escape from new york

if you could choose between these three places, where would you go?:
1. brazil
2. japan
3. new zealand

here's my dilema. so i got this free ticket to anywhere in the world deal on american airlines. i was stoked and i'm finally ready to put to it to good use. i still have some saved up money that i decided i'd use to go on a month long trip, solo style (as i've never really gone on a big trip far away all by myself). i wanted to go somewhere that was far far away, to get the biggest bang for my buck with the free ticket. AND after tooling around in trees and pretty nature, i thought i'd like to go somewhere that wasn't so metropolitan. maybe do an adventure style trip. so the obvious choice was new zealand. total natural paradise and was my father's favorite country he'd ever visited. oh yeah, and lord of the rings and shit (kidding. kind of).

so i started doing all this research (procratination at it's finest) and found this really cool sounding camping adventure tour in NZ geared towards people travelling solo (not for 18 year old drunk college kids). yeah, yeah i wasn't too into doing one of those group tour thingies, but this one actually sounds pretty nifty. i could do a shorter trip and see what it was like, to get my bearings. anyhow, i found all these message boards with people raving about the tour and i really started to get excited. then i finally made the call to american to check it out. oops! this particular free ticket doesn't go to NZ. OF COURSE IT DOESN'T! bastards. i should have known.

so my other options now are brazil (which i've already been to... AND LOVED) and japan (which i've been dying to go to, but it's so damn expensive). plus (this is gonna sound like i'm a total wuss) i was thinking since i'd be solo style, it'd be nice to go to country where they speak english, you know?

here's my latest thought (opinions are welcome since i have a very hard time making decisions these days): bite the bullet and spend the money to go to NZ. the major cost factor is the airfare. getting around there isn't all that bad and the tour thing seems reasonable. THEN, i could still use the free ticket to go to carnival in brazil for 2005 (would LOVE to go again. best trip ever so far). it's SO cheap there and i never got to see rio or sao paulo and i'm sure i could convince some friends to come along. OR should i just wait and go to japan some other time???

HELP!