New Zealand, Dec 2017. Part 1: Practical matters

             We just got back from an excellent 2.5 week trip to New Zealand and have been raving about it to anyone who’ll listen. Given that it’s been a good few weeks and the raving hasn’t subsided, I figured I should write things down a bit: both for potential future travelers, as well as posterity for ourselves. So here goes.

This travelogue is in 6 parts(!): this first post practical matters pertaining to a vacation in NZ, overall itinerary here, North Island details here, South Island details here and here, and some shopping do's and dont's here.

Practical matters first:

• Weather: By virtue of being deep in the southern hemisphere, NZ’s seasons are the inverse of North America’s. We traveled mid Dec to early Jan, which is peak summer for the Kiwis. Sunlight abounds well until about 10:30pm (depending on where in the country you are), and temperatures are mostly CA-springlike. There’s a fair bit of variability in temperature across different parts of the country though, specifically in the South Island, so you’ll need a minimum of a light jacket or two to feel comfortable. We also encountered occasional, sudden showers (apparently typical for the region), so a couple of travel umbrellas or ponchos are worthwhile.


• Entry: If you’re a citizen of the USA, entry is a breeze. Visas are issued upon arrival; immigration, visa, baggage were all done for us in a matter of minutes when we landed at Auckland. The only caveat: you want to be very careful with what you bring into the country. The Kiwis are extremely careful about what they let in, for both ecological and economic reasons - you’ll have questionnaires to fill out, interviews to do, baggage examined and a sniffer dog sniffing out violating items. Err on the side of declaring everything you’ve got, it’ll help you avoid rather painful fines. Especially avoid: any dairy products (fresh or frozen/dried), honey or other animal products, dried fruit - even the preserved variety. A good source is here.


• Currency: NZ dollar, about 0.7 of the USD. Frankly, this won’t matter - every nook and cranny of a store accepts international credit cards. We loaded up our cards on to the iWatch and didn’t need to whip out the wallet even once. We got some NZD on the very last day of the trip just so we could see what the currency looked like.
  


• Cost: This is an expensive country. Expect to spend at least as much as you would in a typical, cosmopolitan US city for most daily/essential matters. For more remote touristy locations, add 10-20% more. Gifts/souvenirs are expensive - I’ll cover this in a later post.
  


• Driving: We rented a car for our entire trip in the South (we had family in the north), and drove from one end of the island to the other. Keep in mind you’ll be driving on the left - this takes some getting used to. Speed limits here are very, very strict. Clearly posted, they vary from 50km/hour to 100km/hour tops. There is tolerance for up to 2-3 kms beyond the posted limit maybe, but not more. Definitely not like in the US where you might cruise at 90 in an 80 mph zone. Officers are aplenty and are quick to flag you down and fine you hard. Most highways also take you through smallish towns, expect the speed limit to go 100 - 50 - 70 - 100 within a 3 km stretch. Most highways are also single lane most of the way with occasional, brief 2 lane stretches, so prepare to be driving much slower than you might be used to.
  


• Connectivity: I had international roaming on my phone, the husband took a local SIM card on his - both work fine. Connectivity is great in large cities and towns, but expect that entire large swaths of the remote interior will have no Internet whatsoever. We had a GPS in our rented car, and backed it up with paper printouts of routes. Came in handy, when we were traveling to one of the more remote areas - did not have Internet, and the GPS gave up too. Also keep in mind that there’s far more sheep in the country than humans, so having backups for directions isn’t a bad thing - especially coz’ just as cute as the sheep are, they don’t really help with directions. (More on sheep later).
  


• Temperature: I alluded to temperature earlier, but I’ll reinforce here. It changes quickly, and  even though it feels springlike and pleasant, it burns your skin pretty quick in the summer. Our younger son did a fairly hasty job of dabbing on the sunscreen, and paid the price with stinging burns on his face and ears. They are not fun, so layer up on the protection. The NZ skies also have some of the largest gaps in the ozone layer, so make sure you stock up on sunscreen. I also found sunscreen more expensive locally, so carry it from home if you can.
  


• Food: Decent number of options, pretty good quality. NZ’s dairy is pretty darned famous, we simply couldn’t get enough of their milk, cream, butter and ice cream. Fruit was plentiful and fresh - we ate several every day. We didn’t try very much NZ cuisine itself, but found that at least Indian and Thai food were fairly consistently available at most places. They are both expensive - Thai, in particular was 1.5x to 2x what we are used to paying in CA, but decent portion sizes and plenty vegetarian options.
  


• Units: Former British territory, so all units are in the metric system: kms, liters etc. This also took some getting used to on the road, and in stores.

That’s it for this section! Itinerary is next and is here!