New Zealand Thread
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You are currently reading a thread in /trv/ - Travel
You are currently reading a thread in /trv/ - Travel
Started planning a trip to New Zealand for about a month, was hoping some anons would give me advice.
Was wondering what people have used for getting around. The scenic bus and train passes seem good. Has anyone tried the Stray hop on - hop off thing? Traveling alone so vehicle rental is kind of expensive with no one to split.
Plan to hit both islands, is there any places anyone would recommend? Not really into big cities and going clubbing, want to relax and see cool scenery and shit. I also like beaches. Please share your experiences.
>>1087983
Just hitch hike and buy a tent. Its safe and easy.
Inb4 not a real traveller blabla
The Kiwi Experience is the way to go. It's great, i did it 5 months ago, both islands for a month and i fucking loved it.
Anyway, Stray and Kiwi Experience literally go to the same places, but the Stray bus is smaller and usually more autistic. On our Kiwi bus we were 45 people, the driver was hilarious, we were drinking like 4 days a week, everyone was loving it, everything was great. And the Stray bus (the gay bus) were sometimes at the same hostel as us, and while we were 20 people drinking we would see the Stray group, which was like 6 people, drinking orange juice and eating sweets and playing Uno.
So it depends on who you are as a person, maybe i was lucky to get in such a great group but i was just like you debating which bus to go on and im so fucking glad i chose Kiwi. Its called the Big Green Fuck Bus for a reason aswell.
Feel free to ask whatever you wanna know about it.
>>1088109
im spending a school semester in NZ and il probbably have a few weeks in NZ before school starts. Is The Kiwi Experience a good way to see NZ or is it mostly just a party bus?
>>1088109
That's exactly the opposite that i'm looking for.
Stray: very nature/sightseeing focused, no pub crawls, more educational, a bit stiff people, a lot of hiking trails and photo opportunities. mostly Germans and Northern Europeans.
Kiwi Experience: mostly young gap year party tourists, drinking is most popular activity, everyone ends up fucking everyone, party every day, party all the time. Mostly Brits and Americans.
>>1088134
Its not just a party bus like >>1088195
says, while all of NZ is beautiful, the Kiwi bus stops at all the "famous" sites like Taupo (for Tongariro crossing), Franz Josef Glacier, Wanaka, Queenstown and several others, it's also hop on/hop off so if you feel like you want to stay at a place for longer you just jump off the bus and jump on the next one which is two days after (theres shitloads of kiwi buses) and its up to you if you want to participate in the partying activities. I would have enjoyed just seeing all the sites and the insane scenery but all the good company made it unforgettable.
To sum it up, its a just as good way as Stray to see NZL. You stop to take photos, stop for shorter hikes, driver tells you whatever you need to know about everything. The main difference will be that the Kiwi bus has average age from 18-25 and the Stray is pretty much 20-40 and more quiet.
I'm in the process of buying tickets to NZ at the moment. Just waiting for the right price, I plan on going in mid-September for a month. I missed a great deal on a ticket, was $932 from Canada, now I see $994 for the same ticket. I'm going to keep an eye on the tickets for a few more weeks and if it doesn't change I'll book them at his price.
Anyways, I haven't really started planning yet but I have a few spots I want to hit. From my understanding, there are a lot of communication options in NZ that are fairly cheap. This is why I see something like >>1088109 to be a waste of time. If I wanted to be carted around from location to location I would just watch a travel show on NZ instead. It's nothing to do with RealTraveler™. these sort of bus tours are really unnecessary especially for NZ, I guess I could understand them more for places like Africa which don't have clear tourist trails.
Anways, Anyone know what I should expect the country to be like in September weather wise? It seems like the temperatures are all fairly low that time of the year.
>>1088232
Spoken like you lost your virginity on the tour.
The kiwi bus is like, literally random XD and hilars if your mom gave you 10 grand to spend on the best vaycay evah and you like doing totally wacky and random stuff like pub crawls in matching T shirts you draw on (OMG totally mental rite XDDDDD). If you're a guy you can totes bone the same girl as 12 of your busmates and if you're a girl you can totes transform your minge into a double Lane highway amirite XDDDD.
If you are older than 19 and feel like stopping at scenic places for longer than 5 minutes, gaining some kind of knowledge of history and culture, being awake during daylight hours, and interacting with locals, take the Stray bus. Hikes, tours, guides, museums, and the occasional retreat exclusive to Stray make for an experience you'll actually remember with no blank spots.
>>1088405
are you trying to convince me not to take the party bus?
>>1088405
Yeah, you don't sound bitter at all dude
>>1088413
Sure, for more experienced travelers it's probably a chore- but for new guys (who tend to ask places like /trv/ for advice) it can actually be a pretty fun experience. Some other anon in another thread is doing it as well seeing as it's his first time abroad ever, and IMO a tour bus aimed at young people is a cool and fun way to get people into traveling.
Another first timer trying to plan a trip.
Me and a mate are thinking of hiring a campervan for 2 months and touring both islands at our leisure. We've both been saving for a while so money isn't too much of an issue, though I'd rather not spend more than necessary.
Do you think we'll be missing out too much on the social side of the islands? Our plan is to park up somewhere for a few days in the sticks, go on long hikes, pack up and go into towns/cities for a week, hit the bars and leave again for the countryside. Rinse and repeat. We were thinking about kiwi tours but thought that two months on a coach is suicide fuel.
Any thoughts/hate would be great as I have no idea what I'm getting myself into.
>>1088804
If you hit up bars and a few hostels in between your hikes, you get plenty of NZ nightlife I'd imagine.
The Kiwi Tours seem like they might be a bit of a slog at 2 months, but the nice thing about them is you can hop off at any stop and hang out for a few days and check stuff out, and then hop on another kiwi tour bus passing through.
I'm going on a Kiwi tour at the end of this month for my first time abroad (that doesn't involve work, at least) and it seemed like it'd be a good idea. Keep in mind they do have a reputation for being party busses as other anons have pointed out.
But if you go through with the campervan idea, it seems like it'd be just fine. You'll get a good taste of both the natural beauty and the nightlife as long as you figure out where you want to go and what you want to do I reckon
dropping a 2k on a bus ticket sounds a bit rough.
what's the cheapest way to travel in NZ preferably on both islands?
>>1090072
>>1090072
You can buy a car for less than that, and here's why:
Okay so in Japan they have the opposite system from the West, they actually tax older cars at a higher bracket to incentivise new car purchases. On top of that, real estate is such that junkyards are few and far between.
So what do you do with a car that is costing you a fortune in taxes that would cost another 500 just to demolish?
>Ship it to new Zealand!
Lots of kiwi companies just have fully functional older cars signed over to them for pennies in Japan and just pay the shipping. They sell em for what they can get on the side of the road, repeat the drill. A lot of hiaces, coronas, hiluxes, older civics and elantras.
>but why should I buy a car built before 1994?
Same reason they last so long in Cuba: no road salt, no harsh winters, no deserts and no long road trips/places to speed. On top of it, it's a nation of car enthusiasts, everyone over 12 knows how to rebuild a tranny.
So that 1000 dollar 1987 hyundai pony hatchback sitting on the side of the road has never seen snow, never seen road salt, hasn't been topped out, had regular oil changes and maintenance and driven by a guy who can tell what's wrong with a car just by listening. It'll be a good car.
Honestly if you pay more than 3000 USD for a used van in NZ, youre paying the tourist tax, especially if it's from some German who himself got bamboozled by some Maori from Mangere. Do not bother with "campervan" ads posted in hostels, they are targeted at stupid Germans.
>TL:DR
Just buy a cheap as car
>>1090141
Oh yeah, insurance is optional
>>1090141
Do you know the costs of things like taxes on the car purchase and insurance? If I were to go to NZ for like 6 weeks lets say, If I bought a car for 1000-1200 and then sold it quickly when leaving even for like half that, I think it would still be cheaper than paying for public transport. Especially if I picked up other backpackers who would pitch in for gas.
>>1090166
From what I remember they were incredibly lax perhaps owing to the assumption that everyone is a good driver who settles their disputes in cash. As well, public transport is shoddy so there's an understanding that owning a vehicle is fairly mandatory.
Licensing costs:
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/licensing-rego/vehicle-fees/licensing-fees/
Registration costs:
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/licensing-rego/vehicle-fees/registration-fees/
And insurance isn't required... So it looks like you're talking 200 kiwi bucks which is what, 100 euro? It's fuck all bro. Get driving
>>1090167
Interesting, thanks. I was originally planning on going to NZ for 4 weeks but I might just increase that to 6 and make purchasing the car a lot more worth it. Buy a car in Auckland, sell it when I'm in Queenstown to another backpacker. Hmm, now I have a lot of thinking to do.
A
>>1090141
I dont completely agree. I bought a car in auckland about a year ago.
The thing you need is quality, so you want to inspect a lot of cars. If you look for a hatchback in a specific price segment, or a van, which i didnt do, you will mostly encounter backpacker cars from backpackers.
Most cars will be in horrible condition. No oil, head gasket failure etc.
The number od cars kiwis are selling will be rather small. And then you want to minimize your time in auckland, because its expensive as fuck. I spent 2 weeks looking for a good car, could have just bought a more expensive one.
Selling in Queenstown might not be that easy. People buy a car when they land either in chch or auckland , so its a niche market there. Its also expensive to live , so driving to chch or even auckland might be a good idea.
>>1090235
>2015
>falling for the A meme
B.
Anyone wanting to travel cheaply I'd recommend NakedBus or ManaBus. They are both inter-city bus companies that you can get extremely cheap tickets for, especially on sale. I've used NakedBus many times. A ticket from Auckland to Wellington (about 600km) costs around $35, and they often do "dollar deals" to fill empty seats on the day of departure.
You could travel the whole country and make all the major stops for less than $250.
The Inter Islander ferry is another option, Wellington - Picton (North Island to South Island) is $55 for a passenger if I remember correctly. If you were to hire a car, getting it across the strait on the Inter Islander is expensive ($200) and even worse if you have a campervan. If your really running on a cheap budget, I wouldn't recommend buying and selling a car. On the bright side, the price of petrol is on a 10 year low at the moment, which is nice...
>>1090362
Would you have any estimations for a 2 month NZ trip budget from North to South? Would 3k euros or about 5k NZD be enough? The flights alone cost over 1k euros.
>>1090362
(Same guy) Just wanna encourage safe driving on New Zealand roads if your a tourist.
Tourists are stereotyped here for dangerous driving and causing fatal accidents, It happens more often than you'd think, I see it on the news all the time.
If you are a right-side driver and have no experience driving on the left, I recommend some training or there are tests you can do in NZ. So many crashes are caused by tourists driving on the right hand side (the wrong side) and straight into oncoming traffic, please be careful.
Also just a warning that our national State Highway system is vastly different to anything you get in the North America or Asia. Our highways are only 2 lanes - one in each direction - and getting larger only for passing lanes or when your in a city.
There are many areas, particularly in the South Island, where 2 lanes becomes only one. These are generally one lane bridges, tunnels and when in mountainous terrain. Sometimes you will drive across bridges that share both road and rail (image linked). Our state highways can get very windy and mountainous too, as we dont tend to 'cut through' the land, instead we build around/over it. Expect there to be many tight and narrow corners, where the ideal speed limit is only 20 kmph.
Just a warning. Ive spoken to a lot of tourists who tell me how shocked they were by our national State Highway system... thought people could use this!
>>1090363
It depends on what you want to do when you get here. I would put aside at least $1500 NZD for doing activities, especially if your into adventure tourism.
A weeks worth of groceries for 2 (what I spend) is around $100 - $150, or $1000-ish for 2 months worth.
If your hiring a car, current petrol price is hovering around $1.70 per litre, a typical 40 litre
tank costs around $70 to fill up. You might do that 7-8 times if your travelling the whole country, so $500 for that. That would leave you with $2k NZD for accommodation. Do you want hotels, motels, backpackers? etc. That part is up to you really...
>>1090380
>$100-150 a week
If you eat nothing but pasta and tomato sauce, it's possible, but realistically you should budget about $200 NZD per person per week. That'll make sure you eat enough nutritional stuff like beef, beans, fruit and vegetables, and that you can occasionally grab a pie or a pizza when you can't be bothered to cook.
How can you have any fun on vacation if you're not eating proper?
>>1090380
I was thinking about hitchhiking or cheap intercity buses and hiking my way around NZ. I'm not really into partying that much, more of a nature type, although i do enjoy the drink.
I presume there are plenty of hostels and backpackers all around NZ, so what kind of prices are we talking here? 20 bucks a night?
be careful with the country roads.. especially their bridges.. some of them are so fucked up.
one day they will get with the times end build more two lane bridges.
>>1090362
Thank you anon. I'm going to NZ at the end of the year and this is exactly what I wanted to hear
>>1090392
20-30 depending on the size of the room.
Definitely go for 4 bed dorms. You don't want the 12 bed party dorms
>>1090362
>>1090374
I think it depends on how long someone is going there. If it's just a few weeks then obviously it's not worth buying a car and better to just take buses. But if someone is going for an extended period then they can see a lot more of the country with a car. Those buses you mentioned will only get you from city to city, and not to specific destinations. Or if they do you really have to spend a long time waiting for connections. I think ultimately you go to NZ for the scenery, nature, hiking, camping, and the general outdoors, I have no fucking clue why you would want to go there over other countries. And the outdoors are usually difficult to get to by public transport.
On top of that if you're that kind of person/people, you can sleep in the car and save on accommodation which can negate the cost of gas.
It's also my understanding that buying a car is super easy and there are a lot of markets in the bigger cities. And also markets specifically targeting backpackers with somewhat higher prices but that make buying and selling cars easy and convenient. Plus you can also get lucky and find another backpacker in the hostel you're in selling theirs or wanting to buy yours.
>>1090362
A 45-minute Jetstar flight from Auckland to Wellington costs $35 as well, you'd be nuts to waste a whole day on the bus.
>>1090683
I hate when people say shit like this. You get dinged on luggage these days which can easily making it 70 or more with taxes in
Does anybody have experience hiking in NZ?
Would it be possible to hike the whole of NZ in three months?
>>1090694
I have hiking experience in New Zealand. There is the Te Araroa walking track which covers the entire length of New Zealand. Possibly it could be done it three months but it would be a world record if you did. For reference, I did the south Island in 52 days with a few rest days. I haven't done the North Island yet.
>>1090695
Hadn't heard of that trail, looks amazing!
Looks like it should be done in two parts though.
How do different New Zealand cities compare? I'm planning to start off and work in Wellington before exploring the rest of the country
>>1090768
Christchurch is really depressing because of the damage leftover from the earthquake. Invercargill is a bogan shit hole. I slept in my car in Dunedin for a month and I think it rained everyday, really grey, bleak city. Queenstown felt like mostly young foreigners getting drunk. Auckland catches a lot of shit but it's clean/safe and has a nightlife that a lot of NZ lacks. These are just cities I spent at least a month in/around but I can't say any cities in NZ were anything to write home about.
>>1090695
>Possibly it could be done it three months but it would be a world record if you did.
Jez Bragg did it in 53 days
>>1090801
So Auckland is the only decent one but somehow has a bad rep?
>>1090828
A lot of other foreigners I met in NZ disliked Auckland for various reasons and kiwis calling aucklanders jafas but I thought it was an alright city. Most of the cities in NZ are decent just boring.
>>1090768
I thought Wellington was very comfy. Auckland doesn't deserve the rap it gets but it did seem a bit different from the rest of north island.
>>1090926
Auckland had the strangest vibe in that it was very sprawling, easily one of the largest areas for a city I've ever been in. It just seemed to extend forever. The downtown is actually not gigantic, it has everything a big city should but it felt way more intimate. Definitely had the feeling of a tourist trap, Victoria Street was littered with hostels and tourist traps. Outside of the downtown which was walkable in an hour, it was just never ending suburbia and sub suburbia and cute little neighborhoods and public parks that just went on forever. It was comfy AF.
Wellington had a bigger tourist footprint, I mean, realistically nowhere doesn't, as it's one of the largest industries there, they market it well. But it seemed like wellington was 75% the tourist tract and the other 25% was just tucked away in the downtown.
>>1087983
OP if you're still around (sorry I haven't read through the thread yet), but when you do come around, we could plan a trip to Mt Ruapehu/Tongariro. Either meet there or drive together. I live in Auckland, it's like a 5 hour drive from here. I'm going anyway, muh /p/hotography.
