Where would be the recommended places to visit during Winter other than skiing? Which mountain is best for skiing?

I have just booked to go Christchurch during Merdeka week, nothing has been prepared. I am a bit worry now, please share your experience? Thanks.

other than mt cook, you can try Franz Joseph glacier. icy mountain, not snow. pretty cool.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I heard that there is a scenic train from Christchurch to Greymouth, but not cheap, is it worth to pay the money to take the scenic train?

Mt Hutt is best ski field in south island. Go visit queenstown and milford sound. Do some bungy jumping. experience some earthquake after shocks in Chch too

tranzalpine promotion is going on now during winter. $99 for a return trip. the route should be covered with snow especially at arthur's pass.

You can start from Christchurch, then to GreyMouth, Wanaka, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Dunedin, Lake Tekapo. Queenstown is a great place to Ski, awesome ski-ing field with scenery.

Dreamerer,
do you know which ski field is good for beginner?

Im going to NZ this August 15th! Cant wait to experience snow and ski!

i am going next week. Christchurch..im abit worry about the cold weather...LOL...but i wish to see snow...alamak

Hi

My plan to Christchurch is in Oct. Any nice and safe B&B to recommend? Not necessarily be in city center though. Thanks!

for those that are considering travelling through bus, consider Stray Travel as they're super promotion now! To get further $-25-50 discounts, just key in or quote Stray Mate Code KL3909!
http://www.straytravel.com/new-zealand-bac...acker-specials/

Hi forumers...

If I'm planning a trip to NZ July 2012, would it be a good time to go? It would be winter then, right?

My budget would be approximately RM6k, would it be sufficient?

Thanks!

July is the coldest month. I spent this July in NZ as well. Bring enough warm clothings and you should be fine. If you're traveling to the South Island then make sure to be more prepared. Auckland temperature is around 10 degrees or so average, sometimes lower.

How long is your trip? IMO, RM6k will not be sufficient unless you plan to stay in one city only. How do you plan to travel around? Car? Public Transport? Where do you intend to go? What do you intend to see. Is the budget inclusive of air ticket? If yes then try booking AA, promotion maybe can get RM1k below return. If you travel via Singapore airline or MAS, you'll need around RM4k for return air ticket. AA and Jetstar no promotion is around RM2k return.

guys i will be going to NZ probably this january. im going with 2 of my brothers, and we will travel using the campers van.

any advice? were going for 11D10N probably the south island. if im using airasia, fron christchurch to southern how long will it take by driving? whats the speed limit?

please please advice on everything!

Hi,

Just confirmed my air ticket to NZ by AA via Christchurch, about 12D10N, in early July 2012, a family with a friend ( 3 adult and 2 kids-each 3 and 5 year old ), plan to rent a car to tour whole south island, and stay in YHA hotel. May i known during the month of July, will the day time will be shorter ?(10-3pm) and night time will be longer . I had experienced this during my study in UK, is short day time during winter time.

Plan to have own cook food in YHA for breakfast and dinner, and crap some local food along the travel destination. will apply the YHA memder card in Malaysia to get the discount on hostel stay. How much the frugality type of budget i need to plan for this trip? Can u breakdown the daily cost of car rental, hostel , food and the whole trip petrol expenses as well. Many thanks in advance.

Daylight hours are shorter but not as short as in the UK. Latitude of NZ is around 40dS compared to UK which is abt 50dN. The further the south, the shorter the days in winter of course.
Winters are also not as cold as UK (hardly snows except in the highlands) but temps would be hovering around 5dC. For south island, sunset would be 4-5pm. Apparently, the weather is clearer in Milford Sound in winter than in Summer (wet & poor visibility). Good thing abt visiting in winter is that finding accomodation is less of a problem.

Wonder if the 3 & 5 year-olds would have much impression of their holidays when they grow up.



This post has been edited by tehtmc: Aug 15 2011, 10:09 PM

Remember! ALWAYS obey the speed limit. It's usually 50mph in cities and 100mph on their highways. Don't go LESS than that or MORE than that.

January should be having quite good weather. Have fun! I don't really know much about camper vans since I would prefer to get a car and drive around. I'm not sure about the duration to drive as well, just use Google map to estimate. Advice would be plan your holiday early and wisely. Try booking hotels and stuff online to get cheaper rates.

Yes the day light will be shorter. Usually during summer, it will be bright until pass dinner time. But during winter, probably around 5pm dark already. I can't remember UK day light time already so can't really compare for you there.

If you plan to cook yourself, you'll save up a lot. And if you're driving, that's even better. Certain supermarkets will give you discount off certain petrol station, e.g. Pak n Save gives you a 4cent off each litre when you purchase above $100 or so and when you pump at their petrol station. It will save you a lot on petrol and also food. Depends on what you will be eating I guess. One meal outside can cost you around $20 or more per person on average. Beef, cheese, milk, potato are very cheap there. Budget for food, depends on how much you all going to eat. Rice is expensive.

Car rental, I'm sure you can get info from online websites. You can even book them online. Just go check out some car rental website. Of course, do expect bigger company like Hertz to be more expensive. Hostel prices also can get from online websites. Lots of things can be booked online. I booked all my things online. And it's much cheaper than walk-in rate.

I've been traveling since 3 months old and the earliest I can remember is when I was 7. That was my first trip to NZ. Before that all forgotten.

snow storm in NZ:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14531214

hi,

thank for yrs prompt and valuable reply

well, my study was based in Sheffield, further north fr London, that wise the daytime in winter was pretty short. Well fr yrs infor, dark after 5pm was not bad at all, at least we can plan the trip well, since have7-8 hrs day time.

Well, prefer to have Beef, cheese, milk, potato as my main food, and my kids prefer food as well. well on outside food, use to take fish and chip, or some fruit will do, but hear that outside meal was NZ20 perperson, wah amasing expensive if compare with local price here, lucky i have learn and known how to cook a few good dish during my study in UK back then.

Have been checking the car rental website last nite, but some have hot deal as well, can u ps recommend a few reliable name for me to go through, basically will take 1800-2000cc sedan car, online price around NZ39-49 for >7 daily use. Do u guy(lady) advise to take full car rental or maybe 8 day only since day 1 and last day will not go out so frequent, or how the taxi fare look like?

But since travel on the car, it easy to bring the 3-5 year old kids for a holiday, rite

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Added on August 16, 2011, 4:07 pmhi,
Which date u going in July 2012?, we had confirm date on 24/6-5/7/2012, on AA return, ticket price around Rm3800 for 5 person

This post has been edited by youngman28: Aug 16 2011, 04:07 PM

I see. In auckland, it bright around 8am and the sun goes down around 5pm. So yea, still can travel quite a bit but for south island I'm not very sure as I've only spent one day in Christchurch for my recent trip. The whole bulk of the holiday was in Auckland and north island.

If you guys can cook, then it's very much cheaper to get food at supermarkets as most motels in NZ (or most western countries I would say) comes with microwave oven and probably a stove sometimes. This is what I like about traveling in those countries. My family usually bring our own rice cooker, if you do, please remember to check the voltage and also try not to turn on too many things at a time cause it may cause the electricity to trip.

Er, my family used to go with Hertz in the past. They live there now so we have our own cars to bring us around. You can try out budget and apex.
One tip about renting cars, make sure you take note of all the scratches, dents, etc. when you get the car. If you see anything like that, make sure the person who is in charge should take note of it and have it noted down in their file. Sometimes the dent/scratches were already there and the company didn't notice it before, so when they check the car when you return it to them, they might assume that you have caused the damage and will ask you to compensate.

Public transports are widely available in most city area, especially buses. Taxi can be quite expensive. Most of the car rentals office are at the airport, so it may be convenient for you to pick up the car right after arriving NZ.