NEW ZEALAND | ESSENTIALS Your Trip Information To help you prepare for this trip, we’ve gathered some useful information together! Some things, such as flights and insurance will be relevant sooner; and some things such as gear will be relevant closer to departure. Before your trip Passports, visas & vaccinations You’ve booked! You’ll need a passport that’s valid for at least three months beyond the date of What’s next? your departure from New Zealand. If you’re a citizen of USA, Canada, Australia and the UK you’re now required to go online to secure your Electronic Travel Within a week of booking: Authority (ETA) and pay the Tourism Levy. The ETA is NZ$12.50 and the pay deposit, confirm your contract Tourism Levy is NZ$35. Both are valid for two years, and you can do this here: and log into your Travel Wallet nzeta.immigration.govt.nz/ Sooner rather than later: Australian citizens are exempt from both fees, but Australian permanent check passport, arrange travel residents need to pay the ETA. If you’re a citizen of another country please check insurance and book your flights, with your nearest NZ embassy. No vaccinations are required for New Zealand. start your training regime and get fit! Travel Insurance Four months before your trip: As an Active Adventures New Zealand traveller, you’re required to have travel if sending a cheque, please mail insurance for your trip – please be aware some insurance companies require it now insurance to be purchased within 14 days of deposit payment (to be eligible for Three months before your trip: Pre-exisitng medical cover). We recommend a comprehensive travel insurance full payment is due, complete policy that includes medical cover, emergency repatriation, trip cancellation and extra items* other travel mishaps (e.g. flight cancellations or delays, trip interruption, theft or Four weeks before your trip: check loss of luggage and personal effects). for any missing details for your trip Please head to our Travel Insurance page for more in-depth information, our Two weeks before your trip: recommended insurance providers and let us know if you’d like to chat more reconfirm your flights, print your about your options. You can also compare multiple Insurance companies at final trip information* Insuremytrip.com. We recommend keeping all travel papers (invoices, receipts, *We’ll email you reminders about police reports etc.) when you travel in case you need them later to support a these things! claim. activeadventures.com 1 NEW ZEALAND | ESSENTIALS Arriving and departing New Zealand Travel agencies Customs and immigration We recommend booking your flights through our preferred Once your international flight arrives into New Zealand travel partner – Fuzion Travel. They’re our experienced you’ll proceed through immigration to have your passport hand-picked experts in travel, passionate about what they checked and be issued your visitor’s permit (see passports do, and will tailor-make your flight itinerary to match your and visas above). You should then collect your luggage Active Adventures tour. Get in touch with them directly by before proceeding through customs. email – [email protected] or on 1 800 TRAVEL. If you’re arriving into Auckland and connecting to Let them know your preferred travel plans, including any Christchurch, you’ll need to transit from the international stopovers or extra nights’ accommodation, and they will put terminal to the domestic terminal. There’s a free transit bus everything in place for you. They offer a total travel solution available, or it’s a 15 minute walk. You’ll also need to re- and five star service that you’ll want to tell your friends check your luggage for your domestic flight. about! Biosecurity Extra hotel accommodation New Zealand is very strict about checking high risk We can arrange additional hotel accommodation for you biosecurity items so it’s a good idea to: at one of our preferred hotels if you plan to arrive early or • Scrub your hiking boots clean and pack them at the leave later than your trip end date. The best way to make a top of your luggage. You’ll be asked to declare them booking is to request the hotel, dates and room types you and it’s highly likely they’ll be inspected. As biosecurity require through your Travel details Step 3 Page. is such a serious threat to New Zealand, you can be fined up to NZD$300 for dirty boots. Flights • Declare/dump any food items, especially those that contain produce, meat, fruit or dairy. International flights There are many airlines with regular services to New If you’d like to know more about our customs requirements, Zealand from the US, the UK and around the world. please check out: www.biosecurity.govt.nz/ Most flights arrive in Auckland (New Zealand’s largest Airport transfers city), before connecting to Christchurch or Queenstown. Transport is easy to arrange from every New Zealand Some airlines will connect via Australia (usually airport. You can either catch a taxi, uber or there are door- Sydney or Brisbane) before arriving in Auckland or to-door airport shuttles. The shuttle takes a little bit longer, Christchurch. however it’s an economical option for solo travellers. Domestic flights Auckland Airport: 30 kilometres (20 miles) to the city. We recommend booking your domestic connections within Taxi: 30 minutes, NZ$~80 - $90 per vehicle. New Zealand as part of your international fare. It’s more Shuttle: 40 minutes, NZ$35 per person economical that way, and can make life a bit easier if your SkyBus: 60 minutes, NZ$16 per person (purchase from international flight is delayed. kiosk between doors 8-11 international or outside door 4 at domestic terminal) Airline luggage Christchurch Airport: 15 kilometres (10 miles) to the city. We recommend packing valuable and essential items in Taxi: 20 minutes, NZ$~60 per vehicle. your carry-on luggage (change of clothing, medication Shuttle: 30 minutes, NZ$25 per person etc.) in case your luggage is delayed. Domestic flights within New Zealand don’t generally come with a luggage Queenstown Airport: 10 kilometres (6 miles) from town. allowance unless you have specifically included this in your Taxi: 15 minutes, NZ$~40 per vehicle. tickets, so if you booked your domestic airfares separately Shuttle: 20 minutes, NZ$24 per person from your international ticket, please be aware you may have to request additional baggage. activeadventures.com 2 NEW ZEALAND | ESSENTIALS What if there’s an emergency? Flight delays If your flight is delayed, or you can’t travel for any reason and aren’t able to get to your pre-arranged meeting place on time, please let us know as soon as you can. Flight delays and missed connections do happen from time to time so we’re pretty accustomed to dealing with them. It’s all part of the whole travel experience, so if it does happen to you, we’ll help you get to where you need to be. You’ll need to cover any additional costs incurred by your flight delay, so keep all receipts in case you need them later to support an insurance claim. If you can, we recommend arriving earlier to be on the safe side. Luggage delays As with flight delays, losing your luggage does happen from time to time and we can easily help you deal with this. If your luggage doesn’t arrive with you for any reason, you’ll be directed to the airport baggage claim service where your details will be taken so that your baggage can be tracked down – feel free to give the airlines the emergency contact number below. You’ll be given a luggage tracking number and, in most cases, your bags will be delivered to your hotel within 24 hours. If your luggage hasn’t arrived by the time Time in New Zealand your trip starts, give your Active Adventures New Zealand New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) is the time zone for guide the luggage tracking number so we can continue to New Zealand, it’s 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean track it for you. They’ll also help you find some shops to Time (GMT). ensure you have everything you need until your luggage arrives – be sure to keep your receipts for travel insurance purposes. We recommend travelling with a spare set of clothes in your carry-on luggage, and your hiking boots on Non-emergency contacts your feet, just in case your luggage doesn’t arrive with you For non-emergencies, please contact our New Zealand at the same time. office using the details below. If the office is unattended (outside of New Zealand business hours), please leave Emergency contacts a message so we can pick it up and respond as soon as If you have a genuine emergency in the few days before we can. your trip starts, or your family needs to get in touch with Free phone: 1 800 661 9073 (USA, Canada & Australia) you urgently during the trip, please call our Client Services Free phone: 0808 234 7780 (UK) Team, who are based in New Zealand. Phone +64 27 839 Free phone: 0800 234 726 (NZ) 6538. Worldwide: +64 3 450 0414, ext 1 Email: [email protected] This + symbol stands for the international prefix of the country you’re calling from. Some examples of these prefixes are: Australia: 0011; New Zealand: 00; UK: 00; USA: 011 activeadventures.com 3 NEW ZEALAND | ESSENTIALS Your Active Adventures New Zealand Trip Your group Single room option We get a real variety of people on our trips and they all If you’d prefer not to share a room, we have a single seem to have one thing in common – a love of the outdoors! supplement option for an additional fare.