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© Lonely Planet Publications 383 THUMB TAB DIRECTORY DIRECTORY Directory If you’re travelling during peak tour- CONTENTS ist seasons, book your bed well in advance. Accommodation is most in demand (and Accommodation 383 at its priciest) during the summer holidays Activities 387 from Christmas to late January; at Easter; Business Hours 387 and during winter in snowy resort towns like Children 388 Queenstown. At other times, weekday rates Climate Charts 388 may be cheaper than weekend rates (except Customs 388 in business-style hotels in larger cities, where Dangers & Annoyances 389 the reverse applies), and you’ll certainly dis- Discount Cards 390 cover that low-season rates abound. When Embassies & Consulates 390 they’re not run off their feet, accommodation Festivals & Events 390 operators often offer walk-in rates that are Food 391 significantly below advertised rates – ask Gay & Lesbian Travellers 391 late in the day. Also see the big-name global Holidays 391 accommodation websites (www.wotif.com, Insurance 392 www.lastminute.com, www.hotels.com etc) Internet Access 392 for last-minute deals. Legal Matters 393 Visitor information centres provide reams Maps 393 of local accommodation information, often in Money 394 the form of folders detailing facilities and up- Post 395 to-date prices; many can also make bookings Shopping 395 on your behalf. Alternatively, flick through Telephone 396 one of NZ’s free, widely available accommo- Time 397 dation directories, including the annual New Tourist Information 398 Zealand Accommodation Guide published by Travellers with Disabilities 398 the Automobile Association (AA; www.aatravel.co.nz), as Visas 399 well as the Holiday Parks & Campgrounds and Women Travellers 399 Motels, Motor Lodges & Apartments directo- Work 399 ries produced by Jasons (www.jasons.com). ACCOMMODATION B&Bs & Guesthouses Across the South Island, you can bed down at Bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation in night in guesthouses that creak with history, private homes is a growth industry across NZ, facility-laden hotels, comfortably uniform popping up in the middle of cities, in rural motel units, beautifully situated campsites hamlets and on stretches of isolated coast- and hostels that range in character from clean- line, with rooms on offer in everything from living and relaxed to tirelessly party-prone. suburban bungalows to stately manors owned Accommodation listings in this guidebook by one family for generations. are ordered by budget from cheapest to most expensive. We generally designate a place as budget if it charges up to $65 per single or $80 BOOK YOUR STAY ONLINE per double. Accommodation qualifies as mid- For more accommodation reviews and rec- range if it costs roughly $80 to $150 per double, ommendations by Lonely Planet authors, while we’ve given the top-end tag to any double check out lonelyplanet.com/hotels. You’ll room costing over $150. Price ranges generally find the true, insider lowdown on the best increase by 20% to 25% in Christchurch. Here places to stay. Reviews are thorough and you will find budget accommodation at up to independent. Best of all, you can book $100 per double, midrange between $100 and online. $200, and top-end rooms more than $200. 384 DIRECTORY •• Accommodation lonelyplanet.com PRACTICALITIES For weights and measures, NZ uses the metric system. DIRECTORY DIRECTORY Videos you buy or watch will be based on the PAL system – the same system used in Australia, the UK and most of Europe. Use a three-pin adaptor (the same as in Australia; different to British three-pin adaptors) to plug yourself into the electricity supply (230V AC, 50Hz). For news, leaf through Christchurch’s The Press or the Otago Daily Times, or check out www .stuff.co.nz. Tune in to Radio National for current affairs and Concert FM for classical and jazz (see www .radionz.co.nz for frequencies). Kiwi FM (www.kiwifm.co.nz) plays 100% NZ music; Radio Hauraki (www.hauraki.co.nz) cranks out the classic rock (too much Split Enz is barely enough...). Watch one of the four national commercial TV stations (TV One, TV2, TVNZ 6 and Maori Television) or the subscriber-only Sky TV (www.skytv.co.nz). Guesthouses are usually spartan, cheap, Camping & Campervan Parks ‘private’ (unlicensed) hotels, mostly low-key Campers and campervan drivers alike con- places patronised by people who eschew the verge upon NZ’s hugely popular ‘holiday impersonal atmosphere of many motels. Some parks’, slumbering peacefully in powered guesthouses are reasonable fancy and offer and unpowered sites, cheap bunk rooms self-contained rooms. (dorm rooms), cabins and self-contained Although breakfast is included at genuine units that are often called tourist flats. Well- B&Bs, it may or may not feature at guest- equipped communal kitchens, dining areas houses. Your morning meal may be ‘conti- and games and TV rooms often feature. In nental’ (cereal, toast, tea or coffee), ‘hearty cities holiday parks are usually a fair way continental’ (add yoghurt, fruit, home-baked from the action, but in smaller towns they bread or muffins) or a stomach-loading can be impressively central or near lakes, cooked meal including eggs, bacon and sau- beaches, rivers and forests. sages. Some B&B hosts, especially in isolated The nightly cost of holiday-park camping locations or within the smaller towns where is usually between $12 and $16 per adult, restaurants are limited, may cook dinner for with children charged half-price; powered guests and advertise dinner, bed and breakfast sites are a couple of dollars more. Cabin/ (DB&B) packages. unit accommodation normally ranges from Tariffs are typically in the $120 to $180 $50 to $100 per double. Unless noted oth- (per double) bracket, though some places erwise, the prices we’ve listed for campsites, charge upwards of $300 per double. Some campervan sites, huts and cabins are for hosts continue to be cheeky-as-a-Kea, two people. charging hefty prices for what is, in essence, If you’ll gladly swap facilities for wilder, a bedroom in their home. Many upmarket less-developed locations such as national B&Bs demand bookings and deposits at parks, head for one of the 250-plus, vehicle- least a month in advance, and enforce strict accessible camping grounds managed by and expensive cancellation policies – ie can- the Department of Conservation (DOC; www.doc cel within a week of your arrival date and .govt.nz). DOC also looks after hundreds of you’ll forfeit your deposit plus the balance backcountry huts, most of which can only of the room rate. Check conditions before be reached on foot. For more information, you book. see Tramping (p76). The B&B Directory of New Zealand (www .bed-and-breakfast.co.nz) and New Zealand Farmstays Bed & Breakfast Book (www.bnb.co.nz) are Farmstays open the door on the agricultural available online, and at bookshops and visi- side of NZ life, with visitors encouraged to tor information centres. get some dirt beneath their fingernails at lonelyplanet.com DIRECTORY •• Accommodation 385 DIRECTORY DIRECTORY orchards and dairy, sheep and cattle farms. difference. Pick up a membership card from Costs can vary widely, with B&B gener- any member hostel, or have one sent overseas ally ranging from $80 to $120. Some farms for $50 (including postage; see the website for have separate cottages where you can fix details). BBH rates each hostel according to your own food, while others offer low-cost, traveller feedback, using a percentage figure shared, backpacker-style accommodation. that supposedly tells you how good (or at least Farm Helpers in NZ (FHINZ; www.fhinz.co.nz) pro- how popular) each hostel is. duces a booklet ($25) that lists around 190 NZ’s Youth Hostels Association (YHA; %0800 278 farms throughout NZ providing lodging in 299, 03-379 9970; www.yha.co.nz) has been around exchange for four to six hours work per day. for 75 years and has hostels in 51 prime NZ Rural Holidays NZ (%03-355 6218; www.ruralholidays locations (28 on the South Island). The YHA .co.nz) lists farmstays and homestays through- is part of the Hostelling International (HI; www.hihos out the country on its website. tels.com) network, also known as International Youth Hostel Federation (IYHF). If you’re Hostels already an HI member in your own country, The South Island is packed to the rafters your membership entitles you to use NZ hos- with backpacker hostels, ranging from small, tels. If you don’t already have a membership homestay-style affairs with a handful of beds card from home, you can buy one at major NZ to refurbished hotels with scuffed facades and YHA hostels for $40 for 12 months, including the towering modern structures you’ll find in a $14 phonecard. Nightly charges are usually the big cities. Hostel bed prices listed through- between $20 and $40 per person for members. out this book are the non-membership rates. Hostels also take non-YHA members at a cost of an extra $3 per night. HOSTEL ORGANISATIONS YHA hostels provide reliable, basic accom- NZ’s biggest hostel group is Budget Backpacker modation for individuals, families and groups Hostels (BBH; %03-379 3014; www.bbh.co.nz), which in dorms (bunk rooms, usually with four to has around 370 hostels on its books, including six beds) and most also have a supply of single, homestays and farmstays. Membership costs twin and double rooms, sometimes with bath- $45, including a $20 phonecard, and entitles rooms. They have 24-hour access, cooking you to stay at member hostels at a cost no facilities, a communal area with a TV, laundry greater than the rates advertised in the annual facilities and, in larger hostels, travel offices.