Are you coming?

Let me first repeat that this section of Doug's Republic is a travel section on Australia.  We are assuming that anyone visiting this particular page has a primary motivation to visit Australia.  New Zealand may be a possibility in the back of the mind.  This is not a page filled with in-depth travel information on New Zealand, and if you're more interested in visiting New Zealand than Australia, researching Australia first by coming here seems about as intuitive as ordering the Death By Chocolate Pie on a detoxification cleanse.    Pros of Visiting New Zealand (during a trip to Australia)   How much did you shell out for your flight to Australia?  A lot, right?  When you look at the airfares below, you'll know that it won't get any cheaper to slot in a trip to the kiwis, too. Flight Leg (r/t) Approx Cost (AUD)* Melbourne - Auckland 300 Sydney- Auckland 285 Brisbane - Auckland 400 Adelaide - Auckland 700 Brisbane - Wellington 363 Brisbane - Christchurch 303 *  Cost as of September 2009 for a 3-month ticket booked 7 months in advance.  Take a multiple choice guess if Doug's Republic deserves (a) full responsibility  (b) some responsibility  (c) very little responsibility  (d) less than zero responsibility  for any price changes.    You're an outdoorsy sort of person and want to see a lot of habitats quickly.   New Zealand is 10% larger than the UK.  It's small and easy to get around.  Jesus Christ, you could walk from one place to another if you had to!  In Australia, it'd be handy if you grew a pair of wings.     Building on the reason above, we'll assume you're also into skiing.  Australia's highest mountain is shorter than some NBA basketball players.  New Zealand's Southern Alps, on the other hand, showcase a lot of mountains with altitudes.   Mount Cook is 3,755 m (12,319 ft).     New Zealand is meant to be cheaper than Australia.  In a Foreign Currency Direct comparison, New Zealand was found to be, in general, 14% cheaper.    Cons of Visiting New Zealand (during a trip to Australia)   How much did you shell out for your flight to Australia?  Oh, yeah.  I remember.  A lot!   If you're spending that much money to come to Australia, why don't you actually visit Australia?   You can get more bang out of your buck staying in Oz to see what you can with whatever time you have.  If you're on a short term trip, you'll barely see Australia anyway.  Why try to cram in New Zealand?   The cultures are very similar.  Both countries play it up that they're polar opposites and have completely different accents.   New Zealand, a fraction of Australia's size, is meant to bear a strong resemblance to Tasmania.   As for the accents, yep, they're different, but an American from New York and an American from the deep south have more characteristically different accents than Aussies and Kiwis.   Listen for yourself.   (Note:  The same man, a Kiwi, does both accents here.   We thought it'd be easier for you to hear the difference if the exact same voice did the talking). NEW ZEALAND:            AUSTRALIA:                   Is it really "right around the corner" to visit New Zealand?   Australia is thousands of miles away from somewhere and so is New Zealand, and the regions get lumped together as Oceania.  Hence, they're considered places to hit together.  But considering their distance from each other and that a flight is required, a 'mandatory' New Zealand tag along is akin to someone visiting Miami, Florida having to slot on Bogota, Colombia as well.    For Working Holiday Visamakers, slotting in a trip to New Zealand during the Aussie working holiday is pointless, unless you're sure you have no more time for a working holiday.  Virtually anyone who can score a working holiday to Oz can also get a fresh 1-yr working holiday for New Zealand.   It would be a more productive expenditure of cash to work six months in Oz and then travel the rest, and then do another working holiday in New Zealand for another six months and then travel the rest. Getting To New Zealand Only a few options, guys. You swim there, raft there, sail there, or fly there. Since you're visiting this page from Doug's Republic's Australia section, forgive us for assuming you'll be flying in from Australia. Doing our research, we found that Pacific Blue (in other words, Virgin) offered consistently low fares.   The sample fares we calculated before were done with Pacific Blue   Air New Zealand's fares are about 25% higher than Pacific Blue's.   Qantas has Red e-Deal fares 40% higher than Pacific Blue's, but if you're in love with the idea of burning cash, opt for their Super "Saver", which is almost 200% Pacific Blue's fares.   Doug's Personal Story I was the true rebel.  I didn't go to New Zealand.  All the other fly-by-nighters did.   "It's awesome, mate," they said.  "Get your arse over there."  I didn't listen. This is no disregard to New Zealand.   I will get there one day, and when I do, I'll do it right, just like I did Australia.   I came to Australia from Thailand with a one-year open ticket and one-year multiple entry visa.  Had my intent been to stay in Oz for two years, I could've entered Oz with a one-way ticket and flown to New Zealand shortly before his visa expired.  Upon return to Australia, I would've been granted an additional year's stay in Oz.  But my original intention was to remain in Australia for 4 or 5 months.  The first month I was there, I longed to go back to Asia.  Only after a month-long visit to Tasmania did I feel like giving the Australian continent a fair shake. I invested in a car and bought plenty of travel gear, which kept me off the book-a-tour-after-tour pony show, what I saw most of the other travelers to Australia doing.  If I flew to New Zealand, whether for a month or three, I would have been unable to take any of these purchases with me.  I'd be leaving my self sufficiency behind in Australia.   That would necessitate me having to rent a car in New Zealand, as my already purchased one sat idle in Oz.  Australian strict quarantine laws could've made it problematic bringing my tent to New Zealand and back.  For me, I'd already laid down some serious investment in Australia.   Why not max that out and see as much of Australia as I could with that investment?   At another time, when I had the time, perhaps I'd buy a car and basic travel gear in New Zealand and explore it.  This isn't empty talk.   The Australian state of Tasmania was the highlight of the country for me.  It was easy to get around, and there was no beaten track, with caravans of other travelers heading in predictable fashion from one locale to the next, something I saw throughout Oz.   I kept hearing that Tasmania and New Zealand are very similar, so I'm sure I'd love driving around New Zealand.