I noticed that one of the rules on the RTW states that that country of origin can't be any cheaper that the country of purchase but it sounds like most are still getting the good rates out Australia and New Zealand... Since I'm from Seattle, I was thinking about visiting my sister in LA first and then flying from LAX to New Zealand where I would start my RTW.

Can someone give me some ideas on how I get around this minimum fare requirement? I'd like to break my year long trip into two halves and I see that this would be the easiest way but I don't necessarily want to pay the extra amount if I can avoid it.