dude,

What i means is that the northen city i will cover will be Greymouth, will not travel further north fr they. sorry i am chinese education based, hope u appreciate. Well, in winter, not much activities after dark especially winter time, but my others haft and kids are not experience this kind of life before. it meaningful for them to experinece it or prepare my kids before their oversea adventure.

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.

It's self-service. Pay up then pump the your petrol. EFTPOS(debit card) is everywhere. Back in Malaysia, debit card will even be rejected from time to time.

Guys,

my wife and i will be visiting NZ again. however she will be 5 months pregnant durign that time..will be face any problem with the immigration? thanks...

There won't be much problem though it but then you'd better check with the doctor. Normally pregnant women are advised not to travel on flights more than 4 hours. Normal cases are like you are advised not to fly before 12 weeks and after 28 weeks.

Just to be safe, check with the doctor, at least get a certified paper on the estimated time on when your wife is going to give birth. Cheers!

This post has been edited by digitalz: Nov 10 2011, 09:34 AM

I spent about RM12k not including flights for an 8-day caravan trip for a family of 5 which includes the Kea rental, lodging, food, souvenirs, entrance etc. The only thing I didn't do was the Mt Cook helicopter ride because the weather was too windy so RM10k is enough I'd say.

some merchants in foreign countries require 4 digit PIN when we purchase with CC, unlike here we sign off the slip. So my question, what about in NZ? especially for fuel station and hotel? Must I have 4 digits PIN? I have called Citibank enquire about this, the customer service staffs told me local CC dont have this facility. Anyone knows?


Good to hear that.

Yes all of us slept in the caravan. We took the Kea 6 berth deluxe caravan for roughly NZ$300 per day in April. This is a higher end model, there are cheaper versions out there but the price depends on the season as well.



This post has been edited by tishaban: Nov 11 2011, 05:42 PM

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 think the pin can be obtained at local banks though I'm not sure. My CC was issued by Standard Chartered so I think it shouldn't be counted as a local one. Haha. Still, for me, there's always EFTPOS and cash.

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.

Seriously, I'm not sure as well. LOL. I've never encountered merchants asking for CC pin (Maybe because SC is an international bank?). The only thing I did was sign. The pin that the merchants would ask for would be for Debit/EFTPOS only.

I tried calling a few of my banking friends but all gave me the same answer: "Is there such a thing? The only code we know is for the secure code."

This post has been edited by digitalz: Nov 12 2011, 12:01 PM

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 called Citibank, they said they dont provide 4 digits PIN.

I hope it will be the case such as in UK where I have the choice to choose whether I SIGN or key in 4 digits PIN.

TBH, most of the local banks staffs don't even know about EFTPOS (my sister with 5 years experience included). I think the training they had didn't include overseas technology.

I got HSBC CC but the only pin they gave me is the debit/ATM 6 digit pin which you can use to withdraw cash (not sure about cash out using EFTPOS). I used it on the first few days on EFTPOS machine and the cashier said something about "lets see this card requires signing or pin", then the machine prints out the receipt for signing. Later on I've a KiwiBank debit card and never use my HSBC again.

For petrol stations, just use any card of your choice as all... I mean ALL petrol stations got EFTPOS. No worries!

For a short period of driving. just need go to JPJ and applied for the translation letter for your license for around RM10, no need to get the International driving license which cost much more. Actually, you can find McD more often in major towns. KFC is in fact much rare to find compared with McD. The cheapest meal would be fish and chips, $5 is quite filling for an adult. However, I prefer to have Sub of the day from Subway which is much healtier and sligthly cheaper. Try the NZ social buying website ie Groupon, Grabone for cheap deals. Cheers

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Added on November 16, 2011, 2:38 pmThe one has the CC facility at the pump is mainly from Park'n Save Supermarket's in house petrol station. Only CC with pin or Eftpos (with at less $150 credit balance) are accepted. Cheers

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Added on November 16, 2011, 2:44 pmYes, not a problem. If the merchant acceept CC, just ask them to print out the transaction for you to sign. Sometimes, they may need to see your CC to verify the signature. Cheers

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Added on November 16, 2011, 3:15 pmHi, pls check if the hostel does charge for kids. Otherwise, you can get a shared facilities double room from >$60 which would be more ideal, safer and more privacy. You should be fine on the food, just go for the on-season ingredients.
Petrol? I think you may need more budget if you are driving around (especially in SI where you may need to climb up the mountains and down). The West Coast's petrol can be $0.20/liter more expensive than other parts.

Last but not least, make sure you get travel insurance (medication+flight delay etc...) for all. The medication cost is expensive eg. one time consultation with GP could be around $50 during business hours and increses to $100 during off business hours or public holiday. That's not inclusive of medication. Last time, we were stuck in Christchurch for 5 days due to the ash clouds, but luckily reimbursed by our insurance! You never know if this kind of thing would happen.

After that, enjoy the trip. NZ is a very beautiful country with friendly people, SI is the best place. Just make sure you keep an eye on the weather too (can follow the weather forecast on TV or newspaper, which we normally wouldn't do in Msia).

This post has been edited by cheeho04: Nov 21 2011, 09:21 PM

Hi there,
You can use our Malaysia license instead . At NZ Malaysia or International license only valid for 1 year( have an experinced with this..) . If you want to stay more than a year, you must have NZ driving license, but the special thing about this, if you go out from NZ within that year and come back to NZ, your international license will automatically valid for a year again..

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

hahah..my bad..miss that part :

Haha. No worries. I was just giving explanations to some of the people here. There's a law stating that we are required to translate our license but I never did the license translation thing as I don't think there's much use to it.

I used to, but I came back already. A lot of my friends too. But yeah, life over there is awesome. Slow and steady. The people are good, South Island is quite safe and stuff. Having to come back and work close to home is just different. But I will go back surely. Get another degree or get my Masters over there