sure when it would be, but when you are in flow things work out and I can say from what I saw of Hot Springs, it piqued my interest. It had water, green space (trees) and some mountains. A small town feel but with some larger city amenities. It is definitely worth another visit.
Since I knew that I would be driving to Houston early February to Cleveland, it would be very unlikely that I would drive back down to Houston to fly to New Zealand, or any other location for that matter. So I opted for a flight from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth and a direct flight from Dallas/Fort Worth. With the time difference being over 13 hours you generally will lose a day on the flight to New Zealand, which means you generally need to leave 2 days before you need to land at your destination in New Zealand. Because I have a practice of always wanting to get to places at least 1 day before I am supposed to I booked I found a cheaper flight leaving out on a Tuesday than on Wednesday.
TIP: Storms in Texas can stop all airport ground activity which means nothing flies in or out of the airport. So I would say exercise some caution leaving out of locations during times storms may be prevalent.
Here I am end of February, ready for my 11 days in New Zealand, carryon and my personal bag packed with all I need for the stay. Yes, I did a carryon for a 11 day trip to New Zealand and came back with very little dirty clothing to boot!
TIP: A lot of hotels have laundry facilities and I was fortunate enough to have one of the places we stayed at in New Zealand that provided free services. I tend to book at hotels that offer free laundry when pressed to stay at them in the US or I will do research and find a local laundromat. I rarely ever travel with more than a couple days of laundry to do.
I wish I could say my flight to New Zealand was uneventful but I will say that even though I had planned to get there 1 day early I actually arrived after the 1st day worth of events, late in the evening after everything was closed. I can say that the coordinators with Women Travel Abroad are class acts. I kept them in the loop with the various opportunities and they didn’t miss a beat having someone pick me up at the airport and the host met me offering assistance with whatever I needed. Women Travel Abroad are a class act!!!!
The trip was all that I could have wanted. New Zealand has it all plenty of water, vegetation, mountains, glaciers, hot springs, green pastures, and a real respect for the environment and the land. The indigenous people there (the Māori) have fought to keep their language and customs alive. They have 2 national languages, English and Māori. All school age children are taught the language in their schools and they have various programs to keep the skills, traditions, and culture alive. It was a wonderful experience.
The trip back to the US was just as eventful. I generally give myself a couple of days to recoup when flying, this affords me the luxury of taking advantage of airline credits offered due to overbooked flights. If I am flying, which may be rare when I travel in the US, I generally will have my laptop and can work anywhere so taking credits offered due to overbooking of flights is always an option for me and I have taken advantage of this a few times before. Well for this trip taking that option gave me credits that paid for my trip to New Zealand. This would have only been an issue if I needed to get to work the next day since I do not bring my work laptop with me when flying out of the country. Hence the title of this post “Good Things Come to Those Who Wait”, and how!
These credits help to inform my travels for 2026.
Miles traveled 2,159 driven, 10,839 flying . Short and sweet photo album.
Leave a Reply