Greetings-
I am planning on driving from Queenstown to Greymouth to catch the Transalpine train. I have 1 or 2 nights available to stay in the Fox/ Franz Josef glacier area. I would appreciate any suggestions on where to stay, how many nights is best, what glacier to spend time visiting, etc. Any input would be appreciated.
Cheers.
My Personal preference is Fox, but Franz Josef is also good and
relatively closer to Greymouth.
Currently the departure tax is NZ$25 per adult (over 12) and collected at the airport on departure - pay at the bank branches, or some airlines will handle it at their premium desks (only). Visitors who stay in NZ less than 24 hours can collect an exemption sticker upon proof (ie inward boarding pass). From 1 July 2008 the tax rises to NZ$26, charged as NZ$13 arrival tax and NZ$13 departure tax, and will be collected at time of ticket issue.
I used to work at the US Embassy in WLG & with my dip pp, the departure tax was waived, so I don't know much about the departure tax. In a few weeks Mrs & I are cruising from SYD to AKL. Any clue how / when the arrival tax will be paid? Perhaps it is already in the slew of taxes, etc on our cruise ticket. I suppose we will be popped for the $13NZ departure tax when we go to AKL AP?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nzpilot
I used to work at the US Embassy in WLG & with my dip pp, the departure tax was waived, so I don't know much about the departure tax. In a few weeks Mrs & I are cruising from SYD to AKL. Any clue how / when the arrival tax will be paid? Perhaps it is already in the slew of taxes, etc on our cruise ticket. I suppose we will be popped for the $13NZ departure tax when we go to AKL AP?
Great thread!
nzpilot,
As per the quote you have used from Kiwi Flyer, the departure and arrival taxes are now paid as part of the ticket purchase.
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North Island stopover help
I need some help on my kinda short trip in mid March '09.
I'll arrive from NRT on the 22nd and leave bound to RAR on the 27th.
Here is my plan so far:
22nd arrival in AKL from NRT at 12:35PM
23rd Auckland
24th morning flight AKL-TUO (Taupo); see Huka Falls ; sleep in Taupo
25th Craters of the Moon ; spare time? scenic flight?
26th morning flight TUO-AKL; see more of AKL
27th AKL to RAR leaving 11:25AM
Don't get me wrong but I believe I won't need too much time in AKL so the schedule is somewhat sub-optimal (Waiheke Island is my choice if I have to 'kill' a day in AKL).
Is the 'Hot Bus' good enough to get around in the Taupo area to/from Huka Falls and Craters of the Moon?
How much time should I allow for Craters of the Moon if I leave from Taupo?
My idea would be to leave Taupo on the 25th in the evening and head to a different place.
I thought on changing the trip to this
24th AKL-TUO; Huka Falls
25th Craters of the Moon; late flight to WLG
26th WLG
27th early WLG-AKL flight to catch my AKL-RAR trip
I don't want to miss the AKL-RAR award flight but with flights leaving WLG every 30 minutes in the morning I believe I shouldn't get in trouble if I take a morning flight, right?
Instead of WLG Napier sounds interesting as well. I want to catch a Beech 1900 flight (AKL-TUO is one) and do not mind hopping around a bit. Coming from Euro-land flights are cheap right now anyway
I already know that I'll do a long trip to New Zealand in the future exploring the scenery on the South Island so unless there is a quick and easy way to get to a major attraction I rather skip it and slow down a bit.
Thanks in advance and thanks for the whole master thread!
But I would like to ask... We are considering driving Milford road to Milford Sound, instead of taking a tour bus or flight from Queenstown. Our travel will be in 2 weeks from today, so hopefully weather will be on our side. We only have 2 and 1/2 days scheduled in our trip for Queenstown, and this looks to be a full day trip. In your experience, with the limited schedule, is it better to take the structured tour by coach or flight, or better to drive ourselves?
selfdrive
+ can choose time to avoid crowds
+ can decide to walk some trails or other spur of moment stuff
- tiring day (road requires a lot of attention)
- may miss some sights
+ or - don't get the commentary from bus driver/pilot
+ (for some) driving an interesting road
flying
- dependant on weather, with just 2 1/2 days in Queenstown odds are 50-50 at best
+ can do half-day instead of full day
bus
pros and cons basically reverse of self-driving
I don't want to miss the AKL-RAR award flight but with flights leaving WLG every 30 minutes in the morning I believe I shouldn't get in trouble if I take a morning flight, right?
Only if there is a major problem (eg fog in either Auckland or Wellington). Not much chance of this happening.
NZ short (9 day) coach tours - Mainland - your opinions, please!
G'day - just a quick poll of Kiwis and frequent visitors - and hopefully people with experience setting up elderly folk on NZ coach tours.
I've narrowed down the options, for mother in law and her sister, to four recommended coach tour operators.
We're getting them from Europe to Sydney, where they will be with us a week to acclimatise and relax, then get them over to Christchurch.
These relatives are not experienced travellers, are mid-late 70s women who are healthy and mobile but who are not keen to go on long hikes (which I'd guess FTers would personally prefer to do on the scenic NZ west coast).
I don't think the generally unimpressive coach tour standard accommodation will be problematic for them. Hotel quality seems to be one differentiating factor for some tour operators (as well as small group tours on some dates).
Here is our ranking (so far) of the four tour operators recommended by an ex-travel agent friend (she sent her own elderly mother on a mainland tour last year):
[Note that these are short-ish tours rather than the 4 week grand tours]
* Kirra has pretty much the same tour as Evergreen, but works out much cheaper if boought in NZD directly online co.nz, plus has better dates.
** We'd do this if going ourselves (sofitel etc) but they are still coach oriented and given they are usually 1nt stays I don't think missing these is too much of a loss (or $$$ saving)
*** Too much was cut out' options make it add up to be a hassle
[All four are around 8 days 'touring' duration, excluding start/end nights]
Another person with a FT association, who is also a travel agent, gave me some feedback too, so I'm just looking for that little bit more.
On TripAdvisor I checked the hotels used by each tour company and they range from average to below average in most cases, except APT uses higher grade hotels. But honestly it's not going to be enough to pay 50%+ more given the fact that all the others seem to use the same hotels.
As I mentioned, they are not accustomed to lots of hotel stays nor 4 or 5 star hotels, so I'm not worried.
However I'd love to read your comments on:
The relative merits of these southern-circle style tours
(note the top 2 include the TranzAlpine, Milford Sound cruise, all meals and Glacier tours).
Last question:
It's a good deal cheaper to buy online in NZD than locally in AUD.
Will this be possible to do or get around, so I can get the NZD rate?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiwi Flyer
Departure Tax
Currently the departure tax is NZ$25 per adult (over 12) and collected at the airport on departure - pay at the bank branches, or some airlines will handle it at their premium desks (only). Visitors who stay in NZ less than 24 hours can collect an exemption sticker upon proof (ie inward boarding pass). From 1 July 2008 the tax rises to NZ$26, charged as NZ$13 arrival tax and NZ$13 departure tax, and will be collected at time of ticket issue.
Work in progress. Please bear with me. Thank you.
zzz
This has now changed as the 1st July 2008 has passed.
Can anyone point in to the relavent government webpage I can use to refer to this? I'd like to clarify whether a connection within 24 hours but on seperate tickets or a turnaround of less than 24 hours still requires the tax to be paid. It will be collected by the airlines when ticketed but wondering whether I can claim it back some how.
There is no simple way to claim back tax paid on separate tickets with NZ transit under 24 hours. If arriving and departing international flights are on the same airline and the ticketing airline is also the same on both tickets, then try claiming from them.
Otherwise I think you are SOL.
Please note the tax paid at ticketing only applies to AKL (which also has arrival tax). All other NZ international airports collect departure tax at the airport.
NZ short (9 day) coach tours - Mainland - your opinions, please!
