Getting Around NZ
 

You've all been so helpful, now I've got questions -

1. To do my desired itenerary, I'm going to need to fly from the north island to the south island and back...and it costs too much. A one way ticket, off of the American site is $277US. However, the one way ticket for someone who resides in NZ is a mere $150NZ. Which is very, very much less. I know this because I tried to buy the ticket from the NZ site, got to the last page, they wanted me to enter my country of residence, and then it blocked me from buying the ticket.
Any way around this? or do I just suck it up and pay 3 times as much?

2 - a few people have mentioned the existance of rental car companies that use older cars and consquently charge less to rent than the companies that use newer cars. Which companies are they? I know they're out there, I just need to know how to find them.

Thank you again.

-AB

qantas web site does not discriminate by country...try that one for your internal nz flights.

Hi there. We used Apex Car rentals to hire a Toyota Corolla 4 door for NZ49 per day for 5 days. Collected it in Picton. You can get cheaper if longer hire period. No problem with car-about 6 years old. No grunt on hills but we just kicked it back to 2nd gear and off she went. I've bought accom via priceline on the net and always give a fake US adress and phone no. They email me the voucher and I've never had a problem. Why don't you try to get a e-ticket emailed. You could wait until you get to NZ and buy it from a backpacker's travel agent. They get the best deals. Ask at any hostel.

I used Apex in November and got a 10 year old beater but it ran fine and was $10-$15 cheaper than the big names. Also try A2B rentals.

I got tickets from Auk to Christchurch and from Wellington to Auk for about $80 each thru Qantas when I arranged my international flight!

Only a few days ago I got an air ticket from Christchurch in South Island to Wellington in North Island for $55. I did this on www.airnewzealand.co.nz and paid by credit card. It spits out an immediate printable confirmation in lieu of a ticket.

That's what I tried from airnewzealand...and as soon as they found out that I didn't live in NZ, it tripled the price.

Do you live there? Or did you just say you did?

Hi AlphaBeta
No, I don't live in NZ. I just went back in to the airnewzealand.co.nz website again to refresh my memory. The $55 "SmartSaver" fare for Christchurch to Wellington was still available. I made a dummy booking for it (cancelling out at last minute) to test it. I was not asked for my country of residence. However it asks for two contact phone numbers, and note that the first number has a 64 in the international prefix panel. This means they want a NZ number in that first contact number slot. If you know where you're staying in NZ, enter their number here. The site WILL accept your own (foreign number) number in the second contact number slot.

If you don't have any NZ contact number try leaving the first slot blank and enter your number in the second slot. If this doesn't work, look up any NZ accomm place's number (Grand Chancellor, Christchurch) on the grounds that who knows, you might stay there??!! The thing is, they also ask for an email address, and it is THIS they will use to contact you if they need to. And even if they do use the phone numbers (as in a sudden last-minute change), they'll try the second one if they don't get you on the first.
Good luck!

Another thought, AlphaBeta. If it's all too hard, try emailing

[email protected]

and ask her to make the booking for you. Denise is a travel consultant in Christchurch who will be only too happy to book it for you and email you the confirmation. Tell her I sent you! She knows who twoflower is.

me again, AlphaBeta.
OK, I tried leaving first contact number panel blank, and it wouldn't accept it. So I entered a clearly fictitious number 64 3 3333333 (which at least is the correct area code & correct number of digits for Christchurch) and it did accept it! I then entered my true (non-NZ) number in the second contact number panel, and got through to a confirmed booking! (Which of course I promptly cancelled before giving my credit card details). So there you are. Easy.

It's the page *after* that, where you enter the credit card details -

The first line is "Country of Residence" (followed by card holder's name, type of card, card number, etc.). The default is "New Zealand" if you change that to "USA" it won't accept your credit card. (or at least, it won't accept mine until I go to the very much higher price.)

But thank you for your help, I may email Denise - I really appreciate the contact.

twoflower? Have any interesting luggage? <g>