New Zealand Train Travel

New Zealand Train Travel questions and answers

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Question: Inexpensive travel ideas in New Zealand and Australia?
We are going to Australia and New Zealand (south island) for 10 days in each place in December. Do you have any ideas of how a family of four can get around and stay cheaply? Train? Rental car? Ideas of Must see places?
Thanks in advance for the assistance.

Answer: I am a New Zealander and can only address that part of your question as I do not know enough about Australia to help you. Also, I am interpreting your question to mean that you will be in New Zealand for 10 days and will only be visiting the South Island.
Presumably you will be flying into and out of Christchurch.

Unfortunately, December is in the peak holiday season and so very little will be cheap. In general, public transport is not an efficient way of travelling around New Zealand if you have a limited amount of time.

You don't say what ages the members of your family are. Your means of travelling and what types of accommodation are suitable are driven by their ages and how adventurous you want to be. Also, remember that the South Island is predominantly a scenic experience and is sparsely populated. I have no doubt that you, as adults, will be in constant awe at its beauty and inspiring landscape. However, I have young children and, in my experience, the 'countryside' doesn't always cut it. However, I think you will find that the centres I have listed below will have enough mini-golf, luge, shops, etc etc facilities to keep them happy in between bouts of boring vistas!!! :-). Ideally, your children will be lovers of open spaces and if so you will all have a blast.

As regards transport you can hire a campervan and campsites are plentiful, safe and of good quality. Alternatively, you can hire a car and stay in youth hostels or at those same campsites in low cost cabins if you are prepared to forego some of the 'luxuries' such as ensuite and kitchen facilities (i.e. are happy to sleep within four walls that contain just beds and use communal facilities). If hiring transport is too costly, then there are a number of private coach companies that run scheduled bus services around the South Island. You buy an all inclusive ticket and get on and get off wherenever and wherever you choose. However, the cost for four of these tickets may well be more than the cost of hiring transport.

As regards where to go:

Starting in Christchurch - after spending a short time taking a look around you should make your way over to the West Coast. There is an excellent train journey which goes from Christchurch to Greymouth called the 'Tranz Alpine'. Its a great scenic journey and a restful way to see this region. However you can drive almost the same route if you choose to hire transport. Once on the West Coast, travel a little way north to see the 'Pancake Rocks'; turn back southwards and visit the 'Glaciers'. Continue south through the 'Haast Pass' to 'Wanaka' and 'Queenstown'. From there go to 'Milford Sound'. From there across to 'Dunedin' and back up the coast to 'Christchurch' and 'Akaroa'. If you still have time to spare then you can go north from Christchurch to visit Kaikoura for a spot of whale watching before returning to leave from Christchurch. I really think that, unless you enjoy speed touring, all of that will take up your ten days. I live in Nelson and I would love to suggest you come here. It is a beautiful region and has excellent national parks, craft centres, wineries etc etc; however, if you are starting and leaving from Chrictchurch, it may just be too far north for you to include comfortably. For the same reason, I don't see the North Island as a possibility even though the Rotorua area would normally be included in my 'must see' list for New Zealand.

I haven't described iin detail the places I have listed, but you should be able to read about them if you look at the New Zealand dot com and/or AA sites that I have included in the example sites listed below. These sites will get you started and google/yahoo searches will yield many more worthwhile information sites about New Zealand.

 

Question: What is the current average price of gas in New Zealand?
My friends and I are traveling to New Zealand in late August and we were wondering if it would be more economical to drive, fly, or take the train through either the North or South island. Thanks!

Answer: This site shows current gas prices in New Zealand. Hope this helps.

http://www.pricewatch.co.nz/

 

Question: Can I get a Russian Tourist Visa from New Zealand or Australia?
I am a UK passport holder and am backpacking around the world next year and plan to travel from Australasia up to China to do the trans-mongolian train from Beijing to Moscow, but with the Russian Visa requirements can I get the visa while outisde my country of residence? Thanks!

Answer: You can apply for a tourist visa at a Russian consulate not earlier than 90 days before your requested visa validity start date. So, say if you want to go on a 4-month trip to Asia and then travel to Russia, it's better to get visa support now and then once it's less than 90 days before your visa start date, apply in one of the Russian consulates in Asia, for example in Thailand or Hong Kong (they are the easiest to deal with). But you can also apply for the visa at the russian consulate at Sydney or Wellington.

 

Question: Planning my first trip to New Zealand before I move there. Need some advice. Thanks.?
I've been studying New Zealand for a little over 2 years and have fallen in love with it. I plan to move there in two years and hope to visit in May for my first time. I want to scout out where I'd like to move, etc. I'm looking for some advice on how to see the most for the least. I'm leaning towards living in Arrowtown so I could be close to queenstown to work without losing the scenery. I have a million questions outside of this one so if any citizen would be willing to help me, I'd really appreciate it. My main question now is, how would you see your country if you were me? Should I travel the country by train or rental car? I'm trying to keep my whole trip to around $2500 USD for 10 days... Thanks for the help. Any opinions would be great.

Answer: i lived in nz for 5 years and it's such a beautiful country. definitely travel by car- you get too see all the scenery you normally would, but you can stop and have a look at the little towns as you please. ive never been to the south island so i can't be much helo there, but i spent 5 years living on the north island so i can help there. waiheke island in auckland is beautiful, and rotorua gives you the whole maori culture experience. i loved living in cambridge, a quaint little town near hamilton, but there isn't very much to do there.