Tags : australia, new zealand
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Why you should visit New Zealand before Australia
For those who aren’t regular readers of this site, this site is Australian owned. We’re hosted in the United State because Australian hosting is insanely expensive, but so is visiting here as I found out tonight.
Let me say upfront that if you’ve never been to Australia, you should. As a survey pointed out last week (I tried Googling it without success) the survey found that Australians are proud of their own country more than other places, by several points, and roughly 10-20% vs what Americans think of themselves. Whilst being proud of your country may not always be a great thing, I’d say in this instance that it is justified. Think America, with no guns, universal health care, high wages and low unemployment. Yes, you can have all of those combined.
As much as I love my country however, there’s one flaw: it’s expensive. Put aside the drop in the US dollar, and the price of accommodation here, at least outside the odd city is way more expensive than many other places. Maybe not Europe, but everyone expects Europe to be expensive. I’m talking relatively spending on a AUD or USD basis.
I did Seattle and San Francisco in August, and I did 4 1/2 star and 5 star accom on both legs. Both times were cheaper (even given the dollar difference, which was better at the time) vs Australia for even 3 star.
So I’m spending next weekend (Friday night to Monday night) in New Zealand. The flight itself is shorter than flying to Western Australia, a state I spent nearly 10 years in. But the cost of the flight vs when I flew to Western Australia late September is under one half the cost for our family of three. I don’t know what the price of NZ vs AUS is from the US, but I do know that the West Coast to Australia has never been cheaper. If you can get a cheaper fair the saving might balance the rest vs NZ, but I can’t say for sure.
Here’s what I’m doing: for <$500 AUD (about $470 USD) I’ve booked 3 nights accommodation, including two nights in a Hyatt Regency (5 star) and one night in the Quest Rotarua (which are usually about 4 stars but flat like), and car hire. I’d struggle to get a decent sized car in Australia for that money, and the equivalent hotels + car would be closer to AU$1000, if you’re lucky.
There was an article this week in an Australian newspaper about how the tourism industry is doing it tough due to the exchange rate vs the US dollar. Let me say that even when the rate was 60c that Australian hotels were still grossly over priced vs their American equivalents. What I’ve found though is that New Zealand gets that over charging drives tourists away and has priced to fit.
Given the cost, my forthcoming trip to New Zealand will probably not be my last. What does it say when I can go away to overseas for significantly less than a domestic trip under 2 hours to somewhere like Queensland.
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