Advice for month long trip
#1
BE Forum Addict
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2010
Location: Maryland (via Belfast, Manchester, Toronto and London)
Posts: 4,802
Advice for month long trip
My daughter is travelling to New Zealand (from the US) in a couple of weeks. She'll be there for a month on an organized bus tour travelling around both islands. None of us have ever been and know nothing about NZ.
She needs to take a decent amount of cash just for optional activities on the tour (1000 NZD probably). Obviously she needs to take some bank notes but was wondering if NZD traveller's cheques are something widely accepted there. She'll be taking her US ATM card and some credit cards (although she's not sure how close to ATM's she will be) but is nervous about taking a large amount of cash.
Also she is wondering about the cell phone situation. She has an iPhone 5 that is locked to Sprint in the US. That would work on its own but Sprint international rates are expensive. They will unlock it for free since we have been customers for years which would allow her to insert a nano-SIM (?) card in NZ. Alternatively, she also has an unlocked GSM quad band 850/900/1800/1900 MHz phone that takes a regular SIM card. Are NZ SIM cards readily available? She's flying into Auckland.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
She needs to take a decent amount of cash just for optional activities on the tour (1000 NZD probably). Obviously she needs to take some bank notes but was wondering if NZD traveller's cheques are something widely accepted there. She'll be taking her US ATM card and some credit cards (although she's not sure how close to ATM's she will be) but is nervous about taking a large amount of cash.
Also she is wondering about the cell phone situation. She has an iPhone 5 that is locked to Sprint in the US. That would work on its own but Sprint international rates are expensive. They will unlock it for free since we have been customers for years which would allow her to insert a nano-SIM (?) card in NZ. Alternatively, she also has an unlocked GSM quad band 850/900/1800/1900 MHz phone that takes a regular SIM card. Are NZ SIM cards readily available? She's flying into Auckland.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Last edited by MarylandNed; Dec 10th 2013 at 3:50 pm.
#2
BE Forum Addict
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2010
Location: Maryland (via Belfast, Manchester, Toronto and London)
Posts: 4,802
Re: Advice for month long trip
I forgot to ask about charging electronic devices such as camera, iPhone 5 and Galaxy Tab 3. Does she just need plug adapters? Or does she need something to convert voltages. I'm under the impression that all recent electronic devices just need plug adapters but want to be sure that a voltage converter isn't required.
#3
Forum Regular
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 197
Re: Advice for month long trip
She needs to take a decent amount of cash just for optional activities on the tour (1000 NZD probably). Obviously she needs to take some bank notes but was wondering if NZD traveller's cheques are something widely accepted there. She'll be taking her US ATM card and some credit cards (although she's not sure how close to ATM's she will be) but is nervous about taking a large amount of cash.
Also she is wondering about the cell phone situation. She has an iPhone 5 that is locked to Sprint in the US. That would work on its own but Sprint international rates are expensive. They will unlock it for free since we have been customers for years which would allow her to insert a nano-SIM (?) card in NZ.
New Zealand's phone/data bundles for set periods can be a bit weird. They tend to give you tons of texts, but are measly with data and calls.
Plan a simple strategy for backing up photos from the camera to the cloud or a spare data card as there's nothing worse than losing a camera with all your pics on it... although I have to say, given what New Zealand is like and the kind of tour she'll be doing, with lots of outdoors stuff to do, I would urge your daughter to travel as lightly with as few valuables as possible. If it was me, I'd probably only take a tablet if it was small and the quad band phone or maybe just the iPhone, using it for all picture-taking rather than schlepping around with a DSLR on top of everything else. If she can do the whole month out of one bag or case with a small pouch for travel documents and small valuables, she'll enjoy herself far more. People tend to dress very casually in New Zealand, so no need to take tons of clothes and shoes.
In most cases, you're right. But best to double-check on the manufacturer's website or google the model name of the device to get the full ins and outs in user guides and so on.
#4
Life is what YOU make it.
Joined: Oct 2009
Location: Christchurch
Posts: 3,312
Re: Advice for month long trip
Def the pre paid debit card