As soon as I mentioned New Zealand, people will say, "WOWW, that's must be very expensive" and all sort of questions start popping out, and the most questions thrown for sure is $$$$
Hellooo, hold on please... until two weeks before departure date, I only know my return ticket CGK - AKL by Airasia X costs IDR 5.1 millions (around US$ 377). You may get it down by IDR 800,000 if you don't think a lot like me when you are offered the promo ticket. Travel with 3 others didn't help much since we were busy with own activities, mostly works. Indeed.....we do need to earn money to be able to afford New Zealand, and yes we are working while not traveling although we travels most of the times in the year.
Being one of the 20 tops most expensive countries (according to Numbeo's data), it is a challenge to work out the best itinerary fitting to our budget and what we want to do, my friends started throwing fancy thoughts, "I want to visit Hobbiton", "I want to visit Lord of the ring movie making place", "Let's ride camper van", and the shocking one is "I want to ride a helicopter". Taking aside my desire, I want to be on top of South Alps. Seriously? budget trip with all the fancy wishes dance in our mind.
Planning stage is the most crucial, but since all of us didn't target any max budget to spend but just the understanding that it has to be as low as possible, I soon got to my internet and surf, thanks to the ease of internet nowadays, we are overloaded with information. Which apparently is worst as adding more wishes on the list to visit *feeling dizzy*
Although Lao Tzu said "A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving" but I ain't going with no plan, call me a freak but I spend 2 days just to think through best routes, time wise, and the most important limited budget. With all fancy wishes, I came with IDR 15 millions/person or equal to US$1,140 for 11 days in the my dream country excluding the ticket fare. Sounds good though? Here what's included.
Costs below are per person, calculated on 4 sharing for whatever can be shared apart from the cloths, consider the size of our bodies ^_*
Car, yes car not camper van NZD 274.38
Including stress free insurance, GPS & Wifi, interislander ticket to cross to south island for car and passengers. We pre-booked type Styla with Jucy and paid 20% in advanced to get the car secured, 2% credit card fee are applied
Entrance Fee NZD 186
This for sure you need to work on what activities you plan to do, for us is only Hobbiton, Waitomo Glowworm Caves, Lady Know Geyser
Helicopter ride NZD 310
There are a few options of helicopter ride with a lot of operators, we booked Fox and Franz Twin Glacier Helicopter Flight for 30 minutes (other options are 20 & 40 minutes), with Fox & Franz Joseph Heliservices. This operator doesn't need any down payment as a few site will require you to pay in advanced, just a precaution that Heli service is not available due to the weather and we need to get moving to next thing.
Milford Sound Cruise NZD 45
The earliest one will be the cheaper one and booking with Jucy cruise for the driver you will get 50% discount.
Lodging, mostly on family or quadruple room NZD 304
I mostly used hotelscombined.com for my travel to compare all the lodging price. It is great to travel in 4 so that we can get private room even on dorm bed, most of hostels offer room of 4 dorm bed.
Meals NZD 330
This is calculated on 30 dollars/day, taking consideration maybe you would like to eat out a few times and cook most of the time.
Eating out mostly cost 20 dollars per meal but most hostels offer kitchen for you to cook your own, groceries will be around 20 dollars/day to share
Gasoline NZD 146
Calculated on 3,600 km routes plan @2.3 NZD/L with Fuel Usage: +/- 7 L / 100km of Hyundai I3 (the information of fuel consumption can be obtained from Jucy web when you select the car you want to rent)
Total Cost : NZD 1,595.38
Exhange rate is IDR 9,700/NZD = IDR 15,475,186
Others:
Visa IDR 2,300,000
Yes, Indonesian need visa to enter New Zealand, but one family one application, it ain't funny to make a family card of four just for the sake of visa, so if you travel with family, it is the best. The cost if you process yourself is only around IDR 2 million (online or in person) but for the sake of visa paper on my passport, I used third party to do it. For all my travel that need visa, as long as it doesn't need bio-metric finger prints or eyes, I rarely go to embassy myself, this is to consider the limited leave days I have and traffic in Jakarta. The visa granted is for 2 years multiple entries of max 30 days.
Flight CGK - AKL IDR 5,154,656
Bought in June 2016, you just need to grab it fast while Airasia on promo, not the best airlines though since you still need to pay extra for in flight meals and checked in baggage but if you check on the skyscanner or other site, the cheapest to fly from Jakarta to New Zealand will be min IDR 8 millions unless you are able to racked up some miles to cover, which is best recommended to do.
Additional 20 kg checked in baggage on return Airasia X CGK-AKL IDR I,442,700
Flight CHC - AKL IDR 888,120 included 20 kg checked in baggage with Traveloka, will suggest to buy directly in the Jetstar web as we found it cheaper after
Translation fee of Driving Lisence IDR 60,000
Although we drive on the same side of the road, sorry your license is not valid in NZ unless you get it sworn-translated to English. You might get translation service cheaper as mine was last minute and it was with 24 hours service sworn translator, a lot ensured us that our license can be used but better prepare or get busted. If got time, you can get your international driving license only for IDR 250,000 in less than 15 minutes, with the validity of 3 years.
TOTAL DAMAGED : ONLY IDR 25,320,662 (US$ 1,876)
Woohoo.... Cheap? expensive? Affordable? We might have different definition on cheap and expensive but we surely have the same passions to travel to New Zealand, it's one of the must visit country so let's rock on and skying New Zealand. Notwithstanding, summer time will be better but winter is one of the way to keep the budget down. Check my Itinerary for 11 days road-trip in New Zealand
