I wanted to write some final thoughts
following our New Zealand adventure of 18 days. Hopefully what we have learned
during our self-directed travel will help you if you decide to travel to New
Zealand for your own adventure.
Calling New Zealand
I am adding this information because I just got my AT&T telephone bill that charged me $125.00 for 25 minutes of calls to New Zealand. This is $5.00/minute and when I called to ask about it, I was told it was because I do not have and International Calling Plan, only unlimited Long Distance in the USA. So...if you are planning on talking to people in New Zealand to plan your adventure, please get yourself an International Calling Plan. I really detest AT&T who goes out of their way to rape their customers. Ignorance is not bliss in this situation!
Getting There
We were very happy with our direct flight
from San Francisco to Auckland using Air New Zealand. We chose to fly in and
out of Auckland since we were planning on exploring both the North and South
Islands of New Zealand and the fare was cheaper than flying in one airport and out of another. We realized that there would be a lot of driving
involved and two ferry transfers to go from the North Island to the South
Island and back. We wanted to see the geography of both islands, but having
driven both islands, I would say that we needed perhaps 5 more days of travel
time to explore the west coast of the South Island. If your travel time is
short, I might recommend flying out of one of the South Island international
airports such as Christchurch, Queenstown, or Dunedin. The cost is a bit more
than flying out of Auckland but you save on the ferry costs and the rental car
gasoline.
Self-Directed Driving
You do not need to sign up with a tour
company that provides self-directed driving tours because all they really do
for you is to arrange hotel stays and admissions to tourist attractions for
you. You can easily arrange these things for yourself and save a lot of money.
You should rent a GPS for your rental car as it makes getting around so much
easier, especially if you are looking for a particular tourist spot or place to
stay. I had toyed with the idea of buying my own GPS and updating it to the New
Zealand maps, but the map upgrade was essentially the same price as just renting
the GPS device with the rental car. The cost was $10 NZD (about $8.00 USD/day). We were very happy with our rental from Avis. They seamlessly
arranged for us to exchange vehicles between the North and South Islands. You
are not allowed to take the rental vehicles onto the ferry. Gasoline costs
are roughly $2 NZD per LITER so you want to have a fuel-efficient vehicle to
travel in. We were given a Mazda initially and then a Toyota Corolla and both
got great mileage. I have not figured the gasoline costs yet for our double
island drive, but I will insert this figure in my post once VISA converts my
costs from $NZD to $USD at my next statement.
You should probably rent a car with a
“boot” (trunk in the USA) so that your travel items are not exposed to
nefarious people. This does not guarantee that your possessions won’t be
stolen, but it at least does not allow everything to be in direct view. You
should also put away your GPS device when you stop as you will be
responsible if it is stolen. The boot of a Toyota Corolla was slightly smaller
than the Mazda, forcing us to put the back seat down flat to make a bit more
room for the suitcases. This isn’t a problem unless you want to give a lift to
to some of the myriad of young trekkers seeking a ride along your route. We felt very safe
in New Zealand so I would not be over-concerned about safety. Common sense
should prevail.
Staying Connected in New Zealand
It is pretty easy to stay connected during
your visit to New Zealand, at least to the Internet. However, most of the
places that you stay, limit data download to a ridiculously low amount such as
100 MB. If your mail downloads in the background and contains images from
friends or others, you can easily exceed this amount of data in short order.
Also, not all places that you stay have fast or reliable Internet connections
so it can be frustrating at times. Even Starbucks in Auckland places download
limits on your connection. That being said, you will find little kiosks along
the roads from Spark, a telecom company. They will allow you a gigabyte per day for free. We would
just park our rental car in the vicinity of the kiosk (old phone booth) and
connect. We did not need any codes or permission to connect our iPad or laptop.
I mentioned in my first blog entry that you
require a cellphone with GSM capabilities to connect to the New Zealand cell
network. Since my Verizon iPhone uses CDMA protocol, I could not use my iPhone
in their country. I solved the problem by purchasing a cheap Nokia X6 Unlocked
GSM phone on Amazon for about $68 USD. I see they are now available new, for
about $48 US dollars. (Type in Nokia X6 in the page’s search)
When we arrived at the Auckland airport,
there was a Vodafone kiosk opposite to the Avis car rental kiosk and I
purchased a SIM card to place in the telephone that gave me plenty of data and
calls within New Zealand for $49 NZD (about $34 USD). In retrospect, I could
have bought the cheaper plan, as I did not use the phone more than a couple of
times, but having that convenience was worth the expense to me. The one thing I
couldn’t figure out until I got home was what the telephone number of the phone
was with the SIM card installed.
Some of the Tourist Spots We Visited
Glowworm Caves
We liked the Waitomo Glowworm Cave and the
Ruakuri Cave. There is a package to see three caves, but two caves are enough as it take 45 minutes to see the Waitomo
Cave with the many luminescent glowworms and it takes a two-hour walk through
the Ruakuri Cave which also gives you exposure to glowworms and a 1/2-mile long limestone
cave. If you had a choice to visit only one cave, I would choose the Ruakuri
cave, but we were glad we did both. If you are adventuresome, you can arrange a
Black Water Adventure Tour that puts you in a wetsuit and lets you float through
the Ruakuri cave.
Otorohanga Kiwi House
I would not suggest a visit to
this tourist attraction as it is extremely difficult to see one of the two Kiwi
birds housed in this place. The enclosure is dimly lit and we had to be
assertive to have staff tap on the enclosure glass to have a bird walk towards
us. The main reason this Kiwi House exists is to preserve rare species in a
protected environment.
Driving Creek Railroad in Coromandel
If you find yourself in this
geographic area, I would recommend that you take a ride on this unique narrow
gage railroad built by an eccentric genius who started as a potter but found a
mission in life to restore the native Kauri trees that used to grow in this area. Barry
Brickell is still alive and laid all of the tracks himself. In addition, he designed the locomotives as well.
I think one night lodging in
Coromandel is sufficient. We stayed two nights in the vicinity of the
Coromandel town in order to explore the Coromandel Peninsula. However, I would
recommend that you find lodging for the second night in perhaps Whitanga, because it is a rather time
consuming drive, back from the Hot Water Beach or Cathedral Cove that are
interesting places to visit. It would be better to stay near those attractions
before moving south to Rotorua.
The Hot Water Beach is an
interesting spot to visit as a tourist because where else might you be able to
dig a hole in the sand near the edge of the low tide water and sit in your
personal hot tub along with an interesting collection of world travelers? Be
sure you bring a spade to dig with but if you don’t have one, someone will lend
you a digging tool once they get their hole dug.
A Boat Tour of the Cathedral Cove
area is the most efficient way to see this spot. You can hike to Cathedral Cove
but it will take you quite awhile and that is all you will see. Our boat tour
with Ken cost $85 NZD pp (about $60 USD/pp) but it was really great and took
about 2 1/2 hours. It can be a bit windy in the afternoon so dress accordingly.
Cathedral Cove Cruises
ph 0800 88 86 88
mob 0275555152
Rotorua
In the vicinity of
Rotorua is the Agrodome. It is a good place to understand the variety of sheep
and cows that form a foundation to the economy of New Zealand. You learn of the
different varieties of sheep that are used for meat or for wool and see how a
sheep is sheared. A visit to the farm shows you the different cattle used for
dairy or for meat. You get to meet the cute sheep and lambs and get up close
with the cattle, llama and alpaca.
The city of Rotorua
is quite touristy, but it is the center of the Maori culture. To better learn of
the original inhabitants of New Zealand, you should visit a Maori Village and
experience a “Hangi”, a typical visitor feast cooked in the ancient method. You
will also see the preserved arts of using flax for clothing and shelter and
games that are played to ready the warriors for battle.
Rotorua is also a
geothermally active area and you can smell the sulphur in the air. You should
visit the Government Gardens and the free Kairau Park to see bubbling hot
springs and mud pits. There is no reason to pay to see a geyser unless you have
never seen one, and seeing one is on your bucket list.
Milford Sound
This area of the
South Island is a highlight for a tourist. If you are a trekker, you will want
to consider planning to do the Milford Track. It takes 5 days and can cost
about $2000 NZD pp but is known as one of the finest treks in the world.
We were just happy to
visit the area and to take a boat ride through the Milford Sound, that in
reality is a Fjord. You must put this on your bucket list! The next time we
visit the South Island Fjordland National Park, we plan to visit Doubtful
Sound. This is a two-day, one night adventure to reach this less visited
fjord.
Wineries
We did not visit any
wineries on this trip because the drinking and driving laws are very strict in
New Zealand. However, we did experience a lot of the New Zealand wines during
our evenings. The Pinot Noir grapes are exceptional in this country and while
the vines are relatively young, the wines are great. There are several
important wine growing regions and we drove through most of them and sampled
wines from each of them. We preferred the Pinot grapes to the Sauvignon varitals. They do have some good Chardonnay wines as well.
Money
Matters
I found that I really
did not need much native currency while in New Zealand. You can use your VISA
card almost everywhere. However it is nice to have perhaps $100 NZD available
to buy coffee or food should this be more convenient to pay in cash. There were
only a couple of times where you could not pay with a credit card.
Tipping is not common
in New Zealand. Tips are not expected in restaurants or other places. I did tip
occasionally when service was exceptional and even then it seemed awkward to
the person to whom I gave the tip. I told them that tipping was customary in
the USA and that I really wanted them to be recognized for their exceptional
service.
The exchange rate
varied from about 1 $NZD = $0.64 to $0.70 $USD during our trip. Many tourist
places have a button that will automatically convert the cost in NZD to USD but
hidden in the receipt is a cost for the conversion. I always elected to pay in
$NZD and to let my VISA company make the conversion. Perhaps they are charging
me each time as well but at least I was consistent.
Souvenirs
In Kaikoura (South
Island), Earline wanted to purchase a jade pendant and some gifts made from
Paua shells for gifts. I had blogged that there was a factory store there and
we thought we were getting better prices than buying elsewhere. It turned out
that prices for the same items were cheaper at the store in the Aukland airport
than in the factory store. This was a disappointing revelation but only
amounted to a several dollar difference per item. Still, be aware that a
factory store may not be cheaper.
Accommodations
Most of the places we
stayed were really quite nice and reasonably priced. We did splurge a bit for
our stay in the Lanarch Castle near Dunedin, but generally the rooms were
priced at about $120 NZD (about $84 USD) and often-included breakfast. Our
initial and final stay at the Hilltop Homestay with Graham and Katrine Patton
was nice because they are gracious hosts, but the room did not have adequate Internet
connection and no TV was provided. I think you might be able to find something
better for the $120 NZD but I doubt you would get breakfast or better
conversation for the price. They are retired school teachers and have a lot to offer the traveler.
I would not recommend
staying at the Capital View Motor Lodge in Wellington. Not only was the Internet
connection very poor and of limited data capacity, but the room was noisy. I
would rate it as adequate for our needs of a night’s lodging before getting on
the Interislander Ferry the following morning. In the future, I would look for something else.
I chose it because I did not know how long it would take to get to the ferry
and to drop off the rental car. The rental car drop off is right at the ferry
terminal so travel time is all that you need to consider in finding a motel or
hotel for the night.
Food
The food in New
Zealand is quite good. Some offerings considered routine to them were strange
to us. The hamburgers are all grass fed beef and are served with a fried egg on top
of salad greens and often included an onion ring or a pickled beet slice (beet
root to them). The lamb and pork belly were great as was their Hokey Pokey ice
cream that includes bits of honeycomb in the mix. Fresh fish abounds and is
very tasty. The cost is quite reasonable for what you get. Their beers are tasty and varied. Coffee is exceptional and is almost always made in an expresso machine. I was not impressed with Starbucks in Auckland. The smaller places make better coffee.
Conclusion
We found the people
of New Zealand to be the most friendly and gracious people we have ever
encountered. Even the drivers are courteous and don’t cut you off to pass you
like they do in the USA. That being said however, they do tend to come up fast
on your tail if you are going too slowly and that unstated maneuver means you
are to pull over to allow them to pass as soon as you can. Most roads are only
two lanes so you have to watch for areas to pull to the side. You drive on the
left side of the road so it takes a day or two before you really get used to this.
Most of their intersections are “round abouts” so you have to look right for
oncoming traffic and you go clockwise around the circle. Roads are generally well marked.
The scenery is breath
taking, the air is clean, graffiti is almost non-existent, the streets are
clean and the people are happy. I could easily live in their country and
assimilate into their way of life. Who knows…?
If you have questions and I can answer them in the comments, I will do so.
If you have questions and I can answer them in the comments, I will do so.
