The reason I say that is that I work in a fairly tightly knit but highly competitive industry and I prefer not to post my detailed travel plans on a public forum. This is why I didn't specify a departing and an arriving airport.

Concerning a rest day, don't worry about it, that was the first thing I arranged before even starting to look at airfares.

Seems to me like so far the consensus is leaning toward NZ but I'm still a little bit worried about that carry-on policy they have posted on their web page. I've travelled pretty much everywhere in the world with my equipment + laptop bag and I never had any problems taking it on-board as a carry-on but I'd definatly like to avoid nasty surprises at LAX (because my laptop ag is not exactly thin, more like 4-5 inches thick).

How much could I be looking at to buy a circle PAC in J over the Y ticket? So far the itin. my TA has sent me is pricing out in the 4k $CAN range.

Thx for all the feedback!

Max