New Zealand!

[bubbles.me]

We did the south island in 2 weeks, didn't see everything but were very pleased with what we did do and see. Jet Boat is $120 each for a 20minute ride. We went skiing for the day, bus transfer and hire of all equipment including clothes think cost us $360 for 2 of us, I think.

Flights are rather cheap at the moment but when we went back in June 09 flights were roughly $700 each and our total cost flights car hire and accommodation for the 2 weeks cost us about $4500 we stayed at middle of the range accommodation, some places in NZ are more expensive than others. Queenstown is probably where you'd wanna do all your adverture type things and this is the most expensive place to stay.

hope this is come help to you lights!

[Mel84]

Everyone has been a great help to us too.

We are flying into Auckland and out of Christchurch. Our flights cost $1,000 return for both of us.

We are staying for 3 weeks doing both islands, and the accomodation I have worked out is going to cost $3,000NZD.

I went through the itinerary with H2B on the weekend, and he gave me a big tick. Its getting so exciting now.

Bubbles.me where did you stay in Queenstown, I am tossing up between, The Glebe, or Breakfree Waterfront.
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[bubbles.me]

We stayed at the Rydges and it was by far the worst place we stayed in! When I saw the name I thought wow this will be nice but it wasn't, very run down and they wern't very helpful.

[Kimmie]

Mel - The Glebe is one the places I liked the look of to stay at if I ever went back to Queenstown!
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[Kimmie]

Bugger - wish there was an edit button.

lights - when we planned, I researched all the places we wanted to go and then where I could I went to their websites and found out the costs. Thankfully most of the places have sites and also have their prices up on the site which makes it so easy to budget for what you need.

I went jet boating a few times. I went on the shotover jet at Queenstown and I think usually it's just over $100 but I think I may have paid a little extra for a dvd of it and some photo's. Went on a scarier one on the drive from Hanmer Springs to Nelson, had bruises on my knees from clinging on! If you're into that kind of a thrill, I can hunt out the name of that place. It was cheaper too as it wasn't in such a high tourist area as Queenstown.
The other jet boat ride was in Paihia but that's on the North Island.

We also went on a chopper ride over Mt Cook and did a snow landing. That was awesome! I'm terrified of choppers but I'm so glad I did it. Can't remember exactly how much it was but think it was approx $300. If you don't want to drive to Mt Cook, you can do some flights from Franz Josef that I think may even fly to Mt Cook. We were initially going to do our flight there but couldn't do to bad weather.

I went nearly 2 years ago so flights and car hire costs would be a little different now.

As for length of stay, we spent just over 2 weeks on the South Island I think. We saw plenty but we moved around a lot. You could easily spend longer there if you wanted to take your time but you should see and experience a lot in two weeks still.

I used http://www.newzealand.com to research our trip and find a lot of the tours and things we wanted to do. You could start there and then go from there to the tour companies sites. I used a heap of guide books too, or you could perhaps use lonely planet online. Google was also my friend, I searched for activities in the area that we would be staying and found even more stuff that way.

Also, once we'd decided what we wanted to do we prebooked tours and activities and paid up front for as much as we could (we had set days we were going to be everywhere - couldn't do it if going with the flow) so that all we had to do on the day was show up with our receipt/confirmation email and not have to pay. You then have a clearer picture of exactly where you are with your budget then too.

Sorry, this is so huge but I hope not too rambling and useless!!
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[bubbles.me]

If you want to do the tour of Milford Sound I highly recommend Trips and Tramps, you can also book them online. They tour out of Te Anau on small buses that hold about 12 people so its not too big and take you on some amazing walks along the way. Well worth the money!!!