JJK2008

This is the OFFICIAL NZ ETA online site. NZeTA application - request an NZeTA | Immigration New Zealand

I don't know what site you used, but there are a number or 3rd party site that are NOT official Govt., sites that will charge to administration fees. From reading here on CC we were aware of these 3rd party sites when we started our booking process. We made certain we were on the Official Govt site. The 3rd party sites look very official but are NOT connected to the Govt., sites. Make certain you are on the Official NZ & Oz Govt., sites. The Australia phone app worked with no problem. The NZ phone app we could not get to work. We did the NZ ETA on-line. The Total cost for us in US Dollars was $36. 60 EACH, $73.20 US Dollars for BOTH ETA's. There was no added costs or administrative fees. The on-line version costs only a few dollars more than the phone app, but it worked for us. I hope this helps.

Well so far, our reservation is still on. The latest info I got from Viator was that Hobbiton is still doing tours during the construction but that certain parts of the original tour will not be included. In particular the outside of the Hobbit Houses built into the hill as seen in the movie. From what I know, this is where the construction is happening. They are creating an inside of the Hobbit Houses like in the movies. Whereas before they were only an outside facade. The tour will also be shorter than the original one. Construction is scheduled to be complete by the end of November. But that is NOT set in stone. All we can do is hope for the best.

Great info....Thank You

October 21 & 22 the opera House is celebrating their 50th anniversary with FREE tours. This is a ticketed event but there is no cost for the tickets. Tickets are not available yet, but you can go to the Opera House website and sign up to receive information when they are released.

Your skydiving quote is PRICELESS. I LOVE it. I'm going to use that quote. PERFECT!!!

You folks are the BEST!!! Thank You for all the replies. John

OK going to ask for more opinions. My DW and I will be spending about 6 weeks in Australia in October and November with a two-week NZ cruise in the middle of our Oz adventures. Our plan is to see as much as possible in the time we have. We're planning fly/drive combinations to various places in Oz and are in the process of booking our domestic flights. We've read all the bad things about Jetstar. We came across Rex Airlines which will have flights on one of the city-to-city legs we were looking at. We know nothing about Rex Airlines. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks, in advance. John

I confess I've never heard of Dr. Jurd's Jungle Juice but certainly am intrigued to give it a try. Is it available anywhere in Australia or only at Wollombi Tavern???

WOW!!! Where to begin. There are many on CC doing exactly what you are planning. Without overwhelming you, I'd suggest checking out not only this forum but also check the roll calls for the ships that are already doing a Down Under cruise. We are booked on Princess for a New Zealand cruise out of Sydney. It is claimed that Princess is the largest cruise line doing the Down Under Cruises. Not sure what the "largest" means or even if it's true. But price wise they were in our budget, plus they offered many different itineraries and checked a lot of the boxes we were looking for. We are planning 8 weeks of travel doing the cruise to New Zealand and then in country Australia. We are splitting the Australia weeks between driving and flying. We'll fly to a section of the country, rent a car drive and then fly out of a different city to another location and do the same thing. This is a daunting task to organize, but it can be done, as we've done it in Europe and planning it is a great experience as well. We have found that these forums in CC have provided invaluable information and have saved us a lot of time and effort. The locals from Australia and New Zealand have been Outstanding in their offers to help and give suggestions. I'm sure you'll agree. Stay Safe & Healthy.

Some updated news on the Hobbiton Movie Set tours. As always, I suggest people do their own research and CONFIRM for themselves this info. The Hobbiton Movie Set is scheduled to undergo a construction project through November. Our original tour company (Zealandier Tours) was unable to book anything for the upcoming season and emails I received from them was that the set was going to be closed with no official reopening date scheduled. This was most disturbing for us since visiting the movie set was an anticipated highlight of our trip. Princess Cruise Lines offered an excursion to Hobbiton and is still taking reservations. We found this peculiar assuming that at some later date the excursion would be cancelled. But to cover our tracks we booked this excursion with Princess. Doing more research, we have now discovered that the Hobiton Movie Set will NOT be closed completely and will still be giving tours through the construction period. Some of the set may not be available for tours but tours will still be taking place. So, we went back onto the Viator website and sure enough they are offering a 6hr tour to Hobbiton, slightly different than the one we had previously tried to book. The tour is catered to cruise passengers. It picks you up at the pier and guarantees return time to the ship. This tour is conducted in a small van (12 passengers) rather than a bus that the cruise ship uses. The cost is slightly less than the cruise ship. So, my DW and I have this excursion booked with Viator as well. As we get closer, we should know whether or not one or the other excursion will happen, and we can cancel accordingly. Viator has a 24 cancellation policy and the cruise ship has a I think 5 days cancellation. So, should be plenty of time to confirm the excursion. Hope this info is helpful. Again, confirm for yourselves.

I just wish everyone would adhere to the "when in Rome, do as the Romans" saying states. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Sadly, it has gotten so bad that many Restaurants will actually have the "suggested tip" printed at the bottom of the bill. 20% being the minimum, 25% for better service, 30% for excellent. These are of course suggestions and NOT mandatory. But the point is, it has gotten so bad that the expectation is a tip of some amount no matter the quality of the service. This makes no sense to me. I adamantly disagree with this mindset. If the food and service is good, I don't need a reason to tip, the food and service speak for themselves. But I refuse to tip for bad service and bad food. The "obligation" to tip becomes a mindset and ultimately removes the incentive to provide good service/food. Just my humble opinion.

Good post. The difference is the wage structure. Unlike Oz where service people make a good wage, in the US, waiters, waitresses, bartenders, etc., are considered "tipped" employees and receive a Federal minimum wage of $2.13 per hour. They rely on their tips to make a decent wage. That is why for a waiter/waitress for example the customary tip for say a meal of $50, would be 20%-30% of the meal price. So, in this case the tip would be $10 - $15 on top of the meal price. Tipping of others such as taxi drivers, porters, etc., is not as consistent. Tips given to these folks for Good Service for example is usually a small amount of a couple of dollars or such. Sadly, in the US tipping has become expected. So, good service is not automatic as too many workers expect a tip of some amount no matter how they perform. Worse yet, porters at the airport for example control where your bags go. If you want to be sure your bags go where you want them to go, a good tip is a bit of an insurance policy. It's really a form of extorsion. But that has what has evolved from the "expected tip" culture. The key point is to "do as they do" in the country you're in.

Good advice. One thing you point out that is VERY important in my opinion is to abide by the customs of the country you're in. Sadly, some Americans seem to have a hard time doing this. This mindset is baffling to me. Regarding tipping, I've read a number of posts on different forums, including this one, about tipping where some of my fellow Americans will openly say they will tip as they do here in the US because they feel "it is the right thing to do" even when they KNOW it is not the custom of that country/culture. This blatant arrogance is truly unfortunate. Thanks for your insight, much appreciated.

Princess Cruise Lines seems to be the leader in offering the most options for cruising New Zealand. We have a cruise booked for November this year that covers a number of ports for both the north and south islands. It's not ideal but should give us a bit of a taste for New Zealand. Plenty of threads on here with cruises visiting New Zealand that give lots of good info and suggestions. Best of luck.

Finally, was able to get our New Zealand ETA. For weeks now we kept getting errors messages with the phone app. Switched to the on-line version and got it to work. It was slightly more money, but it worked. A small tip that may be of help to those using the on-line application instead of the phone app. You are required to upload a photo. The photo must meet certain size requirements, etc. After several attempts at downloading photos and having them rejected, my DW and I started searching the internet. We found a post that advised turning the flash on when you take the picture. IT WORKED!!! Apparently, the flash will block out any shadows that were causing the photo to be rejected. This is for the photos uploaded to the on-line application NOT the phone app. I have no idea if the same issue arises with the phone app. Good Luck

At this point we're just hoping for the best. We do have 2 reservations for Hobbiton tours that were confirmed, 1 through Princess Cruises and 1 through Viator. Viator uses Zealandier Tours as their operator and we already know that Zealandier Tours is not accepting reservations at this point. So, the Viator reservation is an empty shell unless Zealandier starts to accept reservations. As we get closer, we'll check the progress on the construction and see if any tours will happen. I have read a number of posts that have claimed that the construction project at Hobbiton will be complete by the end of November. However, I have not been able to confirm this anywhere. Zealandier Tours told me that Hobbiton was not taking any reservations at all for the upcoming 23 - 24 season. So, I'm guessing that the info on the construction completion although well intentioned is probably not accurate. I have exchanged a number of emails with Zealandier Tours directly. They have been great providing info. Zealandier said they will keep us on a list for the tour and should Hobbiton itself start accepting reservations, then we will be notified. Until Hobbiton itself opens up to accepting reservations, no tour company will be having tours. Here's hoping!!!

No, we are on the Nov., 2nd sailing. We currently have two reservations booked for the Hobbiton tour. 1 with the cruise line and 1 with Viator that uses Zealandier. I had originally contacted Zealandier direct and was informed by them that they were not taking any reservations because of the construction project and could not give me a time-frame for completion, since their booking were controlled by Hobbiton directly. Here is the email they sent me on March 21, 2023. Hi John I understand from Hobbiton that they are not ready to release group reservations for cruise ships and passengers as yet - we have to wait for them to allow us to place our forward bookings in - and we have to do this for the entire season - so until we have the go ahead from Hobbiton it would remiss of me to take forward bookings I am sorry - about this - Warm Regards Jan Davies Zealandier Tours of New Zealand From this email, it appears no tours from any company will take place until Hobbiton agrees to take reservations. So, even though we have reservations confirmed and booked, we'll have to wait and see if they are a go. Trying to be optimistic because this was a big, anticipated highlight for us on this cruise. Best of Luck. John

Finally, was able to get our New Zealand ETA. For weeks now we kept getting errors messages with the phone app. Switched to the on-line version and got it to work. It was slightly more money, but it worked. A small tip that may be of help to those using the on-line application instead of the phone app. You are required to upload a photo. The photo must meet certain size requirements, etc. After several attempts at downloading photos and having them rejected, my DW and I started searching the internet. We found a post that advised turning the flash on when you take the picture. IT WORKED!!! Apparently, the flash will block out any shadows that were causing the photo to be rejected. This is for the photos uploaded to the on-line application NOT the phone app. I have no idea if the same issue arises with the phone app. Good Luck.

We also have tours booked but have been informed that they will be cancelled because of construction that will be taking place. We were told that no release date has been given for when the construction will be completed, and tours resumed. Very disappointing.

Thank You for the info. Seems to be a good deal of confusion on this subject.

From all the research we've done, my understanding is that any cruise that leaves and returns from Australia includes gratuities automatically in the cruise price. Apparently, Australian law requires this. Again, my understanding is that it does not matter where the cruise was booked from as long as it departs from and returns to Australia. That said, I have also read that the US site for Princess will have the boilerplate language that they use for all cruises and will show gratuities as being an additional cost. Our plan is to check once onboard to make sure gratuities were NOT automatically added to our folio. We booked our cruise here in the US and the quote I posted is from the US site under the Terms and Conditions for the addon packages. Please VERIFY what I've written for yourself. As an added suggestion, do some searches on CC for tipping policies. Tipping is generally an American custom that is NOT followed in most countries of the world, Australian being one of them. If you search the Australian and New Zealand Cruises thread, you should find many postings addressing this topic. Locals strongly advise NOT tipping as it sets a bad precedent. For some reason Americans seem to have difficulty with accepting this and will "force" the issue by tipping anyway because it makes them feel good. From our experience, this behavior is really frowned upon by the locals and not appreciated. The old saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans" applies. But PLEASE do your own research and decide for yourselves what is right for you. I hope some Aussies & Kiwis will chime in here and advise if this is accurate or not. Thanks. Stay Safe. John

My DW and I always scour the "fine print" and have saved ourselves many headaches over the years. We know not everybody does this. Here's a tidbit of info that may or may not help. This info is tucked away in the "Terms and Conditions" for the Plus and Premier Cruise Packages. The packages identify "crew appreciation" as one of the perks of the package. However, you'll find in the fine print that "crew appreciation" is already included in the cruise price for ALL passengers. Here's the fine print..."Although Crew Appreciation is listed as part of the Princess Plus package, on Australia and New Zealand voyages Crew Appreciation is already included in the cruise fare and therefore all guests, regardless of whether they book the Princess Plus package, will receive Crew Appreciation and no substitution or refund will be provided for such part of the package." So, you get "crew appreciation" built into ANY "Australia and New Zealand voyages Crew Appreciation is already included in the cruise fare." Verify it for yourself and then decide.

Thank You for the info. I'm familiar with Ned Kelly. Actually, a distant relative. Seriously, not a joke. We're most likely going to adjust our schedule, add time and visit Canberra. It would be a waste to be that close and not go. Thanks again.