Introduction |
New Zealand trip,
by hire car, Sep 2014 |
file= |
NZ2014.htm |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Had not been to
New Zealand for 10 years, so it was |
|
|
time we went
there again to refresh our fond memories. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Its almost as
easy as travelling in Oz, or USA apart |
|
from their
weird accents and rainy weather. It rained so |
|
hard and so
long we thought we were in Nth Qld., in the |
|
rainy
season. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We had taken a
battering from arthritis and sore joints |
|
and a few other
problems so it was good to escape in |
|
comfort to an
easy motoring holiday, no skiing or hiking. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As usual, Parj
did an overall plan, which was fine tuned |
|
by Yollie to
pick up all her points of interest, using our |
|
tried and
tested "Trip Planner" and NZ travel books. We |
|
are happy to
make this available to anyone who may |
|
be interested.
These are simple EXCEL spreadsheets. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Started in
Auckland, Nth Island, going clockwise on |
|
the coasts into
South Island and back to North Island. |
|
We wanted to do
the Nth, Sth, East and West points, and only just missed out in the last 110
km |
|
north of
Kaitaia, to Nth Cape, the northernmost tip, due to very heavy rain. Consider
NZ DONE !! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Flights |
Costs vary greatly from day to day, try and
avoid Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon if possible. |
|
|
|
The earlier you book/pay, the cheaper the
flights. Try to avoid changes after payment. |
|
|
We booked with Air NZ, but unfortunately got a
Virgin flight outbound. As usual, it was |
|
|
3rd class standard. The seats were so tight you
could barely fit your knees in and the |
|
|
service was terrible and expensive. I'd guess
Turkey or Zimbabwe could do better. The |
|
|
return by Air NZ was much better, in a Boeing
777, rather than a Boeing 737 by Virgin. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Car Rental |
Apex Car rentals offered some |
|
|
very good deals
on "older" vehicles. We chose a Ford |
|
Focus, 2007
model with 204,000 km and $45/day all up. |
|
Gave us no
problems, apart from a blown rear tyre in |
|
the Coromandel
Peninsula on gravel roads. Did not |
|
notice this
until we stopped for photos, and the tyre |
|
was ruined. It
was a rear wheel on a front wheel drive |
|
so it wasn't
apparent on the noisy gravel road. The |
|
spare wheel was
one of those narrow ones, but did |
|
the job until
we got a new tyre. The TID travel insurance |
|
was handy in
case we had an accident. They cover |
|
any claim
excess, to a value of $4,000, if required. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ferries, Cook
Straight |
|
|
|
Not as well
organized as the ferries in Europe, for on/off |
|
loading, which
took much longer than expected. |
|
The trip took
about 3 hours, with all amenities on-board. |
|
Apex car hire
paid for the 2 vehicle crossings, but we |
|
paid 4 times
$65 for the two peoples returns :- $260 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We were lucky
on the return from Sth to Nth Island, as |
|
the service was
cancelled for many hours due to high |
|
winds and
swells, soon after we returned. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Motels |
We only booked our 1st night motel at Auckland
airport from home. All others were done |
|
|
using selections from Booking.Com at the
various towns we expected to visit. These |
|
|
were printed out at home, and we used the Sat
Nav to find/select motels on the move. |
|
|
Very few have restaurants, but usually diners
are handy, nearby. Cheap & reasonable. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wi-Fi |
The promised $29 Vodaphone Wi-Fi stick was NOT
available in NZ. They had a $79 |
|
|
version, which we declined as a rip-off. We
were happy to use the Wi-Fi available in |
|
|
the motels, either free or at minimal cost.
These were OK, after you got some practice |
|
|
getting connected to the different
methods/services. No problem with emails. We could |
|
|
receive emails on our home email address, but
had to use Gmail to send, from NZ. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mobile |
Happy to use our mobile phones on
"international roaming", as we did NOT want to |
|
|
phones |
change phone numbers and only expected to make
few or emergency calls. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sat Nav. |
Our trusty Garmin Nuvi 1450 came along. |
|
As usual, it
was mounted on a Perspex plate, fixed to |
|
the dash with
double sided tape. Had some problems |
|
initially as
Apex had applied "armourall" vinyl cleaner |
|
to the dash,
which had to be thoroughly cleaned before |
|
we could make
the mounting plate stick properly. |
|
Even with
recent map updates, we had some problems |
|
in some areas,
including :- Coromandel Pen., Picton, |
|
Christchurch,
Queenstown +more. We are experienced |
|
users, so it
must have been poor mapping by Garmin ? |
|
The Sat Nav was
useful in locating motels and petrol. |
|
Pity it didn't
detect Yogie Bear radar ? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Weather |
Experienced much rain/wind, but only one major
delay from rockslides onto the road. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Going down
Queenstown chairlift. This rain |
|
One of many rainy days, which took away |
|
made us abandon
our trip to Coronet Peak. |
|
from magnificent scenery on the coasts. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trip |
Used our tried and tested "Trip
Planner" for overseas rental car trips. |
|
|
|
planning |
This allowed various daily itineraries to be
tested and confirmed, together with costs. |
|
|
Also had an equipment checklist for such trips,
which is very necessary at our age. |
|
|
Out trip
costs were actually $6,956 -vs- forecast $7,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
Our trip km were actually 5313 -vs- forecast
5211 |
|
|
|
|
|
After much experience, our estimates of costs,
times, distances get very accurate. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trip Cash |
Followed
our usual habit of getting all our foreign currency requirements from Aust.
Post. |
|
|
They give the best deal, as they supply the
banks as well. It avoids the problem and cost |
|
|
of using overseas ATM's with all the
inconvenience and extra fees. |
|
|
|
|
We can calculate our needs at home very
accurately, so this works well. |
|
|
|
Only needed to change back about NZ 200 to AUD
on departure. |
|
|
|
============================================================================== |
Trip reports |
Auckland to Wellington, via Coromandel
Peninsula and Mt Ruapehu. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Picked up the
Rental Car from Apex, very close to Auckland airport. They are well
organized. The |
|
Ford Focus with
204,000 on the clock was perfectly adequate for our needs and $45/day was
good. |
|
We headed South
towards the Coromandel Peninsula where we got lost. Did a few circles
then |
|
headed south
towards Lake Taupo |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scenic views,
Coromandel Peninsula.....Sat Nav got us lost. |
Fixing the only flat we got. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Had planned to
stay on the East coast heading south, but time lost made us head inland via
Lake |
|
Taupo, using
the shorter route, past some of the Nth Island Ski Fields and volcanoes. |
|
|
|
|
|
|