I'll be in New Zealand next week for two weeks and am looking for suggestons on cellular phone or data service. I'll be flying in to Queenstown and then working my way back to Christchurch over about 10 days.

In Europe before, I've taken my iPhone and kept it on airplane mode but rented a cellular MIFI type device to use. Since I'll be driving and hiking it may be reasonable to have a cell phone in case we get lost stranded.

Has anyone rented a cell phone and or wifi device in NZ? Where did you get it from and what was the approximate cost? How is cellular service outside of Queenstown and Christchurch?

I've been reading about sim cards and unlocking phones, and maybe that could work for us, but could someone walk me through the steps?

I have an iPhone 5s with service with Verizon in the US.

Will I need to do anything with Verizon in the the US before I leave? How do I make sure that when I am in New Zealand my phone is not using my US data plan and incurring roaming charges if I get a SIM card?

If I get a SIM card will it work for data and phone? About how much would I expect to pay for about two weeks? Do you just got to a phone store in Queenstown and get one installed?

I can't believe how easy this was. In case others are wondering, just as you leave customs in Sydney are two cell phone stands. Vodaphone and Opus.
I ended up using Opus as I stopped there first, but I imagine Vodaphone is similar. I will be here for 4 days and I signed up for their 2 dollar a day plan. It had 500 MB of data per day plus phone calls and calls back to the US are 4c per minute. It had a minium of 10 dollars, so I did that. It's been working great. The guy at the stand switched to the sim card and everything for me. The whole process took 5 minutes at the most. I'll try something similar when I get to NZ

Thanks for this post, I will need to do something similar in 3 weeks. Did you have an unlocked iPhone? Or was there some other device you used the SIM card with? I'm having a hard time figuring out whether the unlock process worked on my old iPhone.

I am just using my current Verizon 5s iPhone. Apparently they are all unlocked for use outside the US even if you have a current contract in the US. I called Verizon to verify before I left. When I get back to the US, I just have to pop Verizon SIM card back in.

Just arrived in NZ today, and I stopped at the Vodaphone booth in the Queensland airport. Again it took less than 5 minutes and things are working well. I think it was about 40 NZ dollars for 3 GB of data and 200 minutes of phone calls. There was cheaper plan for 20 dollars that included about 500 MB of data I think which could work for shorter stays. So far I've just been in the Queenstown city area, but I'll see how it works in the country.

Thanks for the update. I finally got my old iPhone4 unlocked. I know that my AT&T iPhone5 was not unlocked when I was in India last year, so I think it depends on the carrier. Was the amount of data you got enough for frequent use of google maps?

Yeah..the amount of data seemed fine. I used Facebook, instagram, uploaded random photos here and there, checked in on Foursquare and used google maps when walking around a lot.

The service has been great in the cities and in towns, but as expected there isn't service when hiking in the mountains, etc.