Summer in February - Raiders on the South Island of New Zealand

First, the exchange rate

(NZ$: New Zealand dollar, AU$: Australian dollar, $: US dollar)

In February 2009, the NZD exchange rate against the renminbi was about 3.7:1, and the Australian dollar was about 4.5:1 against the renminbi.

The Australian dollar can be directly exchanged with many banks such as the Bank of China. If the amount is relatively large, it is best to make an appointment first.

The New Zealand currency cannot be exchanged for cash in China, so you can only exchange some US dollars for local exchange (which is a disadvantage); or if you have a New Zealand account, you can directly transfer to that account, but you cannot get cash.

Visa or Master Cards can be used anywhere in Australia and New Zealand, and UnionPay cards can be used by some businesses in Sydney and Queenstown. Sometimes small cities or airports (such as Sydney Airport) need to collect fees for exchange exchanges, so it is best to estimate their own needs in advance, and find a suitable exchange bank for a one-time exchange.

The Australian and New Zealand Dollars are too similar to each other and don't mix up.

Second, New Zealand tourism (visiting) visa

New Zealand tourist visas can be processed at the Beijing embassy and can be hand-signed or mailed in person. New Zealand visas If you compare with a Schengen visa, you do not need to submit airline reservations, hotel reservations and insurance policies. In addition, if the husband and wife jointly apply for a visa, it is counted as a single application, only to receive a copy of the money.

The signing time is one month, and the tourist visa is not urgent. As a result, we really waited for three weeks and called and asked if it was a sign.

The following are the materials that must be submitted when applying for a visa:

1. 690 yuan

2. Passport (No need to submit old passport)

3. Photos (One 2-inch passport photo per person, all posted on Form 1017)

4. Fill out the form (1017 on the Immigration Bureau website and one on the 1027 form)

5. Company certification (including position, how long it takes, why leave, where to go, will continue to work after returning, use the letter of the company, the contact information of the company to open the certificate, sign, seal. Does not necessarily explain the specific time of the trip , do not have to write wages)

6. Proof of bank deposit (no amount specified, but the embassy suggested that if two people play for half a month, the minimum is more than 30,000. We have opened 50,000 and we don't have to freeze it. We just need proof of deposit to prove that you have so much money.)

7. Account copy (without translation)

8. Original marriage certificate (to be translated)

9. Trip plan (write one yourself)

The following are non-essential materials that we have submitted:

1. business card

2. Payroll

3. deed

Delivery time: Monday to Friday 9:00-11:30 or 2:00-2:30.

Beijing Embassy Address: 2-5-1, Tayuan Diplomatic Office Building, 14 Liangmahe South Road.

Phone to 309/310.

Embassy website: http://
Immigration website: http://?c=19&l=95

Third, Australia transit visa

Transiting Australia, even if only transiting at the airport, is said to require prior application for a transit visa. Transit visas are free of charge and can be processed at the Beijing embassy and can be hand-signed or mailed in person (formal tourist visas can only be mailed to the Shanghai Consulate for processing, and Beijing cannot do so).

The conditions for applying for a transit visa in Australia must be a good New Zealand visa. With transit visas, each can stay in Australia for 72 hours.

One week signing time.

The following are the materials that must be submitted:

1. Passport with New Zealand visa

2. Passport photos each one

3. Fill in the form (online download 876 per person)

4. schedule

5. Ticket confirmation

Delivery of materials: Monday to Friday 9:00-12:00.

Beijing Embassy Address: Immigration Section 21 Dongzhimenwai Dajie, Beijing 100600, China.

Phone 2-3-1.

Embassy website:

Fourth, time difference

Both New Zealand and Australia have daylight saving time, so in February, Sydney and Beijing are three hours away. New Zealand and Beijing are five hours away. The winter time should be 2 hours and 4 hours.

V. Tickets

Tickets should be booked as early as possible. We have been in advance for almost two months, but the price is still not cheap.

If you fly directly to New Zealand, you can take a plane from New Zealand Airlines, but it's expensive. We split the trip into Beijing - Hong Kong - Sydney - Christchurch, which is cheaper than direct flight and can also be played in Sydney.

There are many flights from Beijing to Sydney or Melbourne. We are buying tickets online at Cathay Pacific.

From Sydney to Christchurch, you can take the cheap airlines Jet Star or Pacific Blue , with one or two classes a day. We also bought it on their website, but we had to pay for the ticket when we booked it.

Here are the tickets we bought:

1. Beijing - Hong Kong - Sydney Roundtrip Cathay Pacific ¥17254 (two people)

Feb 6th Beijing - Hong Kong CX6881 16:20 Take-off - 20:05 Arrive

Feb. 6 Hong Kong - Sydney CX161 21:25 take-off 09:40 Arrive (Sydney local time, time difference with Beijing 3 hours)

February 21 Sydney - Hong Kong CX138 22:20 take off - 05:00 Arrival (Hong Kong time)

February 22 Hong Kong - Beijing CX6878 Take-off 19:30 -22:50 Arrive

2. Sydney - Christchurch one-way Pacific Blue Airlines (Viking) AU$ 448 (two people)

February 8 Flight DJ74 19:45 Takeoff -00:50 Arrival (New Zealand local time, 2 hours difference with Australia, 5 hours difference with Beijing)

3. Christchurch - Sydney One Way Jet Star NZ$ 466.84 (two people)

February 20th Flight number JQ150 arrives at 15:05 -16:30 (local time in Sydney, -2 hours difference with New Zealand, -3 hour difference with Beijing)

VI. Accommodation

This time, the hotel did not book every station as it did before. Instead, it focused on booking the most important accommodation in Queenstown. In addition, Sydney and Christchurch were the first stations to stay. In order to save time and rest, they also made reservations for the hotel.

The rest of the place is to find the accommodation that I am looking for now. I think this method is also good. Although sometimes it is not easy to find a suitable one, it can be seen as it is, and the itinerary is also a lot of freedom. We just decided on a temporary basis in Christchurch. Stayed one day and did not have to worry about having booked a good stay.

Tourism New Zealand divides domestic accommodation facilities into several categories:

Hotel : It is a regular hotel;

Motel : Motels, most of which are located on the edge of the city's main roads, usually have a large yard as a parking lot. Many Motel rooms have a living room and a kitchen;

Youth hostels: The cheapest price, generally with a public kitchen and laundry;

" Bed & Breakfast ": Most of them are Home Stays. They live in people's homes. The host prepares a breakfast for you. There is also a dedicated apartment to choose from.

In New Zealand, rooms with kitchens (of course, their kitchens are combined with the living room) are too common and the price is not too expensive. Even if you do not have a kitchen, most of them have a communal kitchen. Pay attention to the dishes in the kitchen to clean the dishes and utensils and wipe them dry.

There is also a common washing machine and dryer, but you need to use coins, laundry and drying each 2-3 Singapore dollars.

Generally, the Internet is not free, and you need to buy an Internet password from the front desk, which is much more expensive than surfing the Internet in China.

The New Zealand Tourism Board is a very useful website. It can be used to find a large number of hotels: http://China/

If you are looking for, each municipality has an information centre in the city center. Generally, there are obvious road signs on the highways that enter the town and the map will also be marked. Here you can find accommodation information, and you can also ask the staff to help you make reservations. Of course, the most direct thing is to look for yourself and feel that the price is right and the conditions are good to stay. Hotel does not say, all kinds of channels can be set to the room. Such as the motel, mainly concentrated in both sides of the highway entering and exiting the town, where there are available vacancies will see the big sign of the "vacancy", if already fully booked "no vacancy", at a glance. B&B can actually enter the owner's home, look at the conditions and discuss the price. If you rent a car, the car rental company will generally provide a complete B&B manual for the whole of New Zealand. It is super-thick and easy to follow. It is only that this relatively well-known B&B is likely to be full during the peak season. It will depend on luck.

Sydney:

Accommodation in Sydney is much more expensive than in New Zealand.

We stayed at the Springfield Lodge Sydney in Kings Cross District, double room $79.81, booked at http:// . The place was a bit off and the house was poorly equipped. However, it was close to the subway station and the traffic was convenient.

When I returned, I stayed at the Macquarie Hotel Sydney near the City center station, also booked on Hotel Club, double room AU$ 120. About 10 minutes walk from the subway station, in a bar upstairs, but also poor facilities.

Check the price of each site, or the hotels listed on the hotel club are cheaper.

Christchurch:

When I went there , I decided to use the best double room with a bathroom in the YHA Youth Hostel on the http:// website, for a total of NZ$196 for 2 nights, and later for an extra night without luggage, NZ$78 (we Without a YHA membership card, there is a membership card that can be a little cheaper.) In general, the conditions were better than we thought. The rooms were clean and tidy. The communal kitchen allows you to show your cooking skills. Public restaurants and lounges are a great place to meet new people.

When I came back, I was temporarily looking for a motel Tower Junction Motor Lodge, a room with a living room and kitchen for NZ$140 a night. Far from the city center, but the conditions are good and everything is new.

Cook Village:

At the temporary Alpine Lodge, not far from the information center, there was only one room with two sets of bunk beds and a bathroom, for NZ$280 for two nights. The conditions are very good, there is a large public living room and kitchen, there is a laundry room, you can watch the scenery of the snow-capped mountains.

Wanaka:

We found the " Bed & Breakfast ", the only one we lived in, in a residential area. It was awesome and the owner was very nice . address is:

85 Warren Street , Wanaka , 4437995 , the grandmother is called Gailie . Her wife is called Peter and they are named Cooke .

Queen's Town:

Because it takes three days of leisure here and meets Sang, the scenery must be beautiful and the hardware facilities must be comfortable. . . Choose Pounamu Apartment( ) from 2 or 30 hotels, hostels, apartments, studios with different styles and different prices .

Booked two weeks in advance. A look at it, it really deserved reputation. Everything in the room is complete with a full set of cutlery, wine glasses, microwave oven, toaster, dishwasher, 42-inch large LCD TV, fireplace, washing machine, dryer, fax machine, computer... and a large balcony. Just enjoy the view of the lake, which is the most luxurious and extravagant hotel room we have ever stayed in. We chose 2 Bedroom Suites for a total of 3 nights. The first two nights were occupied by 2 bedrooms. After one night, Sang walked away. Only one bedroom was occupied. This book intends to set a horizontal studio on the last night, but the phone is in the past, the boss is very understanding, then do not change the room, too much trouble, the third night according to the studio's price is calculated.

Final price: NZ$330×2=NZ$660 for the first two nights and NZ$180 for the third night.

Dunedin:

Accommodation in Dunedin seemed to be a bit tense. When it was too late to see most places were full, an Allan Court Motel was found at the junction of Union Street and George Street. The facilities were a bit old, but the rooms were large. The enthusiasm of the living room and the kitchen, the boss and the proprietress left us with a deep impression. NZ$130 x 2 nights = NZ$260.

VII Car Rental

New Zealand’s car rental industry is very developed. Take Christchurch’s case, there are dozens of large and small car rental companies. The prices of big companies are higher, but the services are better and the cars are more; the small companies have preferential prices, but the car can be selected Not much. Still, in order to save time, we found a good car rental company, Go Rentals, which is suitable in all aspects (from the New Zealand Tourism Bureau website, and combined with the recommendations of users) and placed an order online.

The driver's license of all the people who are ready to drive should be notarized at home in advance and presented to the car rental company when the contract is signed. Otherwise, insurance will not be in case of an accident.

We are renting a 1.8-carton Toyota corolla automatic gear, which is quite awkward. There is no problem with starting a climb. For daily rent NZ$43, we voluntarily added insurance for NZ$20 per day so that only NZ$350 deductible will be borne by us (if we do not add 20 pieces a day, we will have to spend more than 1,000 pieces once we have an accident). GPS looks like a daily rent of NZ$8, but we consider it a pleasure to find our own way and save it. We are two people who have to drive. The extra person must add 10$ (together, not every day). Rented for 11 days and the total price is NZ$640.

We arrived at their company in Christchurch at the agreed time. You can choose to return the car at the airport, but the car rental company said that if you still have to pay more, you might as well call a taxi from the car rental company to the airport. The price is a negotiated price, which is more affordable than your own taxi.

It should be noted that when you get the car, the fuel tank is full. When you return the car, you have to fill up the oil and return it to others. This is the rule. It's best to wash the car, and there are requirements in the contract to keep the car clean.

Eight, regulation

New Zealand is the right-hand drive to the left. In addition to this, there are many traffic rules and traffic habits that are different from those in China. Local people strictly abide by the rules.

To sum up, for the Chinese people, the following aspects of the rules should pay special attention:

1. The car is always on the left.

2. There are no traffic lights at many intersections on the highway, but there will be signs of “ giving way ” in one direction. The cars on the side of the sign must stop at the intersection. There is no car in the main road to see. In a car on a main road, you don't have to step on the brakes at the crossing, and you can completely believe that others will make way for you.

3. At the intersection in the city, let the right-hand side of the car go first. For example, if you want to make a left turn (turn a small bend), and if you have a car to turn right (turn a big bend), you have to let it go first. It cannot be because of you. You can go first if you are close.

4. Go around the island, basically if you have a car in the roundabout, you won't go.

5. There are two kinds of crosswalks. One is a sidewalk framed by two vertical lines. There are buttons on the roadside. There will be a traffic light on your way. For this kind of sidewalk, when you are green, you go. When you have a red light, stop. The other is the super sidewalk, which is the type of zebra crossing. There is no light. To see the sidewalk, if someone wants to cross the road, you must stop.

6. Highways are generally only one lane in one direction. If the middle lane is a dotted line, you can use the opposite road to overtake. If the middle lane is always a solid line, it does not matter. Generally, there will be a section of a super lane every dozen kilometers. No need to overtake the car. Consciously rely on the leftmost lane. If you want to overtake, you can quickly overtake the right lane.

7. In order to save construction costs, some bridges only have one lane. To see the “ give way ” side, let the other side drive the vehicle. Only when the opposite side can't see the car, can we go.

8. South Island does not seem to have a freeway. There is a maximum speed limit of 100 on the highway, 70 in the suburbs, 50 in the urban area, and sometimes there will be a special speed limit.

9. It's okay not to go in line.

10. The parking lot in the city can only be parked on the roadside. Any street parking after 6:00 in the evening and on weekends can be easily stopped, do not pay (individual provisions is not Friday night). At other times, special attention must be paid to the signs on the roadside or to the charging machine (meter): If there is a pay machine for every parking space on the road, a coin countdown table shows how long you can park. Time, the longer the countdown, the longer it will take; if a lot of parking spaces on the roadside share a toll machine, you'll go to that machine and choose the time you want to stop, and then put in the appropriate coin. It prints out the note you put. In the car window, if there is no toll, but there is a number on the brand, it means that it is a free parking space, but you can only stop for so many minutes, such as writing 5 , It means that you can only park for five minutes; if there is neither a toll machine nor a brand on the roadside, then you are cool and stop it.

11. Gas stations are their own plus, plus finished entering the house telling the cashier that you are using a few machines.

Nine, insurance

New Zealand visas did not require travel insurance, but in order to be practical, we also bought AIA’s universal travel accident insurance, which is very convenient for online insurance. 16-20 days maximum medical compensation 100,000 yuan, the maximum accident compensation plan for 1 million yuan is 374 yuan per person. Ordinary medical care is also reported.

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