My Lad's NZ Rugby Trip

Last time I did it, I found the outbound ticket price on the internet and called the airline on the phone.
They were able to book an open return valid 12 months for more or less double the price of the one way.
Was convenient for me because I came back in a peak period, so 2 one way tickets would've been more expensive.
It was with Lufthansa.
 
I'm not bad at knowing options in the UK, but am struggling when researching mobile options for travelling in NZ.

He'll be out there around 10 months.

Roaming is too darn expensive.

Providers suggested so far are Voda (bit dear) and 2degrees.

Also got to check that his iPhone 8 is suitable for use in NZ.

Might ring 2degrees in NZ and check options.

Has anyone got any tips?
 
Not bothered at all with 5G for him.

He manages with 4G here and I don't think his phone is 5G enabled.

Will get PAYG.
 
A NZ PAYG sim might be best and use Wifi to call through WhatsApp. You could always get a Lebara sim only for calling the NZ mobile - £5 gets you 1000 U.K. mins plus 100 NZ mins. IPhone 8 should work fine over there.
 
Just a quick update...

I asked Admin if they could amalgamate my previous two threads about my son going to NZ (one about the plane tickets and the other about what do do re mobile phones) into one, which they have kindly done here.

I will post updates here and hopefully I'll be able to post some photos here too, once his trip is underway.

We are still very much in the preparation phase.

We have sorted the correct visa and we have a plane ticket.
Our lad is going out with two others, and the host school wants everyone to fly together on the same flights, so we bought tickets for the flights the others had booked. They were £1650 return, but we couldn't book the correct return flight date as it was too far in the future. There is also a charge to change the date to the correct one when the time comes.

The other main things to sort are health insurance and mobile and finance.

There is a requirement for him to get a NZ bank account and tax number so the school can pay him his expenses. As part of that, he will also get a NZ debit card, so I guess there's no need now to get him set up with a Chase card (other brands are available).

As far as the mobile is concerned, he will have to ditch his UK SIM.
Yes, Three will allow him to roam in NZ FoC, but only for 2 months maximum. He will have to leave his Three SIM here and I'll have to put it in a spare handset, so we can keep the number going. If he forgets it all together when he goes, the number will get shut down after 180 days.

The mobile providers the host school recommend are 2 degrees, One and Spark. Hopefully one will offer free roaming, then they could use their NZ SIMs when they land back in the UK.

They will have to pick up an NZ SIM when they land.

So the last thing for me to look into is the health insurance.

Not sure if it would be the same as travel insurance as it's a long term trip and there is paid work involved. One to ponder.
 
No one wants to fly over you-know-where these days, so the flight is Mcr to Houston, Houston to Auckland then Auckland to Tauranga.
 
securespark said:
Yes, Three will allow him to roam in NZ FoC, but only for 2 months maximum. He will have to leave his Three SIM here and I'll have to put it in a spare handset, so we can keep the number going. If he forgets it all together when he goes, the number will get shut down after 180 days.
Click to expand...
Best to get a NZ sim as he will probably be making more NZ calls than U.K. ones. A roaming UK sim will cost a fortune dialling NZ numbers anyway plus those with a NZ sim won't want the expense of calling a U.K. number! When he logs in to Wifi, he'll be able to make free face-time/WhatsApp type calls to another FaceTime/Whatsapp phone/tablet in the U.K.
 
Thanks, Fred, I'll look into the requirement for ESTA.

Mottie, thanks. Yeah, he'll have to ditch his Three SIM while he's away. He has a 10GB allowance in the UK which in theory he could take to NZ and roam at no extra cost, but he'd be limited to only two month's roaming. So deffo NZ SIM is the way to go.

Edited for clarity.
 
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securespark said:
No one wants to fly over you-know-where these days, so the flight is Mcr to Houston, Houston to Auckland then Auckland to Tauranga.
Click to expand...
Airlines just fly a bit further south skirting the Black sea, it looks extremely busy in that area
 
I'm sorry, I made a typo in a previous post suggesting we will abandon his UK SIM. I meant he won't be using it in NZ.

He is on PAYG already, he has an Add-on that gives him 10GB. You can either top up with cash and pay the standard PAYG rates (which have vastly increased since the 321 plan I bought the SIM on) or top up an amount then convert it to an allowance of data where all calls and texts are included (Add-on).

So when he is away, I shall probably just put a fiver on the SIM and send a text every now and again.
 
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