Will be in New Zealand late March/early April. Will be doing some easy hiking in Abel Tasman and overnighting in Doubtful and doing the day cruise in Milford. My son is 25 and I'm 55. Decided since we will be so far from home to get the medical evacuation insurance. Have picked out a few companies and wondering if Fodorites have used or heard of any of them. They are:

HTH Worldwide
Travel Gap Excursion
HCC Medical Insurance Svc.
Atlas International
IMG Patriot International

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Another one which I carry is www.medjet.com.

Have you checked www.insuremytrip.com? You can get a lot of information about various plans, including the A.M. Best Rating. I have heard of a few of the plans you listed, but I find that I get the best information from InsureMyTrip.

We have International SOS. Well, I think we do...we used to anyway. My husband's company provides it for it's expatriates. We've never had to use it, so I have no idea how it works or if it's what you're looking for, but here's their site:

http://www.internationalsos.com/en/

Thanks all!

We also had MedJet.

I've always seen medical evacuation insurance as a must when visiting either underdeveloped countries, where medical facilities are limited, or the USA, where almost any medical procedure comes at a ruinous price.

But I'd buy it even for a visit to New Zealand, which has very good medical facilities, as you'd want to get home at some stage and medical evacuations are expensive.

Would you consider getting a disability insurance as well? I'd like to add http://enufinsurance.com.au as an option just in case.