My wife and I just returned from an nine day holiday on the South Island of New Zealand which, in part, was to celebrate the conclusion of my 30 year’s service with the Australian Air Force yesterday and my transition to E(S?)R today. While the nearly $3000 we spent on the trip is very likely spendy by MMM standards, we did adopt a number of mustachian principles to keep the cost as low as possible for what we were aiming to achieve in this potentially expensive part of the world that others may find useful with their own holiday planning. These are:
Airfares. Found a great deal with Jetstar, an Australian budget airline, to fly from Sydney to Queenstown return for $300 each. Minimum baggage allowance added another $50 each to the cost but we did not get sucked in to paying more for travel insurance, seat allocation, frequent flyer points eligibility and more legroom seating which collectively could have increased the flight cost by nearly 50%!
Planes, Trains and Automobiles. We saved a lot by optimising our transportation costs. It was far cheaper to drive to my parents place in Sydney and catch the train to the airport than it was to fly the short but expensive leg from Canberra to Sydney ($100 each way each ie. $400 total). We caught the bus from Queenstown airport into Queenstown to pick up our campervan, which was much cheaper than a taxi or the shuttle bus. And the campervan we chose was a simple one and cost $90 a day to provide us both transport, a place to sleep and the ability to store and cook our own food anywhere we went. Again, we did not get sucked into extra insurance of $20 a day to reduce the deductible in the event of an accident and we BYOed our own GPS with NZ maps I had sourced beforehand. Parking costs in the cities were nil as we were able to find free parking just outside what I term the “circle of laziness” for your average punter (ie. one block more than most people can be bothered walking).
Eats. Having a campervan meant we could drop into a supermarket every now and again and stock up on normal groceries that we could cook/consume on the way. Each day, we tried to have two self-prepared meals, leaving the other meal as a holiday luxury.
Digs. Although our campervan provided us a bed for each night, we still needed to park it somewhere legal. Unfortunately, completely free camping is not generally located near any of the major tourist attractions (eg. Milford Sound), but we were able to capitalise on freedom (as they call it there) camp grounds with cheap fees or tourist parks on unpowered sites wherever possible.
Comms. Although I would have been happy being comms free for the whole trip, the wife wanted the security of mobile phone in case we broke down or needed to be contacted in an emergency from home. Found a great deal with 2 Degrees in NZ before we left to pay $5 for a SIM and $19 for a PAYG combo deal giving us 3 hours of calls within NZ and to Oz, unlimited texts and 1G data. Turns out we needed to call the AA when we discovered a flat battery after leaving the headlights on in the campervan (who makes vehicles that don’t warn you you’ve left the lights on any more? Mazda, that’s who!), so it was worth if from just that perspective.
Sights. The beauty of a campervan is that you sit up high in the cabin and have huge windows, so just driving along the road was often as good as some of the lookouts you could pull into along the way. As such, we could cover good distances each day without feeling like we were missing out on anything and didn’t feel the need to go up on expensive scenic flights or on guided tours. Using a book on NZ touring I borrowed from the library and the good ole internet, we found plenty of free walks around the major points of attractions in a city/town or scenic driving routes.
Money. After discovering that travelex type places at the airport were charging about a 15% total commission (mostly exchange spread) to buy NZ dollars, we put a couple of thousand positive balance on our credit card and just used it as a debit card, including for cash withdrawals, while in NZ. I reckon this saved at least $200 with what we spent there. On the last night, we had $25.70 in cash left, so we set a challenge in the supermarket to buy dinner with wine and breakfast and give whatever was left to unicef on the plane.
Driving. Campervans can be quite thirsty on fuel, so with petrol at $2.20 a litre and our choice to do a complete lap of the South Island, that could mean quite an expense. Using economy driving techniques I have learned over the years (eg. coasting, drafting, quick shifting, driving slower when practical, pulsing) I was able to eke about 8 litres per 100kms (or nearly 30 US mpg) for a total cost of around $500 to cover 3000 kms, which I thought was pretty good given the vehicle type and the winding, mountainous nature of many of the roads over there.
All in all, we had a fantastic trip that could easily have cost twice as much had we not put a bit of forethought into what we were going to spend. The scenery in this part of the world is just spectacular! This now leaves a good amount left in my budget to go to Thailand at the end of this year. I am greatly looking forward to Nords’ upcoming post on his recent Bangkok trip to see what tips I can pick up from his and apply to ours.
