Crossing New Zealand with Hop-On Hop-Off Service (Stray Review)
We are a restless family of four, looking for adventure, ways to increase our funds, and more educaitonal options for our littles. We have exchanged things for experiences. Join us!Where it all began…
One of our first ever world trips, and Nathan’s first flight ever, was to New Zealand for a month and a half long trip that took us from Auckland to Christchurch and back again. It was probably responsible for our unshakable desire to become world travelers.
New Zealand, despite the fact that it is on the exact opposite side of the planet to where we live in Canada was really quite similar to Canada in many ways. Where it was different was what really made the journey magical. Where Canada is massive, New Zealand is small with several types of geographic areas from Mountains and Glaciers, to plains and amazing beaches, from rain forests to deserts. All within a few hours from each other. For a Canadian, and I’m sure other people from large countries can relate, seeing such rapid change in the scenery in such a short period of time is quite exciting. The way the indigenous culture was celebrated there (I know it is still far from perfect) was such a wonderful change from our very hidden away Canadian first nations culture.
Being new travellers from a small town we couldn’t really wrap our heads around the transit system and actually failed in our attempts to leave Auckland not once, but twice. This led us to considering the various options available to us and we landed on a Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour called Stray Travel. We had seen it advertised on the tv’s in a Backpacker’s hostel in Auckland and the various offerings looked like a lot of fun. It wasn’t the cheapest option, but for brand new adventurers in search of an easy solution it definitely fit the bill. We wanted to see all of New Zealand for a few thousand dollars and after purchasing the Stray pass it left us with very little spending money for food and lodgings, let alone any add-ons. We booked the biggest tour that started and ended in Auckland.
Other Travellers
The other travellers with us were from nearly every wealthy nation in the world. For the most part they were all under 25 years old, spirited and tended to party a lot harder than Amanda and I. This last part was partly due to a lack of money but also the fact neither of us are really party animals. We got on with most of the people we met save for one Brit who kept calling us Americans and had a brief moment when a Spanish woman got upset about Canada’s impounding of a Spanish fishing vessel. It seemed that more than a few of the singles hooked up on this trip and nearly everyone made new friends all around the world. By in large, we met dozens of interesting people that included a Scottish woman who was doing her entire trip on a credit card she intended to max out and spend the next few decades paying back.
Accomodations:
Almost all of the accommodations we stopped at had tenting options, which we often used, save for one in Raglan, who made an exception for us. Tenting in New Zealand is easy to do in the summer, even in cities, and it is a great way to save money while visiting. Bring along a decent sleeping bag and a decent sleeping mat and you’ll be fine, in the summer months at least. There were also several times when we chose to stay in the hostel and once when tenting was not an option, which was on Mount Tongariro or Mt. Doom for LoTR fans. Hostels and campgrounds generally included washrooms, had laundry facilities (some free, mostly paid) and offered shared kitchen space. All the hostels we stayed at seemed clean and safe. Even being from a small town I never felt overly nervous staying at hostels in the city. One accommodation which stands out amongst the rest was, CastleRock Adventure Centre. It seemed like a five star resort compared to the other hostels and included climbing, rappelling, a zip line, a pool and a hot tub along with the complete package.
Food:
Food for the most part was our own expense which meant that we ate far too much oatmeal and rice along with Vitafresh, a vitamin enriched powdered fruit drink. Occasionally we enjoyed bread and eggs, except the one time we bought bread and had it stolen by a Wecca (an evil flightless bird native to New Zealand). We splurged occasionally on fast food which included Kiwi Burgers ( burger with all the fixings including: beets, carrot shavings, pineapple and the occasional egg…yum!).
Attractions:
During the tour we stopped at all the major cities which included Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch. In between we swam in hot Springs, took a glacier walk, enjoyed a traditional Maori Hangi and haka/poi instruction, visited art colonies, went zip lining, rock climbing, cave exploration and black water rafting. We also made stops at breweries, beaches, national parks, animal sanctuaries, waterfalls, mountains, and rainforests along the way. Most of the the attractions on the tour were included with the tour and most had additional value added options that Amanda and I unfortunately had to turn down the majority of the time. Some of the value added offerings were adrenaline based activities which we talk about here.
8 Adrenaline Rushing Activities in New Zealand
Would we recommend Stray Bus Tours?
Yes and No.
We would certainly recommend it for young people with a bigger budget. As a company Stray Travel was great to deal with and they were very helpful at finding and even negotiating us some tenting options. They even threw us a few freebies knowing that we went over our budget when we signed up. They also provided some cool local hookups that a tourist would never stumble across on their own. Lastly, the tour had a bit of a frosh week feel with the added bonus of meeting people from all over the world which would be great for extroverts. With a bigger budget we could have felt more free to do the value added activities and made socializing a greater priority on the trip
Here is a link to Stray Travel so you can see their most recent prices and itineraries.
For our specific timeline and considering the budget we were working with, I would have to say it was not worth it. With no time constraints travellers could make better use of that extra time exploring car sharing opportunities with other travellers or locals. People on a limited budget or those who are too shy to work out deals with other travelers could also purchase an Intercity Bus Pass for as low as $600.
New Zealand, despite the fact that it is on the exact opposite side of the planet to where we live in Canada was really quite similar to Canada in many ways. Where it was different was what really made the journey magical. Where Canada is massive, New Zealand is small with several types of geographic areas from Mountains and Glaciers, to plains and amazing beaches, from rain forests to deserts. All within a few hours from each other. For a Canadian, and I’m sure other people from large countries can relate, seeing such rapid change in the scenery in such a short period of time is quite exciting. The way the indigenous culture was celebrated there (I know it is still far from perfect) was such a wonderful change from our very hidden away Canadian first nations culture.
Being new travellers from a small town we couldn’t really wrap our heads around the transit system and actually failed in our attempts to leave Auckland not once, but twice. This led us to considering the various options available to us and we landed on a Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour called Stray Travel. We had seen it advertised on the tv’s in a Backpacker’s hostel in Auckland and the various offerings looked like a lot of fun. It wasn’t the cheapest option, but for brand new adventurers in search of an easy solution it definitely fit the bill. We wanted to see all of New Zealand for a few thousand dollars and after purchasing the Stray pass it left us with very little spending money for food and lodgings, let alone any add-ons. We booked the biggest tour that started and ended in Auckland.
Other Travellers
The other travellers with us were from nearly every wealthy nation in the world. For the most part they were all under 25 years old, spirited and tended to party a lot harder than Amanda and I. This last part was partly due to a lack of money but also the fact neither of us are really party animals. We got on with most of the people we met save for one Brit who kept calling us Americans and had a brief moment when a Spanish woman got upset about Canada’s impounding of a Spanish fishing vessel. It seemed that more than a few of the singles hooked up on this trip and nearly everyone made new friends all around the world. By in large, we met dozens of interesting people that included a Scottish woman who was doing her entire trip on a credit card she intended to max out and spend the next few decades paying back.
Accomodations:
Almost all of the accommodations we stopped at had tenting options, which we often used, save for one in Raglan, who made an exception for us. Tenting in New Zealand is easy to do in the summer, even in cities, and it is a great way to save money while visiting. Bring along a decent sleeping bag and a decent sleeping mat and you’ll be fine, in the summer months at least. There were also several times when we chose to stay in the hostel and once when tenting was not an option, which was on Mount Tongariro or Mt. Doom for LoTR fans. Hostels and campgrounds generally included washrooms, had laundry facilities (some free, mostly paid) and offered shared kitchen space. All the hostels we stayed at seemed clean and safe. Even being from a small town I never felt overly nervous staying at hostels in the city. One accommodation which stands out amongst the rest was, CastleRock Adventure Centre. It seemed like a five star resort compared to the other hostels and included climbing, rappelling, a zip line, a pool and a hot tub along with the complete package.
Food:
Food for the most part was our own expense which meant that we ate far too much oatmeal and rice along with Vitafresh, a vitamin enriched powdered fruit drink. Occasionally we enjoyed bread and eggs, except the one time we bought bread and had it stolen by a Wecca (an evil flightless bird native to New Zealand). We splurged occasionally on fast food which included Kiwi Burgers ( burger with all the fixings including: beets, carrot shavings, pineapple and the occasional egg…yum!).
Attractions:
During the tour we stopped at all the major cities which included Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch. In between we swam in hot Springs, took a glacier walk, enjoyed a traditional Maori Hangi and haka/poi instruction, visited art colonies, went zip lining, rock climbing, cave exploration and black water rafting. We also made stops at breweries, beaches, national parks, animal sanctuaries, waterfalls, mountains, and rainforests along the way. Most of the the attractions on the tour were included with the tour and most had additional value added options that Amanda and I unfortunately had to turn down the majority of the time. Some of the value added offerings were adrenaline based activities which we talk about here.
8 Adrenaline Rushing Activities in New Zealand
Would we recommend Stray Bus Tours?
Yes and No.
We would certainly recommend it for young people with a bigger budget. As a company Stray Travel was great to deal with and they were very helpful at finding and even negotiating us some tenting options. They even threw us a few freebies knowing that we went over our budget when we signed up. They also provided some cool local hookups that a tourist would never stumble across on their own. Lastly, the tour had a bit of a frosh week feel with the added bonus of meeting people from all over the world which would be great for extroverts. With a bigger budget we could have felt more free to do the value added activities and made socializing a greater priority on the trip
Here is a link to Stray Travel so you can see their most recent prices and itineraries.
For our specific timeline and considering the budget we were working with, I would have to say it was not worth it. With no time constraints travellers could make better use of that extra time exploring car sharing opportunities with other travellers or locals. People on a limited budget or those who are too shy to work out deals with other travelers could also purchase an Intercity Bus Pass for as low as $600.
