A Flight to New Zealand

A flight to New Zealand is no short hop. It took Captain James Cook 3 years to make the journey via Brazil and Tahiti. Mind you he had stopovers for a bit of sightseeing and discovering on the way! He should have got a Round the World ticket! Much quicker!

Travel to New Zealand was a journey and a half for the Polynesians too. Outrigger canoes carried them over the miles of Pacific Ocean until finally landing at the beautifully named Land of the Long White Cloud. Their own personal flight to New Zealand.

OK, you could sign up for the crew of a passing sail boat leaving Southampton, via the Caribbean, for New Zealand but that’s probably a different holiday altogether and certainly time consuming!

For you lucky folks a flight to New Zealand is a whole lot quicker and more comfortable! For more on frills, budget and cheap flights to New Zealand, click here!

Here are the basics in bullet points

• A flight to New Zealand is almost always a scheduled flight because there are very few charter flights or all-in package deals.

• The only Airline to provide direct (ie same plane) flights to New Zealand is Air New Zealand.

• Airfares as you would expect for a travel to New Zealand break are basically high in New Zealand summer (December to February) and low in NZ winter (June to August). The quaintly termed shoulder season (September to November and March to May) is when prices drop off from their summer high.

• From the US East Coast (LA and San Francisco) your journey is around 10.5 hours to get to a New Zealand airport. Click here for more info on flights from the USA and Asia. • Vast majority of scheduled flights for air travel to New Zealand depart from London Heathrow.

• There are two New Zealand airports with runways large enough to receive international flights. They are Auckland and Christchurch but flights leave Wellington Dunedin etc and link up for international connections. Click here for more on those International Flights and Info. • The majority of scheduled airlines with flights to New Zealand have code sharing (see below) shuttle flights at no extra cost.

• A large number of the Airlines listed below offer RTW tickets (Round-The-World). These are generally valid for a 12 month period. These popular with gap year students.

• Click here for a bit more on Asia US and Australia flights to New Zealand.

More to keep your eye on for a flight to New Zealand

• Remember to check out the open-jaw tickets for flying into one New Zealand airport and flying out of the other.

• Zones and Boomerangs! Click here for Flights to New Zealand Air Passes options info.

• Often the Vacation subsiduary of the Airline you book through will have flight and accommodation deals and also fly-drive deals for little more than the standard airfare.

• Don’t forget that New Zealand's departure tax is never included in your flight. You'll be asked to pay this (NZ$25) on departure (of course you will… It’s a departure tax…)

• Check discount and auction sites for ticket bargains. As with any online purchase get your receipts, booking confirmations and make sure you are covered by a recognised body for your flight.

• Air New Zealand ceased all Freedom Air operations from the end of March 2008. Freedom Air flights to New Zealand are being replaced by Air New Zealand flights.

• Freedom Air was Air New Zealand’s low-cost airline based in Auckland. It operated scheduled passenger services from New Zealand to Australia and Fiji and charter services within New Zealand.

You've seen that there's a lot to take in for your flight to New Zealand and the watchwords are research carefully.

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