Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Another NZ thread - Auckland

Hi all,

I've got about 9 days to cover NZ in early June, and I'm bent towards spending all those days on the north island. I'm trying to get an estimate of the cost to do this trip, so any help would be helpful:

Car rental - NZ$850 for 9 days 4x4 avis
Accomodation - NZ$1350 (9xNZ$150)
Gas - NZ$400 (any good?)
Food - NZ$300

Total = NZ$2900

Is this a realistic estimate, or will I blow it? I'm not sure if 9 days to enough to see much of NZ sights. Comtemplating whether I should take a few days and fly to CHC. Should I do it, or cover the south islands next time round. Any input is appreciated.

Thanks!

You do not have enough time to do either island with any material coverage.

You have not put any costs in for entertainment (fees, charges), or gifts or contingencies.

Why the 4x4? Cars are cheaper. If you are looking to save some money do it here. Stick shift, compact and diesel.

Your set aside for motels it too high, if you are traveling around. Really only Auckland and Wellington get these rates. Do some web searches.

Fuel cost have to do with the amount you drive, the mileage your vehilce gets and where you buy your fuel. No comment on your numbers.

Food is understated as far as I can tell. A nice dinner could blow your daily allowance easily!! If you "make" your own meals at motel and "bag it during the day, then maybe.

Maybe someone else will opine?

Consider looking into a carvan. They let you drive. Stay at mixed service "resorts", have cooking facilities and you can sleep in it. This should work for a person alone (I assume that from your food numbers). They are fairly popular.

Your total is fine -- more than enough -- but the distribution is all wrong. You can have nice accomodation for NZD 1000 total. You have zero need for a 4x4 (all the places that you are allowed to drive it don't require 4 wheel drive, and you really should not go to the prohibited places, like 90 mile beach, for lots of reasons). You could get a small car for half that price (also doubling your mileage).
In nine days you can either do a long circuit (lots of driving but interesting) or short circuit, but only of the North Island. Recommend something like Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Northland, Auckland, Thames, Rotorua, Napier, wellington, Auckland as your route for the long circuit, but it is really pushing it for 9 days. The short circuit cuts out everything north of Auckland (so you have 3 extra days in Rotorua/Napier/Wellington). I once did both islands in 20 days and that was very rushed (but I wanted to know where to go on future visits). NZ is a great place to visit and has an astonishing amount of diversity.

I agree your total is fine. We rented a car from a local company (not a chain) and it was dirt cheap. The roads in New Zealand are very good and 4X4 is not necessary. Everything actually was quite inexpensive. We had lunch one day for three for US$10 - it wasn't a fancy lunch but was one medium cheese pizza, two veggie burgers, three chocolate shakes and a brownie. At home we'd pay that much for the three shakes. Activities were inexpensive too. We did a helicopter ride over Lake Taupo and Rotorua and it was about a third the price you pay for rides in Hawaii. I think you'll do fine. The only things that ran up our New Zealand total were all the art and major appliances we bought.

Ummmm, major appliances?

JP

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by letiole:
I agree your total is fine. We rented a car from a local company (not a chain) and it was dirt cheap. The roads in New Zealand are very good and 4X4 is not necessary. Everything actually was quite inexpensive. We had lunch one day for three for US$10 - it wasn't a fancy lunch but was one medium cheese pizza, two veggie burgers, three chocolate shakes and a brownie. At home we'd pay that much for the three shakes. Activities were inexpensive too. We did a helicopter ride over Lake Taupo and Rotorua and it was about a third the price you pay for rides in Hawaii. I think you'll do fine. The only things that ran up our New Zealand total were all the art and major appliances we bought.</font>

I guess with 9 days to cover AKL is like wishful thinking, but I'm just whetting my appetite for NZ, and do plan on returning again in the summer.

There are actually 4 people in my travelling party, and I'm trying to plan for a budget trip. All of us will be cramming into 1 room, so my plan is to get good hotels, and then upgrade the room.

As for the car, I did a reprice on a compact with Avis (9days) for NZ$573. I didn't include any of the insurance options. Are most cars in NZ automatics or stickshift? I will be in serious trouble if it is the latter.

As for food, most likely we'll go for simple fare =&gt; fast food, although we will most likely sink into some good food a few times. Ranles, can you give an idea what a
nice dinner will run up to? Any food recommendations?

letiole, about the helicopter ride, how much did it cost? I've been thinking of going up in one of these creatures....the other fetish I have is hot air ballon http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/biggrin.gif

Any itineary recommendation where I can cover in 9 days is much appreciated.

Thanks everyone. I will get this estimate out ot my friends, so at least they have a ballpark figure to work out on.

Cars are manual unless specified as automatic. Shifting with the left hand is great fun. Even more fun is turning on wipers instead of turn signals. With 4 of you the best car to get is a Toyota Corolla and that would be available in automatic for a small surcharge. As for prices, they are low for most things (assume half the US price and you will err on the high side). Gasoline is expensive as are imported goods, but the local food is fabulous quality and the specialities are worth seeking out. For example some of the best honey in the world is harvested in NZ.

I can't recall what I paid for the helicopter ride - I know I bought a package that included the jet boat ride down the river. The helicopter was far cheaper than I've seen it anywhere else though and the scenery was spectacular - boiling mud, a Maori carving on a cliffside on the lake. For some reason I keep thinking we spent about US $80 pp for both and we purchased a longer helicopter ride, so you could do it for less. We stayed in wonderful places outside Auckland and I don't think we could have spent more than $100 a night if we tried. We did spend US $17 to go zorbing - they roll you down a hill inside a big inflated ball. That's pretty fun. We did the Tongariro crossing and stayed at the beautiful old hotel in the park there. We had dinner in their dining room and ordered their priciest champagne and it came to about NZ $150 for three. I'd hit Rotorua, Taupo, Waitomo Caves (the place where the glowworms are), and in the north the Bay of Islands.

JP wrote:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Ummmm, major appliances?</font>

Yeah, let's just say their ovens, cooktops and vent hoods were a lot cheaper too. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/biggrin.gif


[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 05-22-2003).]

That is your budget for 4 people???????

Now, the car price is closer, forget the 4x4 but you will need a larger car for 4 people and luggage, and you will be cramped!!! You also need to insist and reinterage that you must have an automatic (if that is the case), be sure!!! Check your confirmation.

You must budget some money for doing things!!! Too much temptation and valuable experiences cost something, not much, but something.

The food budget is too small for 1 person, so I cannot believe this could be for 4. Dinner at the better hotels can easily cost $50-70NZ. Avoid those and drinks, and you can share pizzas, subs and potatoe chips and get buy cheaper, On the cheap, #40NZpp/day might be available. It has been a few years sense we went and we had RC in Hyatt for 6 nights (breakfast and snacks for dinner), ate a nice dinner in the Sheraton in Rotorua. Dined on a reasonable priced fish dinner in Wellington (twice). At on the cheap in Taupo. Booze hit us fairly hard. But even lunch at the zoo, with two glasses of wine was $35NZ. With the weak $ things could only be more expensive.

As for your 9 days, I would skip the bay of islands. Concentrate a couple day on Auckland, down the West Coast for some variety, then across to Lake Taupo, Rotorua (Waitomo caves), Napier and on back to Auckland.

You will miss the capital, Wellington (one of the more expensive places) but you can catch it on the next trip as it is just a ferry jump from South Island... You will also miss a great museum Te Papa..too bad. An alternative is to avoid any Auckland, and do Bay of Islands, the above places and Wellington. This routes says, forget Auckland, we have to land here next time anyway, so we will do it then. Losses, museums, zoos, history, botanical gardens, etc.

The way you suggest the group is your friends, then I assume the 4 are all adults. Many motels are quite reasonable and you may well be able to get two rooms, to be more comfortable. The motels, small independents are great. Lots of personal love goes into running them. Many an owner sat with us as we pet there dogs and had their cats in our room.

Get some tour broshures to give you a better idea of where things are that interest you. There is plenty to do, but our suggestions are based on our experience and interests. You need to use yours. There are also great web sites, use your search engine. "New Zealand attractions". Replace attractions with motels and you will find the current rates in any city you may be considering. Replace with rental cars, and you will find the difference in costs for the various sizes of cars.

The main highways are well paved. The only problem is the high speed the locals travel and the problems they have with drunk drivers and agressive passers (as do several countries, including USA) on these one lane each way highways.

Here are my suggestions if you're on a really tight budget. I still think you can do this even for four people or at least come pretty close. Rent your car from one of the locally owned companies that rents vehicles that are four years old or so. You can get a medium-sized car for about NZ $39 from a company such as Payless Rentals. They'll even deliver to the airport or your hotel in Auckland. Check out some of the companies on this site and compare prices. I always find I can save lots by renting from independent companies and I often get better service too. That alone will free up about NZ $500 over what you originally planned.
http://www.yellowpages.co.nz/all-categories/automotive/general-services/rental-vehicles/

Outside Auckland you should have no problems getting rooms for NZ $100 for the four of you, especially given that you're going in June.

Food is always more expensive at hotels, so don't eat at hotels. We drank at a yacht club one evening and beers were just US $1 each.

I agree with the advice to not pass up the activities. That really made the trip for us.

The only bad thing about your plans is that you do know in June it rains 19 days out of the month. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/frown.gif

Good luck and have fun.

Cooktops? Ovens? Vent hoods? http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/eek.gif

I'm going in August, and hope to bring back maybe a wool sweater!

I second getting the car rental with a local agency. I got a great deal with Scotties:

http://www.scotties.co.nz/

JP

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by letiole:
[B]
The only bad thing about your plans is that you do know in June it rains 19 days out of the month. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/frown.gif
[B]</font>

ok, that i didn't know. With the exception of food, the rest will be split among the 4 of us.

Which is a good month to visit NZ then? What about early dec? Are there any good fares out of NZ to Europe or US late in the year?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ws8n:
[/B]
Which is a good month to visit NZ then? What about early dec? Are there any good fares out of NZ to Europe or US late in the year?[/B]</font>
November through to April are best months to come, although avoid Xmas/New Year as places will be crammed & prices go up.

Re food prices, you can eat pretty well for less than $20 pp a day easily even in AKL (Asian food courts are especially good value with hot meals around NZ$6). A decent Thai/Malay etc dinner in a 'real' restaurant will be around NZ$15 pp.

Flight prices are pretty uniform and the high season starts mid-Dec. Some websites to check flights include www.travel.co.nz (http://www.travel.co.nz) and www.travelonline.co.nz (http://www.travelonline.co.nz)