My upcoming New Zealand expedition

[warpus]

shotover runs out from queenstown, they will busyou there for free (same with all the xtreme things to do)

Sweet-ass, bro!

You HAVE to cruise the Milford Sound.

Already booked When I finish the Milford track I am taking a boat to Milford sound at 3pm (everyone has to do this). I spend the entire day there, and maybe kayak. The next day I am doing the scenic cruise @ 1pm (I think it's 1pm). Then I have the entire day to lounge around and enjoy the scenery. The next day a bus takes me to the divide, where I begin the routeburn track.

You HAVE to swim with dolphins at Kaikora.

It's a bit out of the way.. and a bit pricy.. plus sometimes the dolphins don't show up? Can I do this anywhere else? I would do it, but I don't want to make a detour.

There is so much amazing geography.. i don't think you need to fly over it.. its everywhere.. but then again, ive only jumped out of planes

I thought about skydiving, but everywhere I've looked it's like $400.. I might do it anyway, any recommendations?

i also want to bunjeejump - apparently the best place to do that is queenstown?

 

[Gangor]

EVERYTHING in NZ is expensive. Everything that is connected with Tourism, Gap "Yah" Students, and "You've just driven to this spot for this alone so we can rapecharge you"

You have to just accept that things will be costly, accept this a "once in a life time" and money is only money.

Usually though there is a less expensive option somewhere. Obviously going skydiving or bungy junmping in Queenstown is going to be expensive, but there are many other places in NZ where you can do those things for less.

And besides, the NZ$ is worth less than the CAD$

 

[Abaddon]

Check me with my cross posting edits!

 

[warpus]

If bunjeejumping in queenstown is so expensive, where else could I do this? And yes, for 75 canadian cents I get $1 NZ dollar

 

[warpus]

Maybe I should go bunjyjumping in Wanaka? I have no idea what I'm doing in Wanaka, so why not? Would it be cheaper there?

Also, skydiving.. I MIGHT be wanting to do that.. even though I'm afraid of heights, a bit. This is also something I wouldn't want to do in queenstown, right?

 

[Gangor]

Maybe I should go bunjyjumping in Wanaka? I have no idea what I'm doing in Wanaka, so why not? Would it be cheaper there?

Also, skydiving.. I MIGHT be wanting to do that.. even though I'm afraid of heights, a bit. This is also something I wouldn't want to do in queenstown, right?

I haven't done either, so can't really comment except to say that queenstown in general is overpriced (although it is a stunning place to visit) so it follows that doing those activities anywhere else will be cheaper. I'm not sure if there is bungy jumping from wanaka, sorry. It's quite close to queenstown though, so it's possible it would be the same operator (and cost). Hanmer (between murchison and christchurch) has a nice bungy bridge. Again, not sure how much it costs.

Skydiving can be found in many places. The south island is going to be better scenery, though. From Wanaka may well be cheaper, but further north could be good too. Might be able to find in Picton??? Or else, if you made the trip to Kaikoura to swim with the dolphins they do it there.

 

[Zardnaar]

Note that even by our standards tourism stuff is expensive. You can swim with dolphins and see seals for free and swim in the rivers as well. State highway 1 usually has rest areas located close to rivers (usually near a bridge) and the like which are free to use. The coastline between Dunedin and Oamaru has numerous seals and the like. We just kind of take it or grnted. Where I grew up dolphins would come into the harbour, and penguins nested nearby and seals would be along the coastline and sometimes go 1km or so inland so a local paper would have a photo of one in a park or school.

 

[otago]

That's good to hear! how about "How come the all blacks are all white?", would that offend anyone?

I've been doing more research and I want to do the following two things:
- scenic flyover of mount cook/glaciers with http://www.airsafaris.co.nz/ - $290, good deal, right?
- jetboat! with http://www.shotoverjet.co.nz/ , in queenstown (i think it's a 20 min drive, how do i get there?) seems like a lot of fun though
- a slice of paradise boat cruise/hike with http://aquataxi.co.nz/trips/slice-of-paradise - from kaiteriteri, through abel tasman park

are any of these a ripoff/not worth it/etc.?

Heh, the All whites are our soccer/football team who are not all white.
The All Blacks, just remember we kiwis believe that black is thicker than blood

 

[warpus]

I haven't done either, so can't really comment except to say that queenstown in general is overpriced (although it is a stunning place to visit) so it follows that doing those activities anywhere else will be cheaper. I'm not sure if there is bungy jumping from wanaka, sorry. It's quite close to queenstown though, so it's possible it would be the same operator (and cost). Hanmer (between murchison and christchurch) has a nice bungy bridge. Again, not sure how much it costs.

Skydiving can be found in many places. The south island is going to be better scenery, though. From Wanaka may well be cheaper, but further north could be good too. Might be able to find in Picton??? Or else, if you made the trip to Kaikoura to swim with the dolphins they do it there.

I doubt I'm going to make my way to Kaikoura, it is a bit out of the way... although it would be cool to go through Arthur's pass, but that would probably mean that I'd have to miss Murchison.. but I heard there's cool vineyards in Blenheim, so that could be a potential alternate route, I suppose... decisions, decisions!

I really want to see Abel Tasman nat. park, and the water-taxi thing I posted earlier (slice of paradise) allows me to do that.. and I realy want to do that part, so I thikn it looks I'm going to be going through Murchison.. btw, what is nicer, Arthur's pass, or the haast pass?

Note that even by our standards tourism stuff is expensive. You can swim with dolphins and see seals for free and swim in the rivers as well. State highway 1 usually has rest areas located close to rivers (usually near a bridge) and the like which are free to use. The coastline between Dunedin and Oamaru has numerous seals and the like. We just kind of take it or grnted. Where I grew up dolphins would come into the harbour, and penguins nested nearby and seals would be along the coastline and sometimes go 1km or so inland so a local paper would have a photo of one in a park or school.

I have actually found everything fairly cheap, so far. Hostels are around $20-$27 for dorm rooms, my flight from auckland to queenstown was only $80, skydiving in queenstown was around $400 (which is around $300 canadian, and that's how much skydiving costs here), buses are very cheap IMO (through nakedbus), the slice of paradise hike/boat ride goes for $77 which is about $50 canadian.. it all seems very reasonable to me. Maybe that's because stuff in Canada is somewhat pricy (compared to the U.S.) and for 75 cents canadian I get $1 NZ

By the way, if I'm going to be mainly on the west coast of the south island, do you know of any place where I could see dolphins or penguins? free or not.

And for everyone reading this, I have a Canadian Interac / Plus convenience/atm card. It allows me to take money out of my chequing account. It worked in Chilean ATMs (automated banking machines, I'm not sure what you guys call them), do you know if it'll allow me to take out NZ money out of my canadian bank account the same way?

 

[Abaddon]

Nz has card machines everywhere. If it works in Chilean, I'm sure nz would be fine. Beware costs however... Might it be better to get your cash changed at home first?

 

[warpus]

Nz has card machines everywhere. If it works in Chilean, I'm sure nz would be fine. Beware costs however... Might it be better to get your cash changed at home first?

I will arrive with some NZ currency, but I don't want to have hundreds of $ on me...

 

[GoodGame]

So whats up now the Quake struck?

 

[bathsheba666]

No cheap cracks please

 

[Zardnaar]

Earthquake only damage Christchurch and killed no one. Cracked roads and damaged some buildings.

Abadon I haven't been to the west coast for a while but the sea their form memory seemed warmer than the Pacific Ocean down south. Can't remember free dolphins/seals. Nakedbus is the cheapest way to travel via buses. There are ATM machines in almost all NZ towns except the very smallest ones and most shops/garages have eftpos machines that give out cash.

 

[Gangor]

I will arrive with some NZ currency, but I don't want to have hundreds of $ on me...

Banks offer the best exchange rates, but pretty much everywhere accepts credit.

 

[classical_hero]

You should now take a tour of the ruins of Christchurch. Well at least see what damage was done in that area. I remember going to San Fran after the big earthquake there and it was quite a sight to see the destruction that happened.

 

[Zardnaar]

By the time he gets here Christchurch should be fine.

 

[warpus]

Hey Guys,

I have a bit of a dilemma on my hands. I found this - naked bus pass - it allows me to travel around new zealand via naked bus for only $330 for 15 trips. This isn't the dilemma per se, but it kinda leads into it.. (By the way it's a good deal, right?)

The dilemma is that there are only 3 passes through the southern alps, and naked bus only runs through 1 of them - haast pass, in the south, near wanaka & queenstown. The Haast pass was recommended to me by Gangor. I've since looked up pictures and it's something I want to see.. the only thing is that I want to do some sort of a scenic tour through it, and naked bus doesn't do that.. I'm not sure if such a thing is even available..

Either way, one of the stops on my expedition was to be Murchison - so I could do some white water rafting. But I also want to get to Kaikoura - for the whales (and maybe dolphins). But like, if I take the haast pass to get to murchison, kaikoura seems really out of the way.. I'd have to take a bus to Nelson first, and then a 6 hour (6 hour!!) bus to Kaikoura.. I have no idea why it takes that long, it must do a detour or something? Back to Nelson it's only 4 hours I think.

(my final destination on the south island is picton btw)

So basically my other option is to *not* do the haast pass, take a bus to christchurch from Wanaka, and then head to Kaikoura and Nelson. and THEN I could take a bus to Murchison if I had time.. but in that case I don't go through any of the passes, and I hear that haast pass and arthur's pass are supposed to be really nice, so I want to do at least one of them.

Should I do the haast pass, head to murchison (and see mount cook/the glaciers on the way) and then look for alternate transportation to Kaikoura from Murchison? (not naked bus).. Or do buses for some reason not run that way and everything runs through Nelson?

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[PiMan]

How much money would be saved by using the bus pass?

 

[warpus]

How much money would be saved by using the bus pass?

Well, $330 for 15 rides, that works out to $22 per ride.

I haven't exactly looked up prices for all the places I want to go, but I've seen some that were $50+, some that were $35 or so, and some in the 20s.. and a couple for $1 each. For all I know there are cheaper ones, maybe from Nelson to Picton.. the nakedbus website is a bit annoying to navigate, which is why I haven't priced out the trips I know I am taking for sure.

So it really depends.. I can see the details of my trip changing, especially when I'm actually there, and have a bit of a better handle of things and what I want to do with my time & money. I might not actually need to take 15 bus rides.. but I think I'll need at least 8.

So I suppose it does seem like a good deal.. I was just wondering if anybody else has heard of this pass thing before.. you know.. every bit of information is useful kinda thing