New Zealand is a country best visit with your friends *perhaps
If you enjoy road-trip, this is the country to be
Do it with 3 of your friends, as 4 perfectly fit in one car,
otherwise, you'll have to pay more :D
So here's a map pinpoint the cities & towns you will have to stop by,
well, you may still skip some of the town if you wish to,
just make sure to check the travelling hours from one place to another before you make your decision, as a long roadtrip is really tiring with the speed limit of 100km/h & 50km/h when you entering a town. T.T
Accommodation
You can easily book the youth hostel over the country, the one i stayed is YHA (Youth Hostel Association), sign up for their 1 year membership which can be amazingly used internationally! (I'd tried using it in China, and i did get discount)
So why sign up the membership it's simply because you get discount for all of the accommodation you booked with YHA, i think it's 10% per night? Well, calculating my stay in New Zealand is 20 days which is 18 nights plus minus, one person per night in YHA is about $35 (app. MYR100)...with 10% discount for 18 nights, i'll let you do the math :)
Car Rental
I make my car rental with Apex, well, not much of problems, my Malaysian Driving License is valid, and they've got a lot pick-up and drop-off points all over the country.
I started my journey from Auckland, drive all the way down to South Island and return my car in Christchurch Airport and take a flight back to Auckland and continue another journey up North to Bay of Islands.
Foods
I don't really think that there's a New Zealand's specialty except for pies...yes, pie and Fish & Chips (mostly you have to pay for sauces 50 cents per pack), so i wonder if that's the western eating habit, i can't really finish the fish & chips without any sauce!
Eating outside in a restaurant is really expensive, it costs about $17 - $20 per person for lunch (and those are just lunch set promotion), and it definitely cost for more dinner. Here, that's the benefits of travelling with parents, my mum cooked almost every night, did the grocery in their supermarket and the amazing YHA has a big kitchen where you can cook your dinner, everyone seems to cook their own foods there.
Sightseeing
Sightseeing spots and attractions have an entrance fees, and the fees ain't cheap!! So be prepare to pay a pile of money for tourists attractions spots.
So these are the basics i can tell,
i'll post more about which place is worth visiting and which is not on my following posts,
and to be honest, if you're planning a short trip, don't waste your time!
20 days is not even enough for me to cover the whole country,
so do it in ONE or TWO months will be good,
so what? Start saving then...*grin
