Travel Tips: How I Can Afford a 3-Month Trip to New Zealand

enjoying a Jungle Adventure in Langkawi Island – Malaysia

Travel Tips: How I Can Afford a 3-Month Trip to New Zealand

Last week I wrote about why I’m so very excited to finally visit New Zealand. I’ve been dreaming of the country since I was 11 years old. Then in my mid 20s I planned an extensive 2-6 month cycling trip around both north and south islands. I’ve yet to use those plans. It has taken me an awfully long, long time to get myself down there!

The main reason I’ve never made it to New Zealand in all these years is money restraints. New Zealand is a very expensive country, on par with Europe and North America, if not more expensive. Unfortunately, I am not a rich woman. So I’ve been waiting to earn enough money or to devise a plan to cut the costs of traveling there.

Franz-Josef Glacier – photo by mat79 on Flckr CC

This year I finally got so fed up and frustrated about never getting to NZ, despite being relatively close here in SE Asia, that I basically said, “Screw it. I’m going” and booked my flights. Eek!

Funnily, once I made the definite decision to go no matter what, trusting that things would somehow work out, I very quickly discovered ways to make a trip to New Zealand affordable. In fact, believe it or not, it will be cheaper for me to travel around New Zealand for three months than to stay in SE Asia!

Here’s how I’m going to do that:

1. HelpX

For the past two years I’ve been attempting to afford a trip to New Zealand by securing house sitting assignments there. That failed, so this year I turned to the help exchange concept, whereby you work about 4 hours per day at farms, small businesses, private homes, hostels or small resorts in exchange for room and board.

I’ve done several such ‘volunteer’ gigs via the WWOOF organization and really enjoyed all of them (except for one disastrous experience in Florida). I’ve found it quite satisfying to participate in the “I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine” projects with local people. When you help people out and they help you in return, it creates all those warm fuzzy feelings.

As a bonus, many of the hosts are eager to show their volunteer helpers around their area and to include them in activities & events with their family and friends. Helpers often become a temporary part of the community and get a much more authentic experience of the place.

joining a river trip in Kuranda while WOOFing there

I’ve been shown hikes, waterfalls, pubs, beaches, parties and other great places I never would have known about if I’d just been passing through as a traveler.

This kind of volunteer work also greatly reduces travel expenses. In fact, if you don’t spend money on personal goods or entertainments, it reduces expenses to exactly zero! You’ve got a roof over your head, usually in a nice bedroom all to yourself, and all the meals you need. Even better, you’ve earned them by helping out.

For volunteer gigs in New Zealand I found out about HelpX – from a LashWorldTour reader, in fact. And man am I happy she told me about this organization!

eating at friend’s house in Australia

For one thing, WWOOF New Zealand costs a whopping $60 a year, just for access to their NZ host lists. In comparison, HelpX costs 25 Euro for 2 years, which gives access to their entire world list of hosts. And they have hosts in practically every country in the world, including many Eastern European countries and, to my amazement, some Pacific Island nations as well.

Suddenly, I know about volunteer hosts all over the world for the next two years!

Even better, I’ve found the HelpX hosts to be very responsive. Within mere days of joining and applying to several hosts around NZ, I got responses from a dozen hosts. Within 2 weeks I had so many HelpX hosts lined up to stay with that my entire three month’s tour is practically filled back to back with assignments.

I’ll be staying in people’s homes and helping them with gardening, landscaping, animals and other property & home tasks. Yippie!

2. Naked Bus

Overall, transportation in New Zealand is very expensive, including long-distance public buses. Partly that’s due to very high petrol costs.

When I first started checking the costs of bus travel around the country I got a bit nervous. It looked like I’d have to spend several hundred dollars just to move around the North Island, let alone go explore South Island.

Very fortunately I discovered Naked Bus from a Lonely Planet guidebook. Checking out the Naked Bus website, I was astounded to find tickets between most major destinations for the super low prices of $5 to $25 NZ. Most of the routes I want to take cost only $10-15 NZ.

Suddenly travel around NZ has become cheap instead of ridiculously expensive. Whew, that’s a relief.

In order to get the lowest prices on Naked Bus trips, you have to book the trips far in advance. So it does require some advanced planning and scheduling. In my case, with my HelpX assignments already in place, that’s quite easy to manage.

travel perspectives - Lash at Koh Phi Phi viewpoint - Thailand

hiking is free!

3. Take advantage of free activities, events and destinations

Throughout my 15 years of world travels, I’ve always enjoyed taking advantage of free activities, entries, festivals and events. I don’t participate in such activities solely because they’re free. They’re actually things I really love doing and places I really enjoy visiting.

visiting free temples in Kyoto – Japan

They include hiking and walking; admiring architecture and scenery; going to temples; visiting art galleries, factories, workshops and museums; attending special events and annual festivals. I’ve been surrounding myself in gorgeous natural places, exploring cities & towns and delving into every country’s unique cultures & arts by participating in so many freebies.

I’ll be doing just the same in New Zealand.

In Auckland I can walk on volcanic ash fields, take long mountain walks, wander the city streets, enjoy the harbor views, visit the Auckland Museum and Art Gallery.

In the Taupo region I’ll be able to admire lake views, go hiking, visit national parks and forests, and even go cycling with one of my hosts, who’s an avid cyclist with a spare bike.

In Wellington I’ll also explore the city on foot, admire bay and lake views and visit art galleries. I can also visit several Lord of the Rings filming locations in / around the city. All for free!

4. Avoid buying things

From what I’ve been able to determine, just about everything is expensive in New Zealand. That includes food, clothes, outdoor gear, personal goods and restaurant meals.

I’ve learned that the government imposes a 15% ‘Goods and Service Tax’ on everything, including fresh produce, which makes even groceries expensive. They also impose very high taxes on imported goods (think outdoor gear) which makes any name brands astronomically expensive. At restaurants, the cost of staff wages is figured into meal prices since there’s no tipping.

So before I head down there, I will buy everything I need here in Malaysia, where personal goods and clothing are quite inexpensive. I’ll buy all my toiletries, medical supplies and any warm clothes right here in Penang. That way I can avoid shelling out lots of money on the same goods in NZ.

joining a sponsored Jungle Canopy Adventure at Langkawi Island – Malaysia

5. Do Press Trips and Reviews

As a travel blogger with a decent size audience and good rankings in Google, I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to do reviews of boutique resorts and hotels, museums, spas, cruises and half day tours around SE Asia.

They’ve all been a lot of fun and participating in them has allowed me to tell my readers about many great accommodation options and activities in the region.

Hopefully I’ll be able to participate in more great reviews in New Zealand. In particular, I’d love to join some outdoor adventure activities like bungee jumping, sky diving, ballooning, caving, day cruises and Maori cultural tours.

Wish me luck, because I’ll then get to tell you all about them first hand! Since such adventures are very expensive in NZ, participating in reviews will also considerably reduce my travel costs.

QUESTIONS:

What do you think about my cost cutting plans for New Zealand?

Do you have any other tips or suggestions for making travel through NZ less expensive?

——————————————————————————————————————————–

You might also enjoy:

I’m Going To New Zealand!

My WWOOF Gig in Kuranda

Jungle Canopy Adventure Review

———————————————————————————————————————————–