General Hints and Tips about travelling in New Zealand
Interesting links:
- All Info about New Zealand (History, Population, Geography…) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuseeland
- Professional travel agent for New Zealand www.boomerang-reisen.de/
- Apollo camper www.apollocamper.com/
1. The Maori – New Zealand in History www.history-nz.org/maori.html
- Online Travel page with lots of info http://www.new-z.net/
- New Zealand Tourism and Travel Guide http://www.nz.com/
- New Zealand Tourism and Travel Guide http://www.tourism.net.nz/
- International weather service http://www.metservice.co.nz/default/index.php
- Best Camping place chain in NZ http://www.top10.co.nz/
Travel Time:
Best time to travel is November or March.
Don’t travel when there are vacation in New Zealand. You have to book everything, and not only 1 day in advanced but some weeks.
(Swimming with Dolphins for example is book for December and January already in October)
November - summer is coming and March it’s the end of summer. In December sun is also much too hot, because of the missing ozone layer.
NOTE: minimum sun blocker cream is 20 ! In summer you should use 30 or 40 in the beginning when you go to the beach.
Stopover:
You can make stopovers everywhere: But I wouldn’t choose the way over the US.
In the US you have to get your luggage and check out completely. Then you have to check in again.
This is completely annoying specially on the way home.
Singapore is a perfect stopover airport. A lot of shops and bars. Also showers and swimming pools available.
Hong Kong has an awfully Transfer Airport very small and now bars.
Travel Agent
We booked over Boomerang Reisen which were excellent with a real good price.
Boomerang Reisen can be found in some cities.
But in general you should book over a travel agency if you don’t know the country at all.
You have to know where to go approximately
Travelling:
Driving on the left is not as complicated as it sounds ;)
But in the South you will get some really narrow streets.
The best way to explore the whole country in some weeks is a Camper.
The streets are mostly suitable for a Camper and the Cities are such small, that it’s no problem driving there EXCEPT Wellington.
I would not recommend to drive a car there at all, because of the construction sites and the huge amount of traffic.
Another well known way is Backpacking, but you need time for this.
A
“normal” car is also fine. On nearly every camping place you can also rent
little huts for a good price.
For sure you find also a lot of Motels, but Hotels only in the bigger cities.
Train – very bad idea. No infrastructure with trains
Bus – very inflexible and also not well structured
Buy a car – for a longer (2 months) stay definitely a good idea
Additional notes about renting/using a Camper:
A travel guide is very helpful. Everyone I saw (including us) bought the lonely Planet which is an excellent help for everything.
There are different companies to rent Campers, but the price also tells you how old the camper will be.
Brand new campers can be find with Appollo, then Kea and then all others.
We had an Appollo Camper which was new and perfectly well equipped.
There are three options you will be asked, when getting the camper.
Normally you have to pay 7500$ as safety. This will be charged from you Credit Card – and this twice; when you will get your money back.
There are two other options.
Only pay 2500$ but 20$ a day to Appollo or 30$ a day and nothing as safety. In this 30$ deal you have tires and windscreen damages, and also some other minor stuff included.
We took the second option but in the end it wouldn’t be bad to take the third one, because the risk to damage the tires or windscreen is quite high.
Also now charges with your credit card. So maybe also ask your travel agent about this.
You should have a Camper with toilet because there are a lot of possibilities to camp somewhere in nature. These spots are perfectly located.
We had a 7m Camper, which was a little bit strange in the beginning but no problem after some days. The advantage of this camper was that it has the normal width like a regular Van.
One bottle of gas will be enough for 4 weeks
Water can be refilled at the dump stations all around the country for free.
Most important – a good map with in official camping spots. ( normally you will get some )
Be aware about thefts. Campers are a liked target, special in the north. In south it’s not a real problem, till now.