West Coast trumps an Aussie getaway
Is New Zealand too expensive? We live in the most beautiful country on Earth yet, for most of us, holidays mean one thing: heading as far away as our bank balance will allow.
I’ve been hugely privileged to spend the past month exploring New Zealand: from kiwi-spotting in Stewart Island to flying around the peak of Aoraki/Mt Cook, exploring the bubbling crater of White Island, and riding waves with dolphins in the Bay of Islands.
I’m a huge fan of discovering our own backyard, but I normally get one response from people I talk to: it’s too expensive.
I hear you, and the World Economic Forum agrees. It’s ranked us 104th in the world for tourism affordability, behind notoriously expensive places such as Japan. Tourism operators are being swamped by overseas tourists willing to pay big money, and poor domestic tourists have to pay a premium because of our popularity.
Domestic operators need to be careful: locals still make up more than half the overall tourism spend – shelling out a whopping $63 million a day. But with an abundance of cheap international flights, that money could easily head offshore.
So, is it really cheaper to head overseas? I’ve done the calculations (ex Auckland) for a trip to Melbourne to go hot air ballooning, or flights to the West Coast to go helicopter hiking on Franz Josef Glacier, on a random date in November.
I included car hire and a fourstar hotel. It was $20 cheaper a person to head to the West Coast, put crampons on, and heli-hike the glacier.
I’ve been lucky enough to do both, and what’s in our own backyard is an eminently better experience. Read about it on pages 14-15.