Well, if you fly by MAS or SIA to NZ from here it will cost you around RM4k per person return.
My past trip from KL-CHC by AA was RM700 return inclusive of baggage and everything. It really depends as AA prices are always changing. In my opinion, any ticket below RM1500 return to NZ is consider cheap to me. The usual non-promo price is around RM1700 if not mistaken. Jetstar price for KL-Auckland is around there.

Sounds like a good idea. Driving in NZ is awesome. The scenery is very wonderful. Remember to always pay attention to the speed limit.
Also, take note that during winter, daylight is shorter, so plan your journey well so you won't be driving around after sunset trying to find your way. Bring a GPS along with NZ map. It'll really help.

First of all, I'm not a guy.

I don't travel much around CHC, so I can't answer those questions.
My last trip to CHC was on transit for one night. I didn't do much as the city area was off limits. Even the local people advice us not to visit the city because there's nothing there. It was end of July (July is the coldest month btw) and I heard it snowed like crazy after I left. It was quite bright by 8.30am and got dark around 4pm or so.

Why wouldn't it be okay to travel in October. I don't see a problem at all. October is a really nice time to travel to NZ.
Since you're flying into CHC, try moving around South island. I'm not very familiar with South island so we shall wait for other forumer to reply where to visit. One of the must visit will be Queenstown for sure.

North and South island in one trip?
I've spend one month in North island enjoying my trip, yet to finish visiting all the places. Haha.

You wanna drive from North to South island already take you around a week or so.

If you only have 2 weeks, plan your trip very very carefully. Especially if you're driving. Driving is the easiest, most convenient. If you have 4 in a group then driving will be just nice, comfortable. Petrol isn't cheap unlike back home in Malaysia, pay attention to speed limits and don't try to do anything funny. Police there are very alert and strict. Also remember that NZ driving rules is slightly different, i.e. always give way to the car on the right under any situation.

Most of the hotels in NZ comes with small kitchen area, get food from supermarkets and cook yourself. You'll save a lot of money on this.
Do research on the places of interest you wanna go, how much it cost, how to get there, etc.

Yea for some reason they always let people on the right turn first, but this is changing because lots of lots of migrants are there and as we all know, it's a weird rule so people don't exactly keep to it. So the locals are pretty pissed at the migrants as well. lol.

But I actually think it does make sense, in terms of keeping the roads clear and making sure traffic doesn't get stuck when we know who should give way to who first. Then again, very hard to get used to it if we never really obey that rule in our life before. Haha.

I found driving in NZ very stressful! lol. But it was still fun.

Haha. I think partly was due to my parents kept eyeing on my speed and telling me to do this and that. They are living there and they know the rules better (failed driving test few times it seems!) while I was just driving there for the month when I was on holiday there. Partly also due to their new car I guess. Lol! I'll be going to get my NZ driving license the next year or so, hopefully can pass.

If you're on holiday then you don't need an international driving license to drive in NZ, like you said it's no hassle to rent a car and drive around with our Malaysian license. But to live there, you'll need an international driving license. It's also good if police check you can just show them the license and no need to bring your passport everywhere you go to show when you enter the country.

digitalz, I had mine done in Malaysia thru AAM, they did everything for me of course have to pay a little more I think. But there was no hassle whatsoever. Maybe you can check with AA if they have this service as well? Try to go for their driving test! My parents thought it was a real challenge for them. Haha. Malaysian driving license can never be converted into any other country's license, it's pretty obvious we have bad road manners lol. But it's good to have an NZ license, next time if you wanna get license for other countries also easier.

Driving license, so far I never really have any problems with needing a translation for it. Maybe they have change the rules and are stricter, I've no idea honestly. Better play safe to get one since it's stated.

Meals, it's much cheaper to buy and cook yourself. Especially when lots of hotel units there come with a partial kitchen. Fast food chain, mainly Burger King which is pretty cheap there, especially when got coupons. Yummy too. Fish and chips of course can get but I've eaten some not very nice ones. What type of meals are you looking for? Western, chinese? And which part of NZ?

Yea, this is true.
It seems there are many places that don't exactly accept credit card but almost everywhere accept their local debit card.

I'm sure CC is available at petrol stations as well, my parents use CC to pay when they pump petrol. Pay at counter as well if not mistaken, but I notice some places are self-service. I'm not sure how it works though.

Yes they use PIN number there when doing purchase with CC.
It's best you get your CC PIN number cause most western countries also use PIN number as far as I'm concern.

However, if not mistaken, they also accept it if you sign, you just have to tell them that you wanna sign instead of use PIN. That's what I remember from my last visit there. I didn't use my local CC though.

I called CIMB to get my 4 digit PIN and they told me the only "PIN" they have is the 6 digit ATM PIN. Lol.
How did you get your Stand Chart PIN? I think some banks have it while some don't. Maybe the international banks provide a CC PIN? I really don't know about this.

Lol. Haha.
But I'm very sure that there's PIN for CC, when my family was travelling overseas, can't remember where, most likely US. When you put in your CC at the petrol station, you have to key in PIN or else you will have to pay cash. When I went shopping in NZ, my mum asked the cashier whether they accept CC before paying andden she put in the card herself and key in PIN just like the debit card.

I'm sure he knows that pretty well. He lives in NZ.

Even for PR, you have to be living in NZ for dunno how many years if not mistaken.

My parents has been bugging me a lot since last time to study there because I already have my PR. But since they migrated over a year ago, they found out that you can't exactly pay local fees for uni even if you're a PR. Unless you have been living there for some time, like my brother who is taking Year 10 currently, his uni fees will be much less compared to me finishing form 5 here and go over there to get a degree.

Firstly, NZ is not a European country.

Whether you enter what country, it's best to prepare all your travel documents, the most important document is your flight itinerary and hotel bookings. Prepare any documents that will show WHAT you will be doing and WHERE you will be going and staying in the country. If you can show that you are there purely for holidays and have all the documents to prove it, there shouldn't be any problem at all with the immigration.

Of course you can't find any details about the evidence of onward travel arrangement and all that. I believe there's no need for any extra details as it's straight forward enough to say that they require you to provide them with the evidence of what you will be doing and how are you going to do it. What they wanna be sure of is that you are not there to work on a tourist entry. Print out anything and everything, travel itineraries, brochures, hotel bookings, flight itineraries, email booking confirmations, etc.

July/August are the coldest months.

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Added on February 14, 2012, 4:45 pmWill you be in CHC the whole time or going out of the city?
As digitalz said, CHC after earthquake nothing much to do. Even the locals don't go to the city area already.

If you're going out of town, you may wanna self-drive. But then as the others have mentioned, driving during winter isn't an easy thing to do, especially when there's snow.

This post has been edited by munkeyflo: Feb 14 2012, 04:45 PM

Auckland itself is mainly a business area.
You can go up north to Whangarei then Paihia from Auckland. Andden south to Rotorua and Lake Taupo.

Queenstown more tourist things to see I believe, but all the travelling will take time too.

An experience everyone should go thru once.

I hate snow. I hate winter. It's depressing and cold. After the snow, the whole place dirty like dunno what also.
I had family friends experience a snowstorm in US before. They say never again visiting countries during winter.

My parents take Jetstart to Auckland. Transit in Singapore for few hours.
Before this, they took AAX to Australia then Jetstar or Air New Zealand to NZ.

Getting stuck in the airport sure isn't fun. I took AAX to CHC last time but had to take another flight to Auckland, so had to wait in the airport in the middle of the night for around 5 hours also. -.-

Sad to hear that.
You guys must be furious right now. Last time they cancelled my trip to Manado and the worst part is that they didn't even inform me. I had to call them up and fire them before they say they'll refund me the money paid.

So if you guys book the hotels already, I don't think you can replace AAX ticket with another airline. You'll just have to buy another ticket first and wait for AAX to refund you, which will take months.