How I Traveled for 2 Months in New Zealand on Less than $500

I always thought you had to take tons of coin to travel. Non truthful! With the tips I learned out of necessity, I traveled in New Zealand on about $250 a calendar month. And I could have spent less if I had known these tips from the showtime!

My best tool for traveling? The Internet! I'll show you lot all the sites you'll demand.

Follow these tips and explore 1 of the near beautiful, friendly, various countries on Earth!  (You lot tin use many of these tips while traveling in other countries, besides!)

Get informed.

The about expensive part of this venture volition exist your airline ticket. When I say I spent less than $500 in ii months, I'chiliad Not including airfare. Even nonetheless, if I paid about $1600 and used all the techniques I'thousand sharing here, I could have spent a year traveling in New Zealand for less than $4600!

New Zealand is unique in many ways (there are no naturally occurring mammals!), but two detail aspects make traveling especially inexpensive if you're well-informed.  First, the government has fabricated major investments into boosting the tourism-driven economy. People come up from all over the earth, and New Zealanders desire yous to come.

Secondly, as a country colonized past England, many of the citizens have relatives far abroad. It is mutual for New Zealanders in their early twenties to get live in other countries for a while to gain work and educational activity feel and to connect with afar relatives.

Get a task.

New Zealand has worked with other governments to make this process very polish, an arrangement called a "Working Vacation Visa."  This is a reciprocal arrangement, so that citizens of either country can employ for this visa for a limited fourth dimension, and it allows the visa holder to have full employment privileges. In other words, you may be able to piece of work in New Zealand for upward to a twelvemonth. I major caveat: y'all must be under 35 to secure a Working Holiday Visa.

At present, even if you don't get a visa or you are over 35, at that place is no demand to worry. I've listed plenty of other strategies to salve you money and make your time in New Zealand "Sugariness as, bro!"

I used BUNAC and highly recommend them:

Because of the robust tourist economy in New Zealand, it is incredibly easy to find piece of work quickly. I landed in Auckland, and in two weeks I had a chore paying $15NZ (~$12.29 USD at the time of publication) an hour and a room in a business firm with two young, fun New Zealanders.

Because work is so like shooting fish in a barrel to detect, you lot can work for a few months to save up coin, travel for a time, and find a new job somewhere else. Or you could get a chore in your career field and travel on the weekends.

I used these two websites, which are like Craigslist combined with eBay. I also plant bikes, camping ground equipment, and tons of other stuff.

Trade Me

Auckland Gumtree

Pack light.

When I left for New Zealand, I had no idea what I was going to practise or what to expect.  The luggage I packed weighed the maximum limit of 70 lbs.  Rather than existence an advantage, this eventually became a burden because I had to store or go along upwardly with all of that stuff.

New Zealand is a state of islands, and each island has its own personality and flair.  Y'all volition want to see equally much every bit you lot tin can, and lugging around a bunch of junk isn't worth information technology.

When I was happiest, a had a large backpack and a minor figurer bag.  Oh, and a ukulele.  Buying clothes is expensive, only there are thrift shops everywhere.  Macklemore'southward paradise!

I volition say this: if yous article of clothing makeup, bring what you volition need.  Makeup in New Zealand is ridiculously expensive.  $27NZ (~$22 USD at the time of publication) for a tube of mascara was the cheapest I could find.

Hitchhike like an expert.

While I lived in Auckland, I took public transportation, which was easy to navigate using the Net. Each region has similar sites which are easy to find through uncomplicated searches.  This one is AT Public Transport:

I bought a bike for $50NZ (~$40.97 USD at time of publication) that came with a helmet.  It was a piece of junk, simply information technology worked while I needed it.

Gumtree also has a ride share board that is well-maintained and easy to use.

The idea of hitchhiking seemed crazy to me.  I'm a five'i″ woman who grew up in America and was taught to never, ever to hitch a ride.  But it somewhen became 2nd nature to me, and I frequently did information technology past myself.  Hitching is legal in New Zealand, and I found it to be enjoyable considering I met many local people who were just lovely and extremely generous.

Get more tips at HitchWiki

Accommodate work-trades.

A work-trade is when you put in about a half twenty-four hour period of work in substitution for a place to stay for the night and three meals that twenty-four hours.  No money is exchanged.  By far, some of the best experiences I had in New Zealand came through work-trades.  It immune me to be in beautiful places, meet interesting people, learn new things, and spend side by side to aught!

This is the key strategy for traveling for a long time with very picayune money.  I met people who had been doing it for years, going all around the world on next to zilch.  I met a couple from the Bronx who were doing information technology for 6 months as their honeymoon!

WWOOFing is the most organized system I've found for work-trades.  Information technology stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms, and "farm" has a very loose definition in New Zealand.  So does "work" and even "organic."  You may observe a family with a big garden and a llama subcontract who would like you to come babysit and tutor their children in the evening.  Or a meditation center that wants yous to gear up luncheon and dinner.  I worked on an orchard pruning trees from eight to noon, and then had the rest of the day to wheel into town and play.  Acquire more than at WWOOF:

You can besides detect some piece of work-trades on the two sites I listed above, TradeMe and Gumtree.

Do some couch surfing.

Couchsurfing gives me religion in humanity!  The whole idea is to apply the Internet to connect one person who has room in their dwelling house for a traveler who is looking for a place to stay.  And information technology's all FREE!  The central rule of the Couchsurfing community is that no money can exchange hands. Yous have to be willing to be social and flexible.  And ideally, when you return home, y'all return the favor and host other travelers on your couch.  Check it out at CouchSurfing:

Piece of work at festivals.

New Zealanders love a adept festival.  Why pay to become when you can go for gratis?  If you "work" a festival, many of them will give you full admission and feed you in exchange for a half day of work. You can come across wonderful people and have a great time for fiddling cash.

I spent New Year'south Eve on a beach in the Coromandel Peninsula drinking wine with other festival "workers" and and then danced until dawn to live music on the main stage.

Here are but a few I constitute with a quick search:

NZ Festival

Nutrient and Wine Festivals

Music Festivals NZ

Splore 2014

Don't be hostile to the hostel.

In the The states, nosotros stay in hotels and motels, but New Zealand is filled with hostels.

A hostel is designed with the budget in mind.  People share sleeping infinite, often getting a bunk in a dormitory room which can be single gender or co-ed.  You share bathrooms.  Plus, hostels have a large cooking space, with all the equipment, pots and pans, and a dining area.   This makes information technology and so you can melt for yourself and save money going to restaurants.

Many hostels are run by long-term guests who encompass the front desk or do housekeeping work in exchange for their lodging.  This is another tip for saving coin.  I worked in a hostel that provided lodging and fed the workers.  It was simply outside of a ski resort, and then many of the workers would then go skiing in the afternoon.

Hostels can be family unit-run businesses, and some I found were so warm and welcoming.  I feel in love at Albatross Backpackers in Kaikora!

Discover more hostels at Backpacker Hostels in New Zealand, Hostel World, and BBH New Zealand Backpacker

Learn my mantra.

Traveling on the cheap is a whole other ballgame than a luxurious vacation.  While it requires a lot more work and compromise, you get back much more than.  It'south part personal development course, role cultural commutation, role adventure.  Yes, you will need to exercise some planning, but once you go in that location and things start happening, all the planning may go right out the window.  I had to learn a new mantra, and I advise y'all first proverb information technology now, "I'll effigy information technology out."

New Zealand is magical, and things only seemed to fall into place in ways I could never accept planned for.  Y'all will figure things out or they'll figure themselves out.  Either way, you'll have the time of your life.  I did!

Say "Thank you!"

New Zealanders dear this phrase.  Information technology has a million meanings, from "Thank you" to "Get abroad from me now."  (Yes, I know Aussies employ it, too.)  I wasn't expecting to find an entirely different version of the English language language, simply I did.  New Zealanders are cute people, honoring the cultures of the Maori natives and the Pakeha (people of European descent).  Ask them for assistance, and they will gladly oblige.  And don't forget to say, "Cheers!"

Please share your stories and travel tips in the comments department.  Or permit me know if you accept questions, and I'll run into what I can do for you.  Travel more, live more!

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Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/how-traveled-for-2-months-new-zealand-less-than-500.html