Holiday in New Zealand

ecdi

Anyone with an idea how much per week you would need for New Zealand, eating in as much as possible, cheap hostels, the usual sights, no boozing..

cheers

celticopia

I used to live there, not sure about hostels but we are looking into a trip back this christmas for a few weeks. A house to rent would be 340 NZD for us, which is the route we are going rather than hostels in Auckland, but, depending on your age, kiwi experience tour bus is a lot of boozing and very young party goers (18-25 ish) and Stray is more of a wider age gap, with great sights and activities, really felt we got to know the country, we loved them and their cost for hop on hop off, hostel accomodation included is pretty reasonable, and its a great way to see the country from personal experience.

I can answer any specific questions if you like if you think of anymore

ecdi

celticopia wrote: »

I used to live there, not sure about hostels but we are looking into a trip back this christmas for a few weeks. A house to rent would be 340 NZD for us, which is the route we are going rather than hostels in Auckland, but, depending on your age, kiwi experience tour bus is a lot of boozing and very young party goers (18-25 ish) and Stray is more of a wider age gap, with great sights and activities, really felt we got to know the country, we loved them and their cost for hop on hop off, hostel accomodation included is pretty reasonable, and its a great way to see the country from personal experience.

I can answer any specific questions if you like if you think of anymore

Thanks! Yea thinking about the bus tour is too. Would you advise on campervan or the bus tour? or mabey both? Im in that age bracket but wont have the $ to be boozing all the time so would like a mixed group. Cheers

celticopia

I looked up campervans for our trip and granted i only checked one company but it was take your breath away expensive. I'd say its good if you have very specific off the beaten track places you are dying to visit, but the stray bus was better and similarly priced to a camper van.

How long are you going for? the 2 week trip round the south island was great, and my now husband did the one week trip around the north island, I think personally I would do both, with a week in between to chill in a main city, either Queenstown, Wellington or Auckland (biased cos I lived in Auckland for 12 years and there really is a lot to do there)

ecdi

celticopia wrote: »

I looked up campervans for our trip and granted i only checked one company but it was take your breath away expensive. I'd say its good if you have very specific off the beaten track places you are dying to visit, but the stray bus was better and similarly priced to a camper van.

How long are you going for? the 2 week trip round the south island was great, and my now husband did the one week trip around the north island, I think personally I would do both, with a week in between to chill in a main city, either Queenstown, Wellington or Auckland (biased cos I lived in Auckland for 12 years and there really is a lot to do there)

Yes have looked at stray, looks good. Cost of campervan includes the bed for the night so thats good, but then take fuel into account dont know which comes out cheaper! Will be there for 3 weeks. Flying in to Auckland and out of christchurch.

Ballyv24

ecdi wrote: »

Yes have looked at stray, looks good. Cost of campervan includes the bed for the night so thats good, but then take fuel into account dont know which comes out cheaper! Will be there for 3 weeks. Flying in to Auckland and out of christchurch.

I was in NZ last December and traveled with my other half in a camper van. We had an amazing time. We did it in 4 weeks, and would have liked an extra week. We flew in and out of Auckland but wish we had gone out of Christchurch because it would have saved the return drive to Auckland

A friend of mine did the trip in the bus and he had a great time too. So you really cant lose.

You will end up spending a lot of money on activities in New Zealand but it is nearly always worth it.

Depending on the time of year that you are going to NZ, you can get some good prices on campervans.. We were there in December so that was unfortunately expensive. But I have heard of people getting campervans for 20NZD a night. Plus there are also some free sites to park your campervans in some towns. Look out for DOC sites

Enjoy!

ecdi

Ballyv24 wrote: »

I was in NZ last December and traveled with my other half in a camper van. We had an amazing time. We did it in 4 weeks, and would have liked an extra week. We flew in and out of Auckland but wish we had gone out of Christchurch because it would have saved the return drive to Auckland

A friend of mine did the trip in the bus and he had a great time too. So you really cant lose.

You will end up spending a lot of money on activities in New Zealand but it is nearly always worth it.

Depending on the time of year that you are going to NZ, you can get some good prices on campervans.. We were there in December so that was unfortunately expensive. But I have heard of people getting campervans for 20NZD a night. Plus there are also some free sites to park your campervans in some towns. Look out for DOC sites

Enjoy!

Will be there in Nov. Bus cud be good to meet other ppl and do activities, but they can be done with campervan. Hard to decide! Both sounds really good anyway..

celticopia

Best of luck with your trip then, and have a blast!

pclancy

Just rent a car and do your own thing, stay at hostels. The cost of campers is massive compard to just hiring cars and staying at hostels. The holiday parks and camper parks are full of older people and families, I'd say it would be better craic at the hostels if you're a young bunch. And I dont mean boozing, just better craic and easier meet people at hostels I found.

www.bbhonline.co.nz lists some great hostels.

If you must go campervanning, I used Juicy when I did it and they were decent. Also they just upgraded their fleet to newer vans.

navilink

Well if you're going alone the best choice will be through bus, specifically hop-on hop-off bus. You'll get to meet a lot of travellers alike. Been with Stray bus before and apart from off-the-beaten sightseeing and activities, you'll have bus drivers that are either informative, crazy, funny etc.

If you're thinking of Stray, they're doing promotion now so check it out. If you ever decided to get their pass, you can use Stray Mate Code KL3909 to get further $25-50 off. Have a blast!