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Next August (or late July) we, and the ILs, are going to New Zealand for a holiday (Jazz turns 2, neice turns 16, so a bit of a holiday birthday celebration).
Anyway, so I know its early, but just wanted some advice firstly on how early should we book for next year July-August ish? Any reocmmendations on where to go? Where to stay? None of us have ever been to NZ, and Shel and I have never been overseas, so we're new at this!
Basically any advice would be good!!!
I've been skiing in NZ - at about the same time of year Augustish if I remember rightly. I went in Queenstown and found it a beautiful little 'town', very friendly, fairly small but also great places to go and eat, etc.
I also loved Christchurch, very, very pretty city.
Skiing was not cold at all - while you're doing it, getting changed in wet toilets, that was very cold!
My recommendations - prepared to be VERY VERY sore the next day, there are muscles you use for skiing that don't get used ever I reckon!!
how exciting!!
Some places wont let you book too far in advance...and if you do and it requires payment or a deposit, if something goes wrong or your dates change for any reason you may lose that deposit.
Research is good.
Get online and search the 100%purenewzealand web site (their tourisn page) and have a scout for the accom you are interested in...you will want a place that can accommodate kids, day care possibly for a few hours, if they offer shuttle to town or what not.
make sure you find out which resorts are doing what - you dont necessarily want to rock up to one while some snowboarding comp is on (or maybe you do lol)
Dont forget to look at their prices for lift tickets, equipment hire, if it is included in any packges etc, skiing holidays can get exxy very quickly. Also food prices.
NZ is great fun, you will have an awesome time Im sure!
oh and check when NZ school hols are - you will get much cheaper everything if you go outside of school hols.
You and Shel can do your passports now, maybe wait to get Jazz hers until about 3 months before you go - so she still looks like her photo ;) You can apply for a passport online (you fill it out online and print it off to take it to APO for the submission of it with all your docs and photos) They arent cheap, so if you can do yours nowish, then shel's in a couple of months it will help spread out the cost too.
ETA: Passport website
HTH :) Have fun planning too!
My parents are going to NZ (south Island) next month, and they're still planning it LOL. When DH & I went over there for our honeymoon, we planned it about 9 months beforehand.
I've only been to the South Island, so can only comment on that. Are you wanting to tour around, or just stay in the one spot?
For our honeymoon, we hired a campervan which was fantastic. And my parents are hiring a car and booking into motels.
I'll be back with more once I've given Emily her brekkie.
Thanks for so quick replies! Yep have been skiing before ;) so definitely know how pricey it can be (why I am starting now LOL!).
Because we are going with the ILs (MIL, FIL, SIL, BIL, 3 neices... eeek! LOL!) we are going to just stay in one spot this time, maybe some day trips, but stay in the same accomodation.
Great idea about the passports, Lime :) didn't think of that!
How about Wanaka? We're going this August and we chose Wanaka because it has puzzling world for the kids if the weather closes the ski fields.
We booked early this year during that ghastly heat wave because we needed to reassure ourselves that it would eventually be winter lol.
If you want to save yourself some effort just get one of the ski companies to package it up for you - they'll keep adjusting it until it suits you. Travelplan are pretty good and they have access to wholesale pricing so it costs very little more to use them than to do it all yourself (might even be less sometimes). I've also used Alpine World and they're pretty helpful.
One way to save some money is to sign up to the JetStar and Virgin newsletters. They'll let you know when they have specials. I got our tickets for $49 each which is a big savings on the standard price.
Even including airfares sking in NZ is better value than Australia especially if you go for 2 weeks ;)
ETA - Dunno if you'd be into it but there is a gay ski week in NZ. I think it is early spring but I'm not sure.
ETA 2 - If you book during summer and pay by winter you can get early bird pricing with some agents.
"We booked early this year during that ghastly heat wave because we needed to reassure ourselves that it would eventually be winter lol."
LOL classic! Cool, so that means you don't have to get in right when ski season this year ends (someone told me that you did lol). but early bird pricing sounds good to me hehehe
Thanks for those company names, and the gay ski week, looking that up now, i knew they had a Canadian one, didn't know about NZ!
Another Q LOL!
Ok, so I'm the only one who has actually been skiing out of the rest of them (nieces will be 13, 16, 17) so while *I* know I would spend all winter up there, they're a bit ify about a 10 day dedicated ski trip, and think they'd like to do other things.
Do you think it would be better to stay on the mountain, and travel down for day trips OR stay in a town, and travel UP to ski? I don't really know, would accom. be cheaper on the ground? And would travelling up just make it just as expensive? I guess if the weather is hairy you'd be better off on the ground cos you couldn't ski but then you coldn't really get off the mountain either?
Maybe *I* can stay on the mountain, and the rest can stay on the ground hehehehehe.
I would stay on the ground, and travel up the mountain to ski.
Ski in ski out accommodation is pretty rare in NZ. Mostly it's the club fields that have it and obviously club members are given priority. NZ clubs are kind of like Australian lodges in that usually you're expected to get in there and clean the place and so on. I like to be lazy on holiday so it's not really my cup of tea. Cardrona has accommodation on the hill but if the weather comes in none of the lifties will drive up the hill so you'll be walking to the top of the hill if you want to slide down it.
All the resorts have shuttles from the towns nearby so you don't have to drive if you don't want.