Good Evening,
Hoping to find a reasonably priced travel sim in NZ. We're heading next month and I only just found out their sim prices are crazy expensive! I heard they have a cheap-ish sim that's not available at airport.
I've done a bit of digging around and it seems like the optus $5 / day for 5gb option is no longer available.
Do you guys suggest any other way around this?
Currently on Catch and Wifey is on Boost, rates don't seem that great either.
Thank you for your assistance.
Also interested in this as heading there in June. At this stage i'm probably going to go with an esim. I used Airalo in the uk last year and it work reasonably well. They have a bunch of options depending on how long youre there and your usage. More info here
Good discounts for NZ can also be found here.
https://nztraveltips.com/travel-deals/?fbclid=IwAR1XtKOCqPzv…
SIM offer here: https://nztraveltips.com/skinny-mobile-promo-code/?fbclid=Iw…
Entertainment Book is good value for NZ too…
Thanks for that, I was actually considering getting skinny but not sure how easy it would be to find in Queenstown.
If you dont need to call local number (ie. Data only), this prepaid offer is good value IMO
https://www.optus.com.au/prepaid/plans/add-ons#:~:text=What%….
$20 prepaid data roaming for 14 days.
Side note: you may find prices (food/petrol) in NZ are generally noticeably more expensive than AU.
After doing a bit of research, I did start to notice NZ is quite expensive! I guess Australia is not too far behind though so it doesn't come as a huge shock
$5 for 15GB + unlimited calls/text on Kogan but you will need to order ASAP as their delivery times are very slow and only deliver to NZ addresses (eg. your hotel or Airbnb).
Second this option, works a treat if you have a way of receiving
Depending on your stay length and data usage there are some ok travel eSIMs around, like these guys
If you're after an eSim, I've been using gomoworld - every country is 3.99/19.99 euros for 7/30 days (data varies per location, usually gets you between 10 and 40gb). Have used throughout Europe, UK and US without issue. Fair bit cheaper than Airlo and other travel sims and app is pretty easy to use.
1.3GB/13GB on the 7/30 days options for NZ.
how long are you going for? does either phone take an eSim?
I am going for a week, wifey has e-sim, I don't
skinny sim with referral code (gives you bonus data). Also they do free weekend data. Sim available in supermarkets, referral code can be found on blog posts, reddit etc
We didn’t bother, just used the free internet at our accommodation. Screenshot the maps we needed.
You can download the maps for offline use.
What's the latest update? I'm heading to Christchurch mid December for a week.
What did you end up doing?
I got flexiroam 5gb nz data and it worked well. I also hadfree 3gb global data from the latitude deal. As posted elsewhere I had 1.2GB of NZ data spare afterwards which I was/am happy to give away (assuming it's not expired yet).
We're off to the in a couple of months (for 3w). Exploring in the south island in an RV. Whilst in the US in a few years ago we started with (what ended up being) a 3rd tier provider - most of the time we were roaming and coverage was poor. Ended up with a "Telstra" in the end in both US and Canada, which was umpteen ties better. What would the Telstra equivalent be in NZ? (and MVNO)?
We travelled in Dec 2024 and I ended up getting us Skinny SIMs at Auckland airport on arrival from the Spark shop. $2 per SIM, downloaded the Skinny app, then activated the SIM and associated it with my account in the app. Added payment card in the app, then used it to buy a $17 plan (1.5GB). Then added a buddy code to get an extra 4GB. Then at the end of the trip remove your payment card details and that will stop further charges. At the end of a 10 day holiday had heaps of data left.
It was a bit fiddly doing this as it had to be all via the app - the Spark store sold the SIMs (Skinny is their budget brand) but don't help set up the plan (as they would do for a Spark plan, which was much more expensive). Not sure if Spark is the NZ equivalent of Telstra but didn't have coverage problems except for a caravan park in the Coromandel, but had wifi there instead.
https://nztraveltips.com/skinny-mobile-promo-code/ explains it too.
Thanks for the detailed response
https://www.flexiroam.com/shop/esim-new-zealand/?q=/shop/esi…
*Free for 2 weeks if you have a Latitude 28 degrees card, after that, 15% off all plans if using the card.