I just put 51.96 liters–13.73 gallons–of gas in my car. It cost me $148.45 NZD, which is $92.65 USD. Yep; gas here is $6.75 USD per gallon.
Actual photo of me at the gas station today.
The price of petrol (gas) in New Zealand right now is $2.917 NZD per liter, which translates to $6.75 USD per gallon. Yeah, I know. Yikes.
I’ll do the math backwards for my Kiwi friends: if you were paying what I was paying for gas back home, which is currently $3.264 USD/gallon, you’d be paying $1.38 NZD/liter. So if YOU had just put 51.96 liters of petrol in your car in the States, you would have paid $71.70 NZD…..as opposed to $148.45 NZD.
From my 23 minutes of heavy internet research, it seems that gas is so expensive here in NZ for several reasons. About 50% per liter of petrol is taxes, the biggest of which is the “fuel excise duty” that goes towards building and maintaining New Zealand’s land transport network. Then there’s the roughly 35% per liter for production and shipping costs. Then there is the war in Ukriane, with Russia and Saudia Arabia having both implemented oil production and supply cuts. Then there’s the fact that New Zealand’s tourist industry is finally on the rise again after years of pandemic lockdown and way more people are driving around.
Contrary to urban legend and campfire ghost stories, not everything in New Zealand is insanely expensive (I’ll be writing a lot about this). Gas, however,is insanely expensive. But at the end of the day, the “screaming Shelley Duvall locked in the bathroom” moments at the petrol pump are a small price to pay for living in such an extraordinary country.
PS: Yes; I have a car! And thank god it’s a car that’s good on gas. More on my car in a future post.
PPS: Math is not my forte. Even though these USD<–>NZD and gallons<–>liters conversions took me the better part of the afternoon to work out and I will literally cry if I’ve posted incorrect math, please let me know if I’m wrong!
While I was doing the dishes the other day, I was admiring the beautiful rose from our garden that we’d put in an empty jar of Barker’s sundried tomato and olive chutney.
So pretty.
As I was rinsing off the plates, I idly read the label, which gave suggested uses for their (by the way, delicious) chutney.
These all sound so good, right?
Mix with cream for a pasta sauce: yum! Blend with olive oil for a salad dressing: brilliant! Use on an antipasto platter: great idea! Excellent base for pizza (yassss!) as well as an excellent base for…………..
HOLD UP.
MOUSETRAPS?! They’re actually suggesting–on the label, no less–that their excellent chutney is perfect to use on a mouse trap? That’s just about the most unappetizing suggestion I could possibly think of. My dream of using it as the base for a pizza immediately went out the kitchen window.
I took the jar over to Stu so that he, too, could experience the horror that was the marketing fail of the Barker’s chutney company.
I did not get the reaction I was expecting. There was a brief pause while he tried to figure out why the idea of using chutney on a mouse trap was so disgusting, and then went “Oh! Do you not have mousetrap sandwiches in the States?”.
No; no we do not.*
According to Google, “mousetraps” were originally a British thing but have since been mostly commandeered by Kiwis. To make a traditional mousetrap, you take two slices of sourdough bread and lather them up with Vegemite, butter, and cheddar cheese and then grill or press it. It’s like a grilled cheese gone horrible awry.
Things like this happen constantly in my new New Zealand life. Just this morning, I told Stu I was going to lie out in the sun in the back yard this afternoon and he said “You should use the squabs off the porch!”
Squabs………squabs…….you can figure this out, Hilary.
I did not figure it out.
Squabs are cushions used to give a softer feel to chairs, usually outdoor ones like patio furniture.
And mousetraps are dubious-sounding sandwiches which, according to Barker’s, are very tasty with their sundried tomato and olive chutney.
Me trying to figure out what “squabs” were.
*Let me amend this: when I say “We do not have mousetrap sandwiches in the States,” what I’m really saying is “I, personally, as someone who grew up in Massachusetts, have never heard of a mousetrap sandwich.” Whenever someone here asks if we have ______ in the States, I always, every single time, say “Well, *I’ve* never heard of it, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have it.” Because the United States is huge and kinda feels like it’s a bunch of different countries under one name. So I do realize I may get a few comments saying that someone grew up in Kansas and that mousetrap sandwiches are a staple of the American Midwest. When asked a question about the U.S., I always clarify that I am not speaking for all of us.
I have a lot of penpals, one of whom is Monty, who is three. I just got a beautiful handmade card from Monty in the mail. The letter starts off with him telling me with great assuredness that he knows where New Zealand is because he’s seen it on a map. BUT—-and this is very important—-he does NOT know if they have stickers in New Zealand. He enclosed some for us in case we do not have access to them here.
Monty’s hand-painted cardThe awesome stickers he sent us!
Dear Monty,
They DO have stickers in New Zealand!! In fact, I just wrote you a return letter and enclosed a few NZ stickers for you. I’m sending you stickers of the famous New Zealand silver fern, a tui (“too-ee”) bird, and a pōhutukawa blossom. Tuis have a wonderful call, and pōhutukawas are called the “New Zealand Christmas Tree” because they produce beautiful red blossoms around Christmastime.
Thanks for the letter, Monty! I can’t wait for my next one!
Stewart gave me something very special upon my return to New Zealand: a pounamu necklace.
I first heard about pounamu necklaces in a New Zealand guidebook that my friend and I were pouring over in late 2019 in preparation for our month-long trip the following March. The guidebook’s very brief explanation was that “pounamu” (a te reo Māori word, pronounced “pu-na-mu”) necklaces are almost always carved from nephrite jade, occasionally referred to as “greenstone.” You see them everywhere around NZ, from cheap knockoffs in tourist shops to real handcrafted ones made in an artist’s studio.
The thing I love so much about them is that you cannot buy yourself a pounamu necklace. You must be given one.
A pounamu is a significant gift to receive, as they are considered precious and therefore aren’t gifted lightly (and they can also be expensive). You may be given one to mark a special occasion–a friend of mine received one when they left their job of many years–or you may have the honor/honour of being the recipient of a pounamu because, for example, you have finally made it back to New Zealand after having been away for so long. ☺️
Real pounamu necklaces are hand-carved, one of a kind works of art. Jade has long played a significant role in Māori culture and is considered a taonga (treasure). Some of the traditional pounamu shapes are hei matau (fish hook), a pikorua (twist), a koru (spiral shape representing an unfolding silver fern), a whale’s tail, or a simple circle.
The necklace Stu gave me was made by an artist in Kūaotunu, a tiny little town about 20 minutes north of Whitianga. My pounamu is shaped like a toki, a Māori woodcutting tool similar to an axe. It represents courage, determination, success, and bravery, all of which I will need in spades on my journey towards becoming a permanent resident of this incredible country.
Me and Stewart down at Auckland harbor (“harbour”)
I made it! (I actually made it four days ago but we spent two days in Auckland and then I had to get settled). Anyway: I made it!
Stewart and I spent two days in Auckland when I flew in. January 1st & 2nd are public holidays here, and lots of businesses close for the whole week to allow for employee vacations (“holidays”), so there were a number of places that weren’t open. But the upside is that we had the city to ourselves, and spent our time exploring on foot.
One event of note that I have to share is when were walking across a bridge at the harbor (“harbour”) when a loud alarm sounded, which Stu said sounded like a fire alarm. He suggested we should stay put in case they needed to evacuate a building (it sounded like a fire alarm) and I of course wanted to stay put to watch the drama. And then after a few seconds a voice came over the loudspeaker and said “GET. OFF. THE. BRIDGE.” We looked around and realized everyone else had gotten off the bridge, apparently having read the BIG SIGNS saying that the bridge raises up to allow boats out. Oops. 😬
Auckland from the harbor/harbour. FYI the alarm means to get off the bridge.
I haven’t gotten out and about much yet, so I don’t have any of those “😍” New Zealand photos to post, but I do have some pictures of the absolutely charming little garden at the back of the absolutely charming little house we’re renting.
I met one of our next door neighbors yesterday when I spotted her tuxedo cat through the fence (I’m obsessed with tuxedo cats) and ran over and proceeded to “psstpsst!” it and lure it over so that I could take its picture, and suddenly this nice woman poked her head around the corner of her house and went “Oh! Hello!”. Great way to make a new friend, by stalking their cat through the fence. Anyway, both Mars and her owner are lovely. The former is a little shy, but I’ll make her love me if it’s the last thing I do.
This is the view from the adorable little open courtyard at the Faa’a International Airport in Papeete, Tahiti where I am currently:
1. Drinking a hot coffee (it’s 6:15 am and I’m trying to pep up for the last leg of my journey) 2. Sweating to death 3. Blogging from the airport like some insipid influencer. Lord forgive me.
I had the best flight. I know; when do you ever hear anyone say that? But it’s true. I was on a gigantic Boeing 787 with cheerful Polynesian Islands-inspired fabric, lots of leg room, and extremely kind Air Tahiti Nui attendants with big smiles, light-up “Happy New Year” tiaras, and flowers behind their ears. I was settling into my aisle seat in the middle row (three rows of three) when I realized that the attendants were starting to make final preparations for takeoff…..with no one else seated in my row, or even close to me at all. Whaaaaaat. This was a dream come true; a not-full giant airplane for an 8 hour flight and an entire row to myself. I was trying to figure out of I was allowed to use all three seats when the attendants started coming around and inviting people to move to empty rows (again, when does that ever happen?!). Literally my best-case flight scenario, especially since I hold the irrational yet firm belief that the fewer the people on the flight, the less the plane weighs and therefore the less likely it is to fall out of the sky (tell me I am not alone here?).
So I put up the arm rests, opened two of the three little complimentary blankets, stacked up the three little complimentary pillows, made a nest, watched the first 6 minutes of “Meg 2,” and fell asleep (sorry, Jason Statham, not even you could keep my eyes open in such a cozy little fort). I only woke up once, to the captain saying “Au nom de notre équipage, je vous souhaite à tous une bonne année!………….[awkward pause]………….Happy New Year. It is now 2024.” It was a bit anticlimactic when no one responded but then one person did one of those lackluster little “Woohoos”, and someone else joined in, and then everyone was clapping and wishing one another a bonne année/Happy New Year.
I’m thinking that this dreamy flight was the universe’s way of apologizing for that 2022 flight to NZ when my phone was stolen and then everyone at the San Fran airport except myself and my fellow Fiji Air passengers was evacuated due to a bomb threat.
The disbelief at the possibility of an entire row to msyelf.
The nest.
I walked off the plane in Papeete, Tahiti and was immediately drenched in sweat. It’s 80 degrees here with 85% humidity and I was in corduroys and a hoodie. After freshening up and changing into something more weather-appropriate, I paid 800 something ($800?)* for a flat white (the closest thing Oceania has to a coffee as we Americans know it; essentially a delicious, creamy latté) and am now settled into a corner of the adorable little open courtyard awaiting my 5.5 hour flight to Auckland, which departs in about three hours.
Merçi beauCOUP, Ait Tahiti Nui, et Bonne Année!
*CFP: French Pacific Franc. 800 CFP is $7.39.
PS: I know my photo-vs-text formatting is wonky. I’ll work on it!
For the second year in a row, I’m flying out of the States at 11 PM on December 31st and arriving in New Zealand on the afternoon of January 2nd (due to the time difference). Which means that for the second year in a row, I’m completely missing January 1st. But 2024 is a leap year, so now I’ll only be one day behind for the rest of my life as opposed to two!
This time I’m flying from Los Angeles to Tahiti to New Zealand (I’m posting a map is because I personally had no idea where Tahiti was). I was ecstatic to find out that Los Angeles to Tahiti is only 8 hours, and Tahiti to Auckland is only 5.5. Usually the first leg is 12-13 hours and the second one is 3. This is so much better.
Last year, my absolutely ridiculous flight pattern was Boston–>Toronto–>Vancouver–>Auckland. Yes, you’re readying that correctly: I went north, flew aaaaaaallthe way across Canada, and then flew aaaaaaall the way south to NZ. It was the cheapest flight I could find, for obvious reasons, though I did get two New Years, one while flying over Canada and one somewhere over the Pacific. (Whenever I book a flight, I always think about comedian Mike Birbiglia’s bit where he’s on a flight and the PA system comes on and says “Thank you for choosing Delta!.” And Mike says “I didn’t choose Delta. If it had been five cents cheaper I would have flown on a kite”).
I’ll be celebrating New Year’s somewhere over the Pacific in a few hours. Wherever you’re celebrating, be it on land, at sea, or in the air, and whether or not you’re even staying up til midnight, Happy New Year’s to all and to all a good night. May 2024 have wonderful things in store for all of us!
Onwards and upwards (literally), lotsa love, and talk to you all on the flip side,
Best $5.97 you’ll ever spend. Seriously. She covers everything from immigration to healthcare to banking and finances to dealing with homesickness to the cost of living to whether or not you can and should bring your pets with you…..you name it. And she’s a terrific writer, so it’s entertaining as well as informative.
I’ll likely be sprinkling in references to this book as I chronicle my visa journey on this blog. Cheers, Melissa, for penning such a comprehensive and highly enjoyable resource!
(As the author states throughout the book, she is not a licensed immigration or financial or what-have-you advisor. She’s just an American woman who moved to NZ ten years ago and took really, really good notes).
The United States is on New Zealand’s “visa waiver country” list, which means that as an American tourist you can stay for up to 90 days without needing to apply for any special visa ahead of time* (<–yes, that’s an asterisk. Don’t worry; it probably won’t pertain to those of you planning a regular old-fashioned New Zealand “bucket list” vacation).
Although you’re exempt from having to apply for a special visitor’s visa, there are a few things you need to do that are mandatory in order to enter New Zealand.
First things first: they will not allow you to enter NZ if your passport is expiring within six months, which is actually true for traveling to a number of different countries. Make sure to check your passport way before you book your tickets.
In order to enter New Zealand, you will need two things (besides your not-expiring-within-six-months passport):
The NZeTA app
1: An NZeTA, which is short for “New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority” and an IVL (“International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy”). When you apply for your NZeTA you are simultaneously applying for your IVL, which makes it easy. (Note: the NZeTA was implemented in 2019, so this will be new to those of you who haven’t traveled to NZ since then).
Here’s how to get it: download the app–literally just called “NZeTA”–and follow the extremely easy directions. You will need to upload a photo of yourself and a photo of your passport, as well as enter some very basic details. The whole thing will take you less than five minutes. The total cost is $52 NZD, or approximately $33 USD (the NZeTA is $17 NZD and the IVL is $35 NZD, but they combine them into one fee). A good portion of that money goes towards protecting New Zealand’s natural environment, so it’s really a small price to pay to enter this gorgeous country. It says it can take up to 72 hours for your NZeTA to be approved, though both times I’ve done it, I was approved within a few hours. Once approved, your NZeTA is good for two years. Keep the app on your phone to show Customs upon your arrival.
EDIT (January 9, 2024): When I originally wrote this blog post in late December, I stated that you need to complete a New Zealand Travellers Declaration and that you will be asked to fill out a Passenger Arrival Card just before you land. As of January 2, 2024, you only need to complete the Travellers Declaration; it seems that the NZTD and the Arrival Card are the same thing. But I am going to leave the information for both of them, as it changes back and forth; when I first came to NZ in March 2020, we only had to complete the arrival card on the plane. Then in July 2022, I had to do something new called the NZTD. Then they got rid of the NZTD and it was back to the arrival card in January 2023, but then they reinstated the NZTD at some point last year. If it lets you do the NZTD, complete that and then just to be on the safe side, ask the airline stewards if you need to also complete the arrival card.
2: A completed New Zealand Travellers Declaration. As with the NZeTA, the NZTD has an app (I use the apps since it’s easier to pull up the information when you need it). The NZTD needs to completed no earlier (earlier! Not later!) than 24 hours before your flight to NZ departs. Please read over this page, specifically the part about layovers, to make sure you’re in the correct 24 hour window. You should set a reminder in your phone to make sure you remember to do it, since your mind will likely be on other things. You can, however, start the process whenever you want, since after you input your name and email address they will email you a reference number so that you can go back in and edit/add details later. The NZTD is free and pretty easy to fill out (passport details, recent travel history, contact details, etc).
A few things to note about the New Zealand Travellers Declaration:
A. When it asks you from which airport you are flying, make sure you enter the airport you’ll be flying out of when you head directly to New Zealand. That is, if you have a flight from Los Angeles–>Fiji–>Auckland, you would enter “Fiji” as the departing airpot, not Los Angeles.
B. When entering the date of your arrival, make sure you do it in proper NZ format, which is DD-MM-YYYY (i.e. April 3, 2024 would be entered as 03-04-2024).
*Ha! You forgot about that asterisk, didn’t you?
Americans can automatically stay in New Zealand for 90 days as a tourist, BUT: you cannot exceed 270 days in the country within an 18 month window. Wait, what? Yes, that’s correct: to directly quote the Immigration NZ website, “You can visit New Zealand as a genuine tourist for up to 9 months in an 18-month period. The 18-month period is calculated backwards from the last day you intend to be in New Zealand. If the last day you’ll be here is 1 December, then your 18-month period will begin on 1 June of the year before.” I know; it’s confusing. And it likely won’t apply to the majority of people reading this, but I still wanted to mention it.
FLYING INTO NEW ZEALAND
Shortly before your flight lands in New Zealand, you will be asked to complete a Passenger Arrival Card, so make sure you have a pen on you. It’s a little two-sided card that asks you to fill out some basic info–your name, passport number, the dates of your trip—as well as more in depth information. Be prepared to specify other countries you’ve lived in and/or visited in the past five years, as well as any “wilderness areas” you’ve been to in the last 30 days. They will want to know if you are bringing in soil, wildlife, golfing or beekeeping equipment…the questions may start to sound weird, but New Zealand is *extremely strict* about what you can and absolutely cannot bring into the country. One piece of foreign matter can quickly become a major biosecurity hazard for this little island nation; they’re strict for a good reason. Answer the questions honestly, and if you’re in doubt about whether or not you should declare something, declare it (even something as benign as a lavender satchel may be problematic). I once brought unopened Rx nutrition bars with me, one of the ingredients of which was “eggs,” and I declared on the form that I was “carrying eggs” (in retrospect: really, Hilary? Pretty sure they meant actual eggs). The woman at Customs laughed me through but thanked me for being so thorough. Err on the side of total honesty. There are hefty fines if you’re caught lying.
Take a look at the form here so you know what to expect, and check here to see a list of what you can and can’t bring into the country.
Once you’ve filled out your Passenger Arrival Card on the plane, slip it into your passport. They will take it from you at Customs.
Make sure all of the footwear you are bringing with you is clean. Someone I know had to remove their hiking shoes upon entry and Customs examined them with a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers and pulled out a single seed. They don’t mess around. Either get new shoes or wash your old ones before you go.
HERE ARE SOME PRACTICAL THINGS YOU CAN DO BEFORE YOUR TRIP
The “Currency” app
Download the “Currency” app. It’s free, and it gives you the up-to-the-minute exchange rate. At this moment, $1 United States Dollar is worth $1.588 New Zealand Dollars.
Speaking of apps, you should create a “Travel” folder on your phone so that you can keep everything in one place. The Currency app, your NZeTA app, the NZTD app, the apps for each airline you’re flying, the Mobile Passport app (if you use it), etc.
Seriously. Their money is gorgeous!
Call me old-fashioned, but I like to travel with cash on hand. Paying in cash makes me more aware of how much I’m spending, and I also try to avoid making small businesses pay credit card transaction fees (they also sometimes charge *you* a fee for using an overseas card). And dear lord New Zealand money is just so beautiful to look at!
I set an exchange rate alert so that I know when I’m getting the most bang for my (U.S.) buck; you can set it to email you if the exchange rate goes over a certain threshold. When it reaches a really good rate, I hop on down to my local AAA office. AAA will exchange any foreign currency for free if you’re a member, and it only takes a few days for the currency to come in. Your bank may be able to convert foreign currency for free as well.
You don’t need to bring cash to AAA—you can exchange currency via credit or debit card–but I prefer to squirrel away any extra cash I have on hand and use that for currency conversion. I know it’s six of one/half dozen of the other whether you buy foreign currency with a debit card or cash, but it feels so much thriftier when you use squirreled away cash.
Everyone knows this, but just as a reminder, whenever you travel out of the country you should tell your credit card companies and your banks so they don’t think your card has been stolen. You can usually do it right through your credit card or banking app. I just did this a few days ago and was surprised to discover that my credit cards no longer care to know the dates and places I’ll be traveling because they “carefully monitor [my] account for suspicious activity!”, which in and of itself sounds suspicious to me, but whatever.
(A PARTIAL LIST OF) WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU TO NEW ZEALAND(WHICH I WILL ELABORATE UPON IN A FUTURE POST)
Photocopies of your passport, driver’s license, and credit/debit cards, as well as a printout of your NZeTA and NZ Travelers Declaration….and for the love of god, don’t keep them *with* your actual passport, driver’s license, and credit/debit cards. Stash them somewhere in a completely different bag. These are to be used in the hopefully unlikely event that your passport or cards are stolen or lost.
A physical (not a note in your phone!!!) list of important phone numbers. My phone was stolen at the San Francisco airport on my way to New Zealand in 2022–which was just the beginning of a harrowing travel story which I’ll recount for you all at some point–and when I finally found a free “courtesy” phone in the airport, I realized I didn’t know my partner’s phone number beyond the +64 country code, which meant that I had to call my sister, who had to hop on Facebook to message Stewart to tell him about my phone being stolen, and then he replied to Gillian and after a prearranged ten minutes, I called her back and she relayed his message to me, and around and around we went. Trust me: carry a list of numbers you might need. Your emergency contact, your BFF, the hotel or Air BnB you’re staying in when you get there…anyone you might need to reach in the (hopefully extremely unlikely because IT REALLY SUCKS) event that you find yourself sans mobile telephone.
A plug adapter. You can get a three-pack for $12.99. I also bring a portable charging bank to make sure my phone stays charged on day hikes. NZ uses 220v while the U.S. uses 110, so double check any electronic devices to be sure that they will accept that voltage. Otherwise, you’ll need to buy a power converter, or step-down transformer, so you don’t ruin whatever 110v thingie you’re bringing.
Sunscreen. There is a hole in the ozone layer directly above NZ (which some say was made worse by the 2019 volcanic eruption) and the sun there is no joke; you can get very sunburned in less than ten minutes. They do sell sunscreen everywhere, but it’s expensive, so I recommend bringing your own. Also, I’ve never laid eyes on a sunscreen in NZ with an SPF higher than 50. I guess the jury’s out on whether or not anything over 50 even does anything extra, but I like to bring 100 SPF with me to protect all of my beautiful tattoos (and avoid getting skin cancer).
Layers. Much like my home region of New England in the States, the weather in New Zealand can change on a dime. So bring layers, and definitely pack a raincoat and waterproof shoes. I bring quick-dry hiking pants in case I’m caught in the rain. New Zealand style is very casual, so you can go absolutely anywhere dressed in REI-ish outdoor gear and fit right in. While we’re talking clothes, NZ has some of the best thrift shops I’ve ever been to. They call them “op shops”–short for “opportunity shops”–and I definitely recommend checking them out!
A small backpack for little excursions/day hikes. I recommend getting a waterproof one.
Here’s something you don’t need for NZ: any sort of special driver’s license. The first time I went there, I ordered a $25 “international driver’s license” online which I then found out is not required in NZ. You can drive for up to one year there on a U.S. driver’s license. A friend warned me that AAA may try and upsell you on a special license, but again, you don’t need one for New Zealand. I should know, since I got pulled over for speeding last February in Tairua 😬 and the fact that I was driving with a U.S. license didn’t give the policeman pause at all.
