New Zealand - Travel guide

The flight from Europe to New Zealand can be exhausting. Almost surely you will have to have at least one stopover, but if you want to save money the cheaper flights could involve two stopovers.

The choice of the stopover location can be made according to different criteria. If you have a few extra days, take advantage of the stopovers to see more cities. Options include flights that stop in the following cities (but not only):

• Abu Dhabi
• Dubai
• Hong Kong
• Shangai
• Seul
• Melbourne
• Sidney
• London (yes there is a direct flight London-Auckland!)

We flew with Etihad, double stopover Abu Dhabi - Sidney. We decided to spend two nights in Abu Dhabi because Etihad incentives the stay in Abu Dhabi for travellers that stop in their hub, offering a free night if you spend at least two nights (on many affiliated hotels) and a discount on excursions made with their excursion company. In this way we were able to afford some 5 star luxury, paying it half price, really convenient.

One note: because of the dates, we stopped on the way to New Zealand.It would have been MUCH BETTER to do the stopover on the way back home, when you are more tired and do a non stop flight is very heavy.

Where to land? Where to depart from? In New Zealand there are some international airports:

• Auckland
• Wellington
• Queenstown
• ChristChurch

The arriving/departing city depends on the type of trip you want to do. We decided to land in the north (Auckland), rent a car, drive through New Zealand and come back from the south (Queenstown), to make the most of our movements. You could also decide to land in Auckland, go around the Northern Island and go back from Auckland. However, if you want to visit both islands, it is better to do as we did, so you avoid paying an extra internal flight to go back to Auckland.

On the Etihad website we managed to buy a flight pretty easily, adding the stopovers and departing city different from arrival city. We tried with other companies, but we could not manage it, so they suggested us going directly to visit the office of the airline companies (something that not everyone can do); so plan carefully how you are going to buy your ticket.